Ausar on the bench

[Patrick27]

There is zero reason kilian hayes should ever get mins over ausar

Killian is our best ballhandler. That probably speaks more to the imbalance of the roster than anything else, but until we address that problem, we need someone to handle the ball in half court sets without throwing it away or turning it over.

Nobody is buying green bananas with Killian. He won't be on the team next year, so let him eat minutes in a lost season, while the actual future prospects focus their time on building the skills they lack.

[Patrick27]

Watching Ausar play he needs to go to the G league. He can't really dribble and can't shoot. His main red flag from scouts were that they didn't think he could score in a half-court offense, and he can't! We shouldn't have drafted him bc he doesn't fit with this team but it is what it is. If we keep Ivey he'd never be able to start at the 3 or 4 unless he's able to shoot 38%+ from 3.

I'd argue that shooting can be taught. It's much harder to improve athleticism, heart, and work ethic over time, and he has all of those tools. I think he was the right pick. He's only 20 years old. If he learns to shoot in the next couple of years, he'll be a complete player. Give him time.

I think Rip Hamilton is a good example here. He didn't shoot the 3 very well in his first 6 years, hovering around 30%. But he had a strong work ethic. Rip ended up leading the league in 3p% in 2005-2006 when he was 27 years old.

Nobody is asking Ausar to lead the league in 3p%, but if he could reach a passable percentage, he would be an extremely valuable player to any team.

If you think of the rookie contract as developmental time, he has plenty of time to turn it around. Unfortunately, we have a whole team of players on their rookie deals, which makes it very tough to develop players and win games at the same time.

[Snakebites]

Watching Ausar play he needs to go to the G league. He can't really dribble and can't shoot. His main red flag from scouts were that they didn't think he could score in a half-court offense, and he can't! We shouldn't have drafted him bc he doesn't fit with this team but it is what it is. If we keep Ivey he'd never be able to start at the 3 or 4 unless he's able to shoot 38%+ from 3.

I'd argue that shooting can be taught. It's much harder to improve athleticism, heart, and work ethic over time, and he has all of those tools. I think he was the right pick. He's only 20 years old. If he learns to shoot in the next couple of years, he'll be a complete player. Give him time.

I think Rip Hamilton is a good example here. He didn't shoot the 3 very well in his first 6 years, hovering around 30%. But he had a strong work ethic. Rip ended up leading the league in 3p% in 2005-2006 when he was 27 years old.

Nobody is asking Ausar to lead the league in 3p%, but if he could reach a passable percentage, he would be an extremely valuable player to any team.

If you think of the rookie contract as developmental time, he has plenty of time to turn it around. Unfortunately, we have a whole team of players on their rookie deals, which makes it very tough to develop players and win games at the same time.

Rip was always a capable shooter- all he did was (somewhat) extend his range to 3 point- though he never really became a volume shooter from 3 point range.

I agree that to some extend shooting can be taught, but Rip is not a comparable situation.

[Kalamazoo317]

If Ausar can develop the corner 3 at least (and he's shown flashes) he'll be playable. He needs to improve his handles and he can use that athleticism to have an at-rim game too.

[BDM22]

There is zero reason kilian hayes should ever get mins over ausar

Killian is our best ballhandler. That probably speaks more to the imbalance of the roster than anything else, but until we address that problem, we need someone to handle the ball in half court sets without throwing it away or turning it over.

Nobody is buying green bananas with Killian. He won't be on the team next year, so let him eat minutes in a lost season, while the actual future prospects focus their time on building the skills they lack.

He really isn't. He's an expert at handling the ball 40 feet from the hoop, but struggles to get past the 3-point line when his defender isn't busy guarding Cade, so that ball handling is not so useful. How many times have we seen him dribble around like a madman to end up with a fading 20-footer with a hand in his face that is about 3 feet short of the rim? If you can't really break down the defense, a handle is useless. Low-risk, no-reward dribbling savant.

[Patrick27]

There is zero reason kilian hayes should ever get mins over ausar

Killian is our best ballhandler. That probably speaks more to the imbalance of the roster than anything else, but until we address that problem, we need someone to handle the ball in half court sets without throwing it away or turning it over.

Nobody is buying green bananas with Killian. He won't be on the team next year, so let him eat minutes in a lost season, while the actual future prospects focus their time on building the skills they lack.

