The Detroit Pistons improved their 3-point shooting with the addition of John Collins, which should benefit Ausar Thompson as much as anyone.
Much has been made about the Pistons' spacing issues, which are in part created because they feature two non-shooters in the starting five in Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren (pending).
But that problem was also exacerbated by Tobias Harris, who was a below-average 3-point shooter who liked to do most of his damage in the mid-range and paint, areas that already had plenty of traffic.
The addition of Collins should help that problem, and Cade Cunningham won't be the only one to benefit.
John Collins helps the Duren/Thompson pairing
Collins shoots over 40 percent from 3-point range, and 43 percent from the corner, a shot that was mostly taken by Tobias Harris and Ron Holland II last season. Harris was just 37 percent on the corner 3, so that's an area teams will have to respect more with Collins on the floor.
That should increase the spacing and make Ausar Thompson more playable with Jalen Duren. Harris is a better iso player than Collins, but when he was holding the ball in the post, Thompson was pretty much useless, as the lane was too crowded for him to be a cutter. Hopefully, Collins will draw another defender out of the paint and give Thompson more space to work as a cutter or with dribble penetration.
Collins also gives the Pistons' creators (including Thompson) another kick-out option when they run into a wall of defenders, something they didn't really have with Harris.
The Pistons need to find more creative ways to get Ausar the ball in motion and to keep him from having to drive into traffic. Having a four that can spread the floor should help that effort.
Ausar Thompson can help unlock John Collins on defense
Collins played a little stretch five early in his career, and Thompson may make it possible to unlock that cheat code when the Pistons want to go small and get more ball handlers on the floor.
Thompson covers a lot of area and is a vicious off ball defender who can protect the rim as a weakside shotblocker or dart in for quick traps to hunt steals.
He could make it easier for the Pistons to go small with Collins in stretches when they want to surround Cade/Ausar with three shooters, something they were unable to do last season, as Isaiah Stewart wasn't a willing 3-point shooter most of the time.
Collins isn't a great defender, but Thompson makes everyone a bit better on that end, and the pairing will give coach JB Bickerstaff a lot of lineup versatility of he wants to create mismatches.
Most of the talk about spacing revolves around Cade Cunningham, but Ausar Thompson should also be a beneficiary of having better shooters around him.
Add us as a preferred source on Google