Ausar Cleared to Play

[bstein14]

What's the word with Ausar? Has he been playing full contact 5 on 5 in practice? Is his conditioning ready to go? Is he going to need a week or two? Any word on what's going on with him?

[Kalamazoo317]

What's the word with Ausar? Has he been playing full contact 5 on 5 in practice? Is his conditioning ready to go? Is he going to need a week or two? Any word on what's going on with him?

Coach said he needs time to ramp up because he hasn't been able to play 5 on 5 yet

[Canadafan]

What's the word with Ausar? Has he been playing full contact 5 on 5 in practice? Is his conditioning ready to go? Is he going to need a week or two? Any word on what's going on with him?

Coach said he needs time to ramp up because he hasn't been able to play 5 on 5 yet

Last I read they said a week or 2 so hopefully earlier like this Friday please haha

[bstein14]

If he needs to ramp up a bit, I'm guessing Monday November 18th is the earliest we'd see him.. which is a home game that is the 2nd night of a back to back after our 3 game road trip that starts tonight. We could certainly use him there since that game will be our 5th game in just 7 nights with travel between each and every game which is just as crazy as you will ever see in the NBA. Back-to-back one day off then a game... one day off and then another back-to-back. Detroit to Milwaukee to Toronto to Washington to Detroit. Just a crazy crammed in schedule for us over the course on a single 7 day week we are likely going to be spent by the end of it.

As much as our coach likes the small/short rotations of 9 guys (mostly 8) he should perhaps consider putting in a little BBall Paul, more Holland II, and maybe even a Sasser sighting in that mix (especially if THJ is out) so we don't get burnt out. Especially with Cade also dealing with back spasms.

[Kalamazoo317]

I think keeping the 9 man rotation intact but giving some players rest makes sense.

[Crymson]

I think a lot of Mavericks fans would have heavily raised eyebrows to hear THJ being mentioned in the same sentence as "elite play finishing". He's shooting 46% from three so far this season but this is a significant outlier from his career 36% and he will inevitably return to the mean (he's already at 33% over the past three games).

What's now is what's now, and his mean is not 33%. He did badly last season.

Then factor in the concept that even though we want to be competitive we are still a developing team, and it seems somewhat disingenuous to prioritize minutes for an almost 33 year old THJ over a developing Ausar (who will arguably soon be considered a better overall player anyway).

It's about maintaining a functional offense to the degree possible rather than just mashing young talent together and hoping things work out like Weaver did.

I actually did say in my original post that "people need to stop acting like he can only score within 3 feet of the basket" to which you said that was an accurate summation, so the 0-3 feet stat is relevant to those original statements. Let's not try to subsequently shift the goalposts to support your argument.

Come on. You meant "around the basket." He did well enough in the restricted area (which is, if we're pushing exactitude, an immensely more commonly used measure than "within three feet") and the surrounding environs.

The point is that he does have some range to his shot out to 16 feet or so, and one would expect the natural trajectory of his development is that this will improve over time (gradually).

He does not. He attempted 77 shots last season between five and 14 feet of the basket last season and made less than 40% of them. The efficiency threshold is close to 50%.

The minutes have to come from somewhere, and he will almost certainly play more than the 14.5 mpg that Holland is currently getting. I think ultimately he takes some from THJ and some from Fontecchio. I will quote this after his first 5-10 games with the results. Happy to eat crow if I'm mistaken.

Maybe he'll take some from THJ. Many? I doubt it, unless he's shooting well. Replacing a guy who attracts a lot of gravity on the perimeter and finishes plays from the perimeter at a high percentage with someone who exerts negative gravity and shoots badly is probably not in the cards.

[Mr Peanut]

What's now is what's now, and his mean is not 33%. He did badly last season.

Seems somewhat contradictory to criticize some of Ausar's favorable shooting stats as a low sample size, but THJ's 12 game sample size from this season, where his stats are clearly an outlier compared to his career averages, is fine to make sweeping statements because "what's now is what's now".

Also THJ shot 35.3% from three last year, with his career average being 36.2%. So if you're saying he did badly last season then you're basically calling his entire career bad.

The NBA league average three point percentage last year was 35.1%, so THJ for his career and more recently is essentially league average in that respect. Once again, not "elite play finishing from the perimeter" as you've described, and not good enough to keep a young player with a lot of potential (and who brings a lot to the game beyond just shooting) riding the pine.

It's about maintaining a functional offense to the degree possible rather than just mashing young talent together and hoping things work out like Weaver did.

Mashing ill-fitting young talent together is never going to work out, but neither is having 9 players on your roster who aren't on an NBA team the following year like was the case last season.