He really isn't. He's an expert at handling the ball 40 feet from the hoop, but struggles to get past the 3-point line when his defender isn't busy guarding Cade, so that ball handling is not so useful. How many times have we seen him dribble around like a madman to end up with a fading 20-footer with a hand in his face that is about 3 feet short of the rim? If you can't really break down the defense, a handle is useless. Low-risk, no-reward dribbling savant.

Fair criticisms, but if he's not our best ballhandler, who is?

[Patrick27]

If Ausar can develop the corner 3 at least (and he's shown flashes) he'll be playable. He needs to improve his handles and he can use that athleticism to have an at-rim game too.

Exactly this. I think the corner 3 would be a great thing for him to work on. Even if it takes a year or two of intense and constant practice, you can potentially come out the other side with a premier 22-year-old athletic 3&D player. He only needs 2-3 spots on the floor to practice those reps. It will take a lot of patience and fortitude, but that's the best way to develop him as a player.

Anyone saying that he will never be a shooter isn't patient enough. It's like saying a freshman in college can't perform surgeries right away, so they never will.

[Kalamazoo317]

Killian is our best ballhandler. That probably speaks more to the imbalance of the roster than anything else, but until we address that problem, we need someone to handle the ball in half court sets without throwing it away or turning it over.

Nobody is buying green bananas with Killian. He won't be on the team next year, so let him eat minutes in a lost season, while the actual future prospects focus their time on building the skills they lack.

He really isn't. He's an expert at handling the ball 40 feet from the hoop, but struggles to get past the 3-point line when his defender isn't busy guarding Cade, so that ball handling is not so useful. How many times have we seen him dribble around like a madman to end up with a fading 20-footer with a hand in his face that is about 3 feet short of the rim? If you can't really break down the defense, a handle is useless. Low-risk, no-reward dribbling savant.

Fair criticisms, but if he's not our best ballhandler, who is?

Hard to say, but Burks and Sasser are probably contenders for that.

[whitehops]

He really isn't. He's an expert at handling the ball 40 feet from the hoop, but struggles to get past the 3-point line when his defender isn't busy guarding Cade, so that ball handling is not so useful. How many times have we seen him dribble around like a madman to end up with a fading 20-footer with a hand in his face that is about 3 feet short of the rim? If you can't really break down the defense, a handle is useless. Low-risk, no-reward dribbling savant.

Fair criticisms, but if he's not our best ballhandler, who is?

Hard to say, but Burks and Sasser are probably contenders for that.

i think hayes is the worst ball handler of our guards. this is probably my order: cade, morris, burks, sasser, hayes. i'm judging morris mainly off highlights but he might be the most reliable of the bunch (while still making plays).

it's rough because all of our wings besides bojan are weak ball handlers for wings.

[bstein14]

The thing with Killian is that he isn't a threat to pull up and score so he has been horribly inefficient as a pick and roll ball handler in his career.

Ausar Thompson is actually one of the best in the entire NBA(1.18 PPP which is 6th overall just ahead of Haliburton and Giannis) as far as points per posession when he is the pick and roll ball handler but he only gets one attempt every other game on average. This is something we should do with him more to see if he's just been lucky or if he can handle a bit of a bigger role as a pick and roll player.

Killian gets 3.4 pick and roll plays per game where he is the primary ball handler and the team scores at a horrid rate of .73 points per possession on those plays. If you look at guys who get at least 3 pick and rolls per game on average Killian is 6th worst in PPP in the entire league.

[Spider156]

Sorry to burst your bubbles gentleman

Killian shot better as an 18 year old rookie than Ausar as a 20 year old rookie.

Hate to say it but Ausar looks like a bust on offense.

Defensively? Doesn’t matter if you can’t make a jumpshot so let’s stop that talk. The kid can’t score in any way possible including free throws. He’s a busy until proven otherwise. This isn’t on Monty. Ausar has been BAD.

[BDM22]

Sorry to burst your bubbles gentleman

Killian shot better as an 18 year old rookie than Ausar as a 20 year old rookie.

Hate to say it but Ausar looks like a bust on offense.

Defensively? Doesn’t matter if you can’t make a jumpshot so let’s stop that talk. The kid can’t score in any way possible including free throws. He’s a busy until proven otherwise. This isn’t on Monty. Ausar has been BAD.

