The Pistons have an Ausar Thompson problem

Ausar Thompson watched most of the second half of last night’s loss to the Spurs from the Pistons’ bench, and it showed, as the team fell apart without him, which is a problem. 

Thompson was yanked from the game abruptly after missing a defensive assignment and having a curt interaction with coach JB Bickerstaff, who barely played him for the rest of the game. 

I am perfectly fine with riding the hot hand, and if the Pistons were winning the game without Thompson, I wouldn’t be complaining, but that wasn’t the case. Detroit was down two when he went out of the game, and things immediately fell apart with the Spurs raining a non-stop barrage of three-point shots. 

Caris LeVert played more than Ausar last night and was terrible once again, turning the ball over four times and not doing much on either end. I get that coach Bickerstaff is trying desperately to get LeVert going, but it shouldn’t happen at the expensive of Thompson, especially if LeVert is not even playing well. 

The Pistons have an Ausar Thompson problem, which is that coach Bickerstaff seems to have a shorter leash with him than any other player, but the Pistons can’t survive on either end without him. 

Ausar Thompson makes the Pistons go on both ends

You can talk about Thompson’s offensive struggles or his lack of shooting, but he was 4-of-6 last night, got into the lane a couple of times (including one where he took it right into Wembanyama’s chest), knocked down a mid-range jumper and had a couple of assists. 

On a night when the Pistons struggled to shoot the ball, Thompson was providing some offense, but it was his defense Detroit missed the most on both ends. 

Detroit could not hit a 3-point shot last night, which is not abnormal, but they also weren’t getting out on the break much to get easier shots, something that often happens as a result of Ausar Thompson’s defense. 

He can’t get steals and run if he’s not in the game. 

It’s not like JB is replacing Ausar with a bunch of lights-out shooters. Thompson had more points than LeVert last night even though he played fewer minutes. 

The Pistons are simply a better team when Ausar is on the floor, and all of the numbers support that. 

So where was he? 

If I had one complaint about JB Bickerstaff, it is that he can be a touch too emotional at times and let that emotion cloud his judgement. It did appear that he and Ausar had some kind of negative exchange, and coach Bickerstaff clearly didn’t like his body language or something he said. Fine. 

I like that he’s trying to hold his guys accountable. But why is Ausar Thompson the only one who gets this treatment? His margin for error seems to be razor thin, when we see other players make similar mistakes with impunity. 

There is no way Ausar should have been on the bench in favor of LeVert or Javonte Green last night, as neither of those guys were playing well, and the Pistons needed a defensive spark later in the game. 

It’s a problem I hope doesn’t re-occur in the playoffs, as this was a talking point last year against the Knicks when Thompson was inexplicably benched.