This year is not last year. Ausar would largely be spending his minutes alongside Stewart, Fontecchio, Beasley and one of Cade/Ivey. Surrounded by four at least average outside shooters so one wouldn't expect a dysfunctional offense. Duren is only averaging 24 minutes per game this year so it's conceivable that Ausar would play fairly minimal minutes alongside another non-shooter.

He does not. He attempted 77 shots last season between five and 14 feet of the basket last season and made less than 40% of them. The efficiency threshold is close to 50%.

I did say "some range", and didn't imply he had to meet your efficiency threshold. Some range meaning he can hit enough of them to draw his defender away from the basket and not entirely pack the paint. And once again, the expectation is that those shooting numbers should improve as he develops and won't stay suspended in time. But he won't get a chance to develop if he has to sit on the bench behind a 33 year old barely league average shooter.

I feel like my posts make me come across as a THJ detractor, which I'm not. I appreciate his value to the team. But we should be affording more value to a 21 year old building block who has All-Defense team potential and needs as many reps as possible to help us take the next step forward.

[G_K_F]

Does anyone think Ausaur will be in the rotation when he returns?

[Billl]

Does anyone think Ausaur will be in the rotation when he returns?

Everyone thinks ausar will be in the rotation. The only question is if he starts.

[bstein14]

He was just assigned to the G League yesterday.

[flow]

He was just assigned to the G League yesterday.

This doesn't make sense to me.


EDIT:

Now it does, kinda...

From Rotowire:

The Pistons assigned Thompson (conditioning) to the G League's Motor City Cruise on Tuesday.

Thompson has yet to make his season debut after being sidelined due to a blood clot issue, but after recently gaining clearance from the NBA's Fitness-To-Play panel, the second-year forward is beginning to ramp back up. He'll likely participate in practice with Motor City on Tuesday before rejoining the NBA club ahead of Thursday's game at Charlotte.


But still, why not just have him practice with the nba team? Don't they practice too?

.

[bstein14]

He was just assigned to the G League yesterday.

This doesn't make sense to me.


EDIT:

Now it does, kinda...

From Rotowire:

The Pistons assigned Thompson (conditioning) to the G League's Motor City Cruise on Tuesday.

Thompson has yet to make his season debut after being sidelined due to a blood clot issue, but after recently gaining clearance from the NBA's Fitness-To-Play panel, the second-year forward is beginning to ramp back up. He'll likely participate in practice with Motor City on Tuesday before rejoining the NBA club ahead of Thursday's game at Charlotte.


But still, why not just have him practice with the nba team? Don't they practice too?

.

It's entirely possible that the team was given Tuesday off since they just played 5 games in 7 nights.

[Sort]

I hope they got Tuesday off. That would be brutal. Today should just be video/shootaround. The guys looked fairly cooked last game.

Excited though to see Ausar return, whenever that is. I have been imagining he's been using all this time to work on his shot.

[whitehops]

Does anyone think Ausaur will be in the rotation when he returns?

as much as some people want both ausar and holland in the rotation my best guess is that ausar takes holland's minutes. i don't think ausar will start, but i could be wrong.

[bstein14]

Does anyone think Ausaur will be in the rotation when he returns?

as much as some people want both ausar and holland in the rotation my best guess is that ausar takes holland's minutes. i don't think ausar will start, but i could be wrong.

Holland has looked good in stretches for sure but he still has the worst +/- on the team and the worst TS% on the team. He's clearly not ready to play winning basketball just yet. 47.7 TS% isn't worst in the league Killian Hayes bad but its something that is hurting the team until he can provide a a number above 50 for sure.

[440BB]

I'm glad to see he's been practicing with contact, as that's a big step to show the clot issue is behind him. Getting back up to game speed in the G league would fit the intention to use that team more effectively as an extension of the NBA club. I'm hoping to see him back with the Pistons by early December at the latest.

[TPA]

...I'm hoping to see him back with the Pistons by early December at the latest.

Per the article:

"He'll likely participate in practice with Motor City on Tuesday before rejoining the NBA club ahead of Thursday's game at Charlotte."

[Mr Peanut]

I saw a quote somewhere from JB Bickerstaff essentially saying they still don't have a timetable for his return yet. Guess he hasn't played a game for almost 9 months so will need to get up to speed. Likely he'll come off bench playing limited minutes initially but that will ramp up if he can prove himself.

I'm excited for his return. People forget but he started very strong last season and was consistently in the top 2-3 on the NBA Rookie Ladder and had players like Draymond Green tweeting his praises. Then Monty decided to send him to the bench in favor of Isaiah Livers and his minutes/confidence fell off. Then the blood clot. His eventual ceiling is quite dependent on his prowess as a shooter, but there is definitely still star potential there.

EDIT: He's been upgraded to "doubtful" for tomorrow's game so maybe not far away!