The Detroit Pistons haven't had much to get excited about this season, but one of the bright spots has been Ausar Thompson.
Thompson is in the top-5 among rookies in rebounds, steals and blocks, and though his long-range shot has struggled, he's shown flashes as a playmaker, cutter and finisher at the rim.
He's averaging 10.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.3 blocks and a steal while playing elite defense on some of the best offensive players in the league.
His only real weakness has been 3-point shooting, as he is hitting 54.3 percent of his two-point shots. Anyone who has watched basketball for more than five minutes knows that shots can be fixed and are generally the part of a young player's game that improves the most.
This makes me wonder if Gilbert Arenas has watched more than five minutes of basketball.
Gilbert Arenas looks foolish with comments about Ausar Thompson of the Detroit Pistons
Arenas, who is no stranger to hot takes, rankled the Pistons faithful with a recent take about Ausar Thompson, who he doesn't think should be a big part of Detroit's future for some reason.
Here's the clip of him saying dumb stuff while a baffled Rasheed Wallace looks on:
The part that stuck out to me was "You're 20 turning 21 averaging ten you're not in my future." Arenas must forget that fans have access to stats, including his.
So let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we Gilbert?
Gilbert Arenas was a 20-year-old rookie, just like Ausar Thompson, and just like Thompson, Arenas averaged just over 10 points per game in his first season.
Thompson is averaging 10.6 points per game (with 58 games left to play in the season, so expect that to go up) on 45.7 percent shooting from the floor overall while doing things few rookies in NBA history have done.
Arenas averaged 10.9 points per game as a rookie while shooting 45.3 percent from the floor overall.
So Thompson is not only a better shooter overall than Arenas was as a rookie, but is miles better as a defender, rebounder, shot blocker and at grabbing steals, you know, the other parts of the game.
Arenas did make a big leap in scoring after his rookie season, and Thompson may never reach the heights he reached as a scorer, but Ausar is already far better at literally everything else.
So I have to wonder if Gilbert Arenas would look back on his young self and say he wasn't a cornerstone player. Given his high opinion of himself, I doubt that would be the case.
So why in the world is he coming after Ausar Thompson? It makes little sense when anyone, including Arenas himself, can look up stats. My conclusion is that too many ex-NBA players have podcasts and many of them do little but rip on the current NBA and talk about how they could do it better.
I wish we could see rookie Gilbert Arenas trying to score against rookie Ausar Thompson. He might change his opinion.