What each Pistons player must improve to make a leap next season

Ausar Thompson: 3-point shooting

While Ausar Thompson had an up and down rookie year, most will agree that there was more good than bad. The 6-foot-8 wing showed tremendous athletic and defensive ability. His pick and roll/lob threat skillset was apparent almost immediately. His shooting, however, was a definite problem, as was expected. Ausar, and his brother Amen for what it’s worth, did little to prove scouts wrong regarding their poor shooting skills. Ausar started the season with his three point shooting hovering in the teens, which is horrendous. Having such a non-shooter in the lineup is a liability, and creates issues when setting lineups. For instance, Ausar and Jalen Duren essentially cannot play together in today’s NBA due to them both being non-shooters. 

Ausar quite literally needs to lock himself in the gym, along with Ivey as we’ve already discussed,shoot a thousand three's a day and work on some ball handling. If I’m Detroit, thanks to two of their potential cornerstone players needing improvements in their shooting, I’m going out and hiring the best shooting coaches in the NBA to work nonstop with Ausar. In Ausar’s defense, he did begin to improve his three point shooting as the season came to a close. Over his last 20 games or so, Ausar was shooting the three ball at a 30 percebt rate. Still, his season average ended at just 18 percent, which shows how low it was before this slight uptick. Thompson likely needs to get his percentage up to 32 percent or above to truly maximize his potential. 

Obviously this work absolutely needs to come after being given a clean bill of health. Blood clots are no joking matter, and Ausar getting healthy is his number one thing this offseason.