NBA Rookie ladder: Marcus Sasser will keep climbing for the Pistons

It’s still very early in the season, but not too early to say the Detroit Pistons definitely have something with their two rookies.

Both Ausar Thompson and Marcus Sasser have been even better than advertised, with Thompson already playing strong defense and leading all rookies in rebounding, while Sasser has been an assassin off the bench for the Pistons.

Detroit has had their problems, but you have to like what we’ve seen from these two rookies, who have made an immediate impact.

Their play isn’t going unnoticed, as both Pistons rookies made the first NBA Rookie Ladder, which is the NBA’s weekly ranking of rookies.

Thompson came in 3rd behind Victor Wembanyama (1) and Chet Holmgren (2) which is a fair assessment given how those two have played so far. While Thompson will have a hard time cracking the top-2, his teammate Marcus Sasser has a chance to climb higher.

Marcus Sasser continues to impress for the Pistons

The Pistons came within one shot of upsetting the Bucks on the road last night and Marcus Sasser was a big part of it. He helped spearhead Detroit’s comeback in the 3rd quarter with some timely 3-point shots, but he was also knocking down mid-range pull-ups, and got to the rim a few times. The rookie was in his bag on his way to 26 points, a new career high.

He’s now one of just two rookies (Wembanyama) to record two 20+ point games so far this season and he’s doing it on wild shooting stats.

Sasser is shooting 55 percent overall and 50 percent from long range so far in the young season, and after last night, he’s averaging over 10 points per game while also adding a steal, 2.7 assists and 2.8 rebounds.

There’s a strong argument that he should and will leapfrog at least Scoot Henderson in next week’s rankings and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him jump up two spots from 8th to 6th.

No one is happy about the Pistons’ 2-7 record, but you have to be impressed with these two rookies, as Ausar has been awesome and Sasser looks like the steal of the draft through nine games.