The Whiteboard: Ausar Thompson's twin breakout is coming

Amen Thompson this, Amen Thompson that. There has been a lot of chatter around the Houston Rockets' second-year star of late, as there should be. Thompson is breaking out before our eyes, staking his claim on a central role for the West's second-best team.

Lost in all the hype around Amen, however, has been the steady progress of his twin brother in Detroit. Pistons wing Ausar Thompson began his second NBA season on the mend as he dealt with a blood clotting issue. Upon his return, Ausar was hit with a strict minutes limit as Detroit endeavored to bring him along slowly. A wise decision, since the Pistons' vision is rooted in the future.

That said, February has been a proper breakout month for the "other" Thompson twin. He still isn't matching his brother's playing time, but that hasn't stopped him from matching his brother's production — almost identically.

With Jaden Ivey out of commission, Detroit has needed to look elsewhere for a playmaking boost. Cade Cunningham can't do it all himself. Thompson has stepped seamlessly into an elevated role. He was the de facto point guard for a recent game against the Philadelphia 76ers — a national TV showdown with Cunningham on the sideline due to injury. Thompson finished that game with 14 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and only one turnover in 27 minutes, converting 5-of-7 field goal attempts and earning six free throws.

He has now scored double-digit points in seven straight games, shooting 69.5 percent from the field during that span. No, he can't shoot, and yes, the defense is as ridiculous as ever. Thompson occupies a unique skill set, with no real comparisons aside from his twin. It's a little too easy to just lob him into the same basket as his direct genealogical match, but Ausar and Amen are on a special trajectory.

Ausar Thompson and the Pistons are here to stay

The Pistons are "Cade Cunningham's team" and will hopefully remain as such for the next 10 years, but don't discount Thompson's role in getting Detroit to the next level. With J.B. Bickerstaff holding the whiteboard and Trajan Langdon calling his shots in the front office, the Pistons are taking the express route from all-time bad to sustainably good. Cunningham's leap rightfully gets the lion's share of credit, but the Pistons have built an impressively balanced roster around him.

Jaden Ivey's season-ending leg injury was a huge bummer. It took a serious spark away from Detroit's lineup, sapping it of its most dependable non-Cade creator. Ivey's ability to create advantages with his speed and apply pressure on the rim was essential to making this Pistons offense hum. Now, Thompson is picking up the slack. He still doesn't command much respect behind the 3-point line (21.9 percent on a single attempt per game), but it hardly matters. Thompson is a one-hundredth of one percent athlete, not unlike his brother in Houston. There's no way to keep him out of the teeth of the defense.

The narrative on the Thompson twins coming into the draft was simple. Neither could shoot, but both were generationally spectacular athletes at 6-foot-7. Neither faced much resistance in Atlanta's Overtime Elite league, which essentially served as a platform to showcase potential All-NBA talent against high school-level competition. It was fair to question how the Thompson twins might hold up agaisnt NBA athletes and NBA schemes — a drastic leap in quality of opponents. Both were solid rookies, despite the noise, but year two has brought on full-bore breakouts. Don't be shocked if both Thompsons are in the All-Star game within the next couple of years.

Detroit still has not fully unleashed Ausar. He's not getting 35 or 40-minute nights like his brother. The Pistons recently acquired Dennis Schroder, who might eat into Thompson's on-ball reps. Even so, the impact is becoming undeniable. Amen was always billed as the more creative playmaker, but Ausar still moves differently with the basketball. He can glide through space like a beam of light, sidestepping defenders and exploding through the slimmest of gaps like Saquon Barkley before hitting the deceleration on a dime. Defenders can sag off all they'd like, but Thompson is going to use that extra space to his advantage, getting downhill in a blink and deploying more misdirection than the average defensive brain can process in such a short span of time. At the rim, Thompson is automatic.

The scalability of his skill set will forever be what sets Thompson apart from the crowd, akin to (stop me if you're heard this before) his brother. Ausar spent more time off-ball at lower levels of competition than Amen, largely because his twin was running point. Detroit's Thompson is perfectly comfortable working out of the dunker spot and playing the connector, whether that's rifling a pinpoint dime after a sharp cut or catching a lob and redirecting it to the trailing big in midair (like, c'mon dude).

All this, and Thompson's defense has not earned more than a passing mention. He remains on an accelerated All-Defense track, averaging 1.6 steals in 20.9 minutes for the season. Thompson's length, anticipation, and movement skills make him genuinely frightening to an opposing offense. Any lazy pass or ill-conceived shot attempt in his vicinity is a risk not worth taking. Ask him to lock up the opposition's best player, and Thompson can fight over screens and stick to a ball-handler as well as anyone in basketball.

Ausar Thompson has pretty much every tool for success. If he ever becomes even a passable 3-point shooter, the NBA might never recover.

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NBA news roundup:

• The 76ers have lost five straight going into the All-Star break. Paul George scored two points on 1-of-7 shooting in 37 minutes against Brooklyn on Wednesday — a game neither Joel Embiid nor Tyrese Maxey played in. The 34-year-old George has been receiving injections to manage the pain from a tendon injury in his hand. This does not feel sustainable. Something has to give, and Philly's season is on life support.

• Stephen Curry says there are "no hard feelings" after Kevin Durant voided a potential trade back to Golden State. The Dubs All-Star said it's all about peace of mind, and that he won't convince someone to play where they're not happy. That said, Steph ought to feel pretty good about the early returns on the Jimmy Butler era. Things are looking up.

• ESPN's latest MVP straw poll has OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the lead with 70 first-place votes out of 100. The other 30 belong to Nikola Jokic, with Giannis Antetokounmpo polling as a distant third place.

Zaccharie Risacher is starting to look like a No. 1 pick (sorta)

There was intense skepticism around Atlanta Hawks wing Zaccharie Risacher coming out of the draft. Him, a No. 1 overall pick? Really?

The 2024 NBA Draft was notoriously devoid of top-end talent, but it still felt odd for a role-playing wing to get the nod over a generationally efficient shooter like Reed Sheppard or a potential DPOY-level anchor like Donovan Clingan.

In the end, Risacher almost certainly won't be the best player from his rookie class. It is what it is. The Hawks, in the interest of staying competitive with Trae Young, went for fit over pure upside. That said, Risacher is quietly riding high into the All-Star break. The French 19-year-old ranked 15th on the FanSided draft board, so he was never viewed as a No. 1 pick in these parts. As things sit, however, one has to imagine the Hawks feel pretty good about things.

Over his last nine games since returning from injury, Risacher has averaged 15.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists on .553/.462/.708 splits. He's done that in just 24.0 minutes per game, averaging a mere 0.4 turnovers. He is playing crisp, efficient basketball, doing all the little things he was hailed for overseas.

He is not a high-level creator, but Risacher is sniping spot-up 3s, driving with a purpose when lanes materialize, and making smart, simple passes in the flow of the offense. The defense is ahead of the curve for a rookie, and he figures to max out as nothing less than a high-impact starter on his current arc. Sure, Risacher may never be a star, but he's doing exactly what the Hawks expected on draft night. He was always the "high floor" pick, and that's coming to fruition.