There hasn’t been much to get excited about with the Detroit Pistons to this point in the 2023-24 NBA regular season. The team got off to a promising enough start at 2-1, but their victory on October 28th was the last time that they won a game.
Detroit is riding a 20-game losing streak as everything that can go wrong has for the team. They have had to battle injuries throughout the season and their young core of players hasn’t taken that step forward the franchise had hoped that they would.
One of the few glimmers of hope has been provided by rookie small forward, Ausar Thompson. Thompson has the potential to be a great two-way player, as he already plays defense at a high level. Once his offensive game comes around, he will provide the Pistons with a lot of value.
However, there are some people who are already throwing the towel in on the No. 5 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Former NBA All-Star, Gilbert Arenas, called out Thompson during a recent segment of his show, Gil’s Arena.
In his opinion, Thompson is already someone he wouldn’t be building around because of his lack of offensive impact. “You’re 20 turning 21 averaging 10 you’re not in my future,” Arenas said.
Thompson has struggled offensively at times. He is averaging 10.6 points per game on a .457/.146/.680 shooting split. His effective field goal percentage of 47.3 and true shooting percentage of 50 leaves a lot to be desired.
However, we have seen plenty of players throughout NBA history start off slow when it comes to shooting and eventually figure it out. Writing a player off this early in their career is a bit reactionary as Thompson is only 23 games into it.
X user LegendOfWinning, however, was not having it. He called Arenas out, listing several players and how many points they scored when they were 20 or 21 years old. He included Arenas and Rasheed Wallace, who was a guest and stood up for Thompson, as neither of them was much better than the rookie.
It certainly is a bold statement for Arenas to make, as adjusting to life in the NBA is hard. When you skip college altogether, it is enough tougher. Thompson should be cut some slack as the Pistons are currently a rudderless ship and he has been one of the only bright spots for the franchise.
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