2023 Pistons Summer League

[Deleterious]

This was nice.

 

[Deleterious]

And that left half hook I mentioned.  After playing good defense.

 

[Deleterious]

My favorite thing about Keyonte.  Peoples auto correct changes his name to Keynote.  

He had 33 tonight.

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Deleterious

[buddha]

well....that was embarassing.

[buddha]

wiseman and duren cant play together.  it clogs up the court too much.  when duren was in the game, ivey looked much better.  it doesnt help that they dont have a point guard to get him the ball.

speaking of which, ausar is their best point player on this roster.  he passes really well.

but that said, ausar is not a 3 and d player yet because he cannot shoot.  yet.  hopefully he gets better as he gets older.  he's a good enough athlete to figure it out.

his ceiling?  scottie pippen.  his floor?  great defensive player who cant shoot (which are available all over the place.)

watching wiseman play still makes me mad.  he's such a black hole on offense.  he played well when he had a guy on him who couldnt play, but he almost never passes and just sits on the lane clogging it up for everyone.  its 2023 troy, not 1987.

[Deleterious]

Bigs that don't play defense are so useless and this team is full of those types.

Jabari Smith was a disappointment last year.  He started to play pretty good the last month of the year and it looks like he will continue that.  His handle even looked better tonight.

I wish they had sat Ivey down.  There is no reason to have him out there.  Let Asuar and Sasser run the show and see what they can do.

[Shinzaki]

In the snippets I've seen...Duren  looks really comfortable handling the ball facing the basket.  That bounce feed he made to Ausar who then dumped it back to Wiseman was very nice.  

[Betrayer]

Second game was a nice bounce-back for Ivey. He was one of the few guys out there competing in this blowout and looked more like the post All-Star version of himself. Can't wait to see him alongside Cade for a full season, because he has enough on-ball skills to be a great secondary playmaker even though he's not a full time lead PG.

Duren looking good, but also looking like he's goofing around a bit with the things he's trying. Some Drummond-esque drives and ball handling that we (hopefully) won't see from him in the regular season. His passing vision is nice and he seems to be getting some touch on his shots. Guys just can't keep him off the boards with his strength and athleticism. Let's not forget that he's just 19, so hopefully this new staff can instill more defensive fundamentals in him because that's all that's missing.

Wiseman...too little IQ, too little awareness, too much post-up. He'll be a serviceable backup Center, but please don't start him over Duren and please don't even THINK about starting him alongside Duren.

Ausar is clearly going to be an all around stat stuffer rather than a go to scorer style of player. I don't see him averaging 10 pts this year, but he'll probably average 6 rebounds, a bunch of assists, and a good number of blocks/steals as well. He won't awe you with the points, but hopefully he'll be able to do all of the other winning things on the court. Still not sure if he was a better pick than Black, Hendricks, or Whitmore, but his shot has the longest growth timeline of all of them and that's ultimately going to be the final verdict in a few years.

[buddha]

seeing duren shoot from the elbow reminded me of antonio mcdyess.  similar body too.

[Hart]

Not sure I have seen a player at Ausar's age have such good instincts on defense.  Very, very, encouraging.   

I would much rather roll with Bogey and Ausar starting together than Duren and Wiseman.  Until I see if it fails.  

[NYLion]

1 hour ago, Hart said:

Not sure I have seen a player at Ausar's age have such good instincts on defense.  Very, very, encouraging.   

I would much rather roll with Bogey and Ausar starting together than Duren and Wiseman.  Until I see if it fails.  

Ausar has everything in the toolkit outside of the 3 pointer, sort of like a Herb Jones type which is a very valuable player, a better playmaking Herb Jones. If he develops a 3 point shot, he has All Star potential. 

[RandyMarsh]

Not that it's saying a whole lot but I think Ausar is already our best defender on the team outside of probably Stewart. 

[Shinzaki]

 

So...this is fun

[Deleterious]

Even by NBA standards he made that entire sequence look so effortless.  

[Hongbit]

This young man has upper management written all over him. 

[Deleterious]

Funny thing.  That was a really smart and nice play by Sasser and we aren't even talking about the poor kid.  

[Deleterious]

Love the effort on the offensive glass at the 49 second mark.  McCormack is 6'10" and 250 pounds.  Ausar just outworks him.

Then at 2m28s the steal and he just takes off like a rocket for the easy transition basket.

 

[Shinzaki]

I was not a Thompson guy pre draft...but he seems like an intelligent player who  works on defense and has a ton of fluid, explosive athleticism.  If he continues to improve his shooting...he has a stupid high ceiling

[Betrayer]

10 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Then at 2m28s the steal and he just takes off like a rocket for the easy transition basket.

I think you mean, "like a Piston". You're thinking of the other twin 😄

[Betrayer]

I wasn't in the Thompson camp before the draft, but he's really impressed me so far in summer league. Just in the first few possessions he had a block, a steal, and a deflection. This kid can really defend, rebound, and hustle. Not only that, I'm loving his court vision and playmaking on the other end, especially in transition. Obviously, the shooting has to improve for him to function in a half court offense with 2 other ball-handlers, but if that happens he's going to be something special.

[RandyMarsh]

I didn't want Ausar at first mainly because I have a biased towards offensive minded players particularly ones that can shoot and since shooting wasn't the strong point of his game I naturally didn't really even consider him. But then after the rumors came out that a team in the top 6 may have made him a promise I started to look more in depth at his game and seeing how hard he worked on defense and his overall athleticism made me warm up to him. I was still in the Hendricks camp at draft time but I certainly wasn't disappointed with Thompson, where as a couple months ago I probably would have. 

[Deleterious]

Was always a big Amen fan and by draft night I wanted them to take Ausar.  But I would have been totally fine with Hendricks as well.

Sam Vecenie might be the twins biggest fans.  It is almost embarrassing how much he gushes over them.  Glad to hear both kids are like this for when Ausar recruits Amen to the Pistons in 5 years.

 

[casimir]

16 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

 

So...this is fun

Oh soar, Thompson!

[buddha]

not to be a debbie downer, but his shot is broke.

if he can make it a viable - or even semi acceptable weapon - he's an all star.

if not, he's tony allen.

[Deleterious]

He passes and rebounds too well to be Allen.

If his shot doesn't develop he can still be a decent contributor on a good team.