What context this is missing is that Killian is historically bad as a shooter and also totally incapable of getting to or scoring at the rim. Ausar only has one of these issues. A semi-competent coach could get Ausar 10-12 points off bunnies every game, which puts him in a totally different category.

As a starter, even with absolutely nothing ran for him and never getting the ball on offense (Killian has never had this issue), he was scoring more points (11ppg) on higher efficiency (48% FG) than Killian ever has in his 4 year career. 51% TS vs. 42% TS is a massive gap between rookie Ausar and rookie Killian. Historically terrible vs. just bad. Ausar's 51% is still better than Cade his first 2 seasons, and again, Killian has never come close to that in 4 years.

Now yes, if you put Ausar on the bench NEXT to Killian Hayes running the offense, he's going to look pretty useless out there, for sure.

Also not sure what you mean by FT's comment. He shoots 70% from the line which is totally passable, especially as a rookie. That's 3% less than what LeBron James shoots for his career, so what are we talking about here?

[joedumars1]

Yeah I hate what Monty is doing to the guy.

[bstein14]

Sorry to burst your bubbles gentleman

Killian shot better as an 18 year old rookie than Ausar as a 20 year old rookie.

Hate to say it but Ausar looks like a bust on offense.

Defensively? Doesn’t matter if you can’t make a jumpshot so let’s stop that talk. The kid can’t score in any way possible including free throws. He’s a busy until proven otherwise. This isn’t on Monty. Ausar has been BAD.

Monty pulled him out because he wasn't shooting open threes... so a huge part of it is for sure on Monty if he isn't confidant in that shot yet let him take the ball to the basket forcing him to shoot them just seems like a great way to break his confidence.

[joedumars1]

Sorry to burst your bubbles gentleman

Killian shot better as an 18 year old rookie than Ausar as a 20 year old rookie.

Hate to say it but Ausar looks like a bust on offense.

Defensively? Doesn’t matter if you can’t make a jumpshot so let’s stop that talk. The kid can’t score in any way possible including free throws. He’s a busy until proven otherwise. This isn’t on Monty. Ausar has been BAD.

Monty pulled him out because he wasn't shooting open threes... so a huge part of it is for sure on Monty if he isn't confidant in that shot yet let him take the ball to the basket forcing him to shoot them just seems like a great way to break his confidence.

also for the kid to get in his own head. Man Monty these are kids not Chris Paul in his 5th year. As Tom gores would say everything going to stay the same. He can ruin these kids who gives a ****. Ausar looked decent now he looks like **** weird really. At least cade got the message

[Canadafan]

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Ausur started with Stew as PF and Hayes at guard.
There's zero incentive to having Livers start over Ausur.
Ivey and Bojan are upgrades offensively over Hayes and Stew.
Smarten up you moron Monty.

[Kalamazoo317]

Nah, Monty's smarter than you on this one. You can't start Duren and Ausar together in 2024. Not until Ausar gets a credible outside shot. I'd love for Ausar to play big minutes off the bench. Probably works best if we can get Beefstew back as a back up 5 to go with him.

[Piston Pete]

We need to trade Ausar before his value as the #5 overall pick with upside plummets.

Him and Duren cannot coexist on the floor at the same time.

[BDM22]

We need to trade Ausar before his value as the #5 overall pick with upside plummets.

Him and Duren cannot coexist on the floor at the same time.

Nah just play him. 3-32. No excuse for him to not play 25-30mpg at an absolute minimum. None.

[BDM22]

Nah, Monty's smarter than you on this one. You can't start Duren and Ausar together in 2024. Not until Ausar gets a credible outside shot. I'd love for Ausar to play big minutes off the bench. Probably works best if we can get Beefstew back as a back up 5 to go with him.

Funny how Amen's minutes are rising after the injury even though his team is decent and he's as bad a shooter as Ausar. They also have other guys that are bad shooters. They at least have an excuse to not play him (being decent and having good players in front of him). A good coach finds a way to make it work and use a player to their strengths (not camping Ausar in the corner like he's Joe Harris).

Another reminder, we STILL have more wins with Ausar starting than we have with him coming off the bench. The one single win we have with Ausar on the bench was to a depleted Raptors team by 2 at home. Also, Monty is STARTING the least efficient NBA player in the entire league in his place, so what even is this discussion about?