Ausar on the bench

[BDM22]

The Cade - Ivey - Bojan - Ausar - Duren lineup has played a GRAND TOTAL of FOUR minutes together this season. Yes, 4 total.

Most of the lineups we're judging Duren/Ausar on have also included Killian Hayes and Beef Stew, and have been missing Bojan. So any of this talk like it can't work at or better than a 3-32 rate is absurd. Monty is just totally lost as a coach.

Ausar has shared HALF of his NBA minutes with Killian Hayes to this point. The ONE guy you really cannot combine with Ausar because no coach could possibly be dumb enough to play 2 perimeter players that can't shoot at the same time, right?! They are the 3rd highest pairing of players in terms of minutes played together on the team that doesn't involve Cade Cunningham. That's how lost Monty is.

The man needs to be fired before he makes this all worse than he has already.

[Canadafan]

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.

Ya I hear ya with playing him with Stew at center. But I was just saying it looked pretty good at the beginning of the year with 2 lesser shooters starting alongside him so why not try it again with 2 better shooters instead of trotting out Livers who sucks lol

[Kalamazoo317]

The Cade - Ivey - Bojan - Ausar - Duren lineup has played a GRAND TOTAL of FOUR minutes together this season. Yes, 4 total.

Most of the lineups we're judging Duren/Ausar on have also included Killian Hayes and Beef Stew, and have been missing Bojan. So any of this talk like it can't work at or better than a 3-32 rate is absurd. Monty is just totally lost as a coach.

Yeah, those lineups are clearly much worse, but that doesn't mean a reasonable person can't project that the Cade - Ivey - Bojan - Ausar - Duren lineup doesn't have enough spacing. Heck, Beefstew instead of Ausar in that lineup arguably doesn't have enough spacing. Cade and Ivey are nowhere near consistent enough as outside shooters to salvage a lineup with a total non-shooter (Duren) and a total zero as a shooter (Ausar).

But if your subtext is we shouldn't play Killian at all at this point ... agreed.

[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.

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

I agree that if he’s here, he should be playing 25+ minutes per.

But I still don’t see a realm where him and Duren can coexist long term together

[Snakebites]

It’s hard. He’s playing badly because his confidence is down, which is in part because his time has dipped. And his time has dipped because of his play.

But he’s simply tough to have out there with his offense being so terrible. When he was playing he was probably the worst offensive player in the league getting regular minutes.

I hope in later years this is remembered as just a bump in the road.

[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.

I agree that if he’s here, he should be playing 25+ minutes per.

But I still don’t see a realm where him and Duren can coexist long term together

In the long-term, he has to become a better shooter, that's pretty simple. But we knew that coming in. Thankfully he's played like 30% of one NBA season so he has a lot of time to get better. We didn't draft Luke Kennard at #5, so the coach can't expect to use him like that and think he'll be good.

In the short-term, this team is absolutely horrific whether he plays or not, so you need to put him on the floor and use him to his current strengths, as any semi-competent NBA franchise would do. Not highlight his weaknesses by parking him in the corner and playing him in some clown-show lineup with Killian and Wiseman.

[Mr Peanut]

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

I agree that if he’s here, he should be playing 25+ minutes per.

But I still don’t see a realm where him and Duren can coexist long term together

In the long-term, he has to become a better shooter, that's pretty simple. But we knew that coming in. Thankfully he's played like 30% of one NBA season so he has a lot of time to get better. We didn't draft Luke Kennard at #5, so the coach can't expect to use him like that and think he'll be good.

In the short-term, this team is absolutely horrific whether he plays or not, so you need to put him on the floor and use him to his current strengths, as any semi-competent NBA franchise would do. Not highlight his weaknesses by parking him in the corner and playing him in some clown-show lineup with Killian and Wiseman.

Agree with this. Ausar looked very competent to start the season (mainly due to his rebounding/defense) and a big part of his success was due to being given a green light and having the confidence of his coach to play freely. Granted, him consistently sharing the floor with Killian and Stewart meant that Cade's game suffered due to lack of spacing.

As mentioned above, with Bogey back the ideal lineup for both spacing and player development is Duren-Bogey-Ausar-Ivey-Cade. It's painful how Monty continues to mismanage the rotations and put players in situations where they won't succeed.

[Crymson]

Agree with this. Ausar looked very competent to start the season (mainly due to his rebounding/defense) and a big part of his success was due to being given a green light and having the confidence of his coach to play freely.

He was competent on defense and on the boards. The team was monumentally worse on offense and thus overall with him on the floor. That defense and rebounding goes nowhere near to compensating for his enormous drain upon the halfcourt offense. Monty should still be coaching him rather than just forgetting about him, obviously, but there's not a great deal to be done that won't still make him a liability. He's just so incredibly bad in the halfcourt right now.

He realistically shouldn't have been in line for big minutes at all, but this front office is crewed by morons who constantly try to have their cake and eat it too with project players in a way that has invariably failed.

Granted, him consistently sharing the floor with Killian and Stewart meant that Cade's game suffered due to lack of spacing.

Any lineup with him in it is extremely likely to struggle on offense. Add Duren into the picture and that becomes a near guarantee. Layering Killian onto that just made it worse. That early starting lineup was a crime against basketball. Nothing about it made even a lick of sense.

As mentioned above, with Bogey back the ideal lineup for both spacing and player development is Duren-Bogey-Ausar-Ivey-Cade. It's painful how Monty continues to mismanage the rotations and put players in situations where they won't succeed.

That lineup is almost guaranteed to fail on offense. How Monty will inevitably coach it will just make it worse.

[Mr Peanut]

Agree with this. Ausar looked very competent to start the season (mainly due to his rebounding/defense) and a big part of his success was due to being given a green light and having the confidence of his coach to play freely.

He was competent on defense and on the boards. The team was monumentally worse on offense and thus overall with him on the floor. That defense and rebounding goes nowhere near to compensating for his enormous drain upon the halfcourt offense. Monty should still be coaching him rather than just forgetting about him, obviously, but there's not a great deal to be done that won't still make him a liability. He's just so incredibly bad in the halfcourt right now.

He realistically shouldn't have been in line for big minutes at all, but this front office is crewed by morons who constantly try to have their cake and eat it too with project players in a way that has invariably failed.

Granted, him consistently sharing the floor with Killian and Stewart meant that Cade's game suffered due to lack of spacing.

Any lineup with him in it is extremely likely to struggle on offense. Add Duren into the picture and that becomes a near guarantee. Layering Killian onto that just made it worse. That early starting lineup was a crime against basketball. Nothing about it made even a lick of sense.

As mentioned above, with Bogey back the ideal lineup for both spacing and player development is Duren-Bogey-Ausar-Ivey-Cade. It's painful how Monty continues to mismanage the rotations and put players in situations where they won't succeed.

That lineup is almost guaranteed to fail on offense. How Monty will inevitably coach it will just make it worse.

I can't fully ascertain if you're trying to disagree with me/correct me. However it's no secret that Ausar's offense is highly suboptimal if that's the point you're trying to make.

But we're also a 3-33 team and the focus of the season should now clearly be trying to develop our young players. That doesn't mean Monty should just throw him him out there for 35 minutes a game and let him continue his bad habits. But he's not going to develop getting 15 minutes a game and pulled every time he makes one mistake.

And yes, lineups with him may struggle offensively. But right now we are monumentally struggling defensively. Sometimes you have to try something different, as clearly what's been done so far isn't working.