#3 - Pistons vs. Raptors

[catari11]

That was undeniably an impressive performance by Ausar. He showed his versatility. He defended both front and backcourt players, and made some extremely athletic plays. This guy is for real. Only the inveterate cynics and fair weather fans can carp at Weaver's brilliant choice in this last draft. Ausar, mark my words, is going to be a major contributor to the team this year.

[King Bugs]

Another stat stuffing line from Ausar, should have had 6 or 7 assists, but those trash bigs kept selling him out. Ausar's already the best perimeter defender on the roster and it's not particularly close. Good awareness, great activity, a complete menace in the passing lanes, covers for teammates out of position and for their mistakes. A lot of TOs (7), got a couple where he had caught the ball on the perimeter against an out of position defender, got excited and dribbled it off his foot. He passed on a ton of 3s and got a couple offensive fouls forcing drives that weren't there because of it. About those 3s... outside of the buzzer beating heave at the end of the 3rd quarter, the 3s he attempted didn't look very good (1-4 from 3), but at least they hit the rim... that's progress.

Sasser, that first half was just... oh boy. He came alive in the 3rd, showed some nifty moves with the floater, got himself a 3, and some fearlessness attacking the basket. Made some big time plays in the fourth quarter with that Gradey Dick steal. The shooting was brutal (5-15, 1-8 from 3), you can tell it's messing with his confidence a bit because he started hesitating and passing up good looks, but with that said he didn't wilt out there. I'm not particularly impressed so far, but I'm encouraged...

On another note... Grady Dick gave us buckets in the first half (18 points), but I didn't like the way he got shutdown in the 2nd half (4 points, no points in the 4th) and neither did Raptors fans. A 3 point shooter that missed (2-10) a lot of wide open and clean 3s... badly. That one on one game is not there, they had to run a maze of screens just to get him free. When he's trying to attack defenders off the dribble, the ball was just getting knocked away, ripped or he had to pick up the dribble and kick it back out. Maybe he'll be better in a reduced role come regular season, but he's a specialist right now.

[whitehops]

it must be amazing to see him play in person. he glides down the court faster than everyone else, skies for rebounds over everybody else, blocks opposing center's dunk attempts, etc.

i still remember, the lowest i've ever sat at an nba game was like the 8th row at a raps game when they had joey graham, who was a pretty good athlete himself. there was a rebound that felt like it was at my eye level in the 8th row and he just went up and got it. it looks impressive on the broadcast but the closer you get to ground level the more it makes you appreciate how insane it is what they can do. and we just got one of the top athletes in the league.

[whitehops]

Another stat stuffing line from Ausar, should have had 6 or 7 assists, but those trash bigs kept selling him out. Ausar's already the best perimeter defender on the roster and it's not particularly close. Good awareness, great activity, a complete menace in the passing lanes, covers for teammates out of position and for their mistakes. A lot of TOs (7), got a couple where he had caught the ball on the perimeter against an out of position defender, got excited and dribbled it off his foot. He passed on a ton of 3s and got a couple offensive fouls forcing drives that weren't there because of it. About those 3s... outside of the buzzer beating heave at the end of the 3rd quarter, the 3s he attempted didn't look very good (1-4 from 3), but at least they hit the rim... that's progress.

Sasser, that first half was just... oh boy. He came alive in the 3rd, showed some nifty moves with the floater, got himself a 3, and some fearlessness attacking the basket. Made some big time plays in the fourth quarter with that Gradey Dick steal. The shooting was brutal (5-15, 1-8 from 3), you can tell it's messing with his confidence a bit because he started hesitating and passing up good looks, but with that said he didn't wilt out there. I'm not particularly impressed so far, but I'm encouraged...

On another note... Grady Dick gave us buckets in the first half (18 points), but I didn't like the way he got shutdown in the 2nd half (4 points, no points in the 4th) and neither did Raptors fans. A 3 point shooter that missed (2-10) a lot of wide open and clean 3s... badly. That one on one game is not there, they had to run a maze of screens just to get him free. When he's trying to attack defenders off the dribble, the ball was just getting knocked away, ripped or he had to pick up the dribble and kick it back out. Maybe he'll be better in a reduced role come regular season, but he's a specialist right now.

yeah ausar was awesome but definitely showed that his handle needs more work to create on-ball and just his shot overall.

i feel like the summer league is tough for players like sasser. he's not a PG at all and likely never will be but is kind of thrust into that role because he's mainly playing with undrafted guys.

same goes for gradey dick, except with his size he'll have many more chances to get his shot off. he's also a lot better movement shooter so he'll get more looks when he plays with guys to know to look for him in general, not just designed plays.

[MortSahlfan]

Watch on YouTube

[TurboTitan]

yeah we got one with Ausar man

[Rip32]

I'm sorry but Grady_Dick looks like Jeffrey Dahmer