Hopefully, this Ausar thing isn’t long term because he’s already one of the better defenders in the league. The one possible silver lining is that he’s spending a lot of time working on his shot. It does look less funky whenever clips appear online.
https://x.com/CotyDavis_24/status/1848787508508922234
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Tobias Harris said Thompson can be a huge piece to this team when he returns.
I’m honestly extremely disturbed by the Ausar stuff. There’s no indication he’s actually been medically cleared to play (because he’s not doing actual basketball in practice, he’s still just doing drills). I’m not sure what the path even is?
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It’ll be a big leap to shoot 18% from 3s with more airballs than make to shooting 30%. I’ll believe it when I see it but it looks better than last year and during OTE.
Blood clot is a tough one to figure out. That’s also why Chris Bosh had to medically retire. The fact he hasn’t been cleared by the NBA is scary.
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Yeah, the Bosh precedent is in the back of my mind. I hope it works out, but I think it’s obvious that it’s not the slam dunk he’s returning as it’s been portrayed until basically today (the Freep acknowledged he has not been medically cleared for conditioning or full contact).
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Just a reminder that Duren still isn’t old enough to legally buy a beer. I think he can still be shaped into being a better defender. I don’t know how much that will extend to the perimeter, though. For all his muscles and jumping ability, I don’t think he’s that quick laterally and he’s not that speedy. I was thinking that Ausar would’ve been the guy to have slowed down Turner’s 3-ball.
I hope he’s healthy enough to return soon.
He hasn’t been. They are still waiting to get the okay from the league.
He did shoot 28% after the all-star break last season. That’s still bad but he was shooting 16% before the break. So, baby steps.
I saw some stat a while back that pretty much showed precedent for young guys like Duren that if they haven’t figured out defense yet they probably never will despite their age. I wish I could find it again but it was not encouraging at all.
I think eventually we will need to move on from him. You can’t have your starting center be bad at both defense and shooting the ball. They need to be able to do at least one of those.
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Cooper Flagg is gonna look good in red, white, and blue
Team USA? I agree
Nuh uh! He’s a Piston
Headed that way! Pistons drafting big athletic wings is going to become “Matt Millen drafted another wideout”
Yeah unfortunately Cooper might be too good of a shooter so he might not be a take
Is that Coleman Hawkins’ music I’m hearing?
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big, athletic wings who can’t shoot. *fixed it for ya
Pistons giving the Celtics all they can handle in the second half tonight. Up four with 7 minutes to play and Dough Louis Arena is going wild.
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Man the Pistons just have no idea how to win close games. Going on three years now.
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