Ausar Thompson’s offensive ceiling may come down to one simple thing: the free-throw line.
That’s the clearest lesson his brother Amen has already offered. The Rockets’ Thompson has taken a real leap as a scorer and playmaker, and one of the biggest reasons is that he’s made defenses pay when they try to get physical. Once fouls stop being an easy escape hatch, everything opens up.
Ausar already has the defensive reputation that makes him one of the most intriguing young players in the league. In his first two seasons with the Detroit Pistons, he’s built a case as perhaps the NBA’s most versatile defender, using his ball-hawking, shot-blocking, positional range and off-ball activity to impact the game all over the floor.
The offense is where the gap between the twins still shows up most clearly.
Amen Thompson finished the 2025-26 season at 18.3 points and 5.3 assists per game, a jump from his Year 2 numbers of 14.1 points and 3.8 assists. That growth didn’t happen by accident. A major piece of it was his rise at the stripe, where he improved from 68.4 percent to 77.9 percent.
That kind of improvement matters because it changes how defenders can play him. Amen averaged 10.0 drives per game in 2024-25, shooting 48.5 percent and scoring 3.3 points per game on those attempts. In 2025-26, he pushed those numbers to 15.5 drives and 7.3 points on 52.5 percent shooting.
The difference was that teams had a harder time stopping him without risking a whistle.
That’s the path Ausar needs to follow if he wants to turn his slashing into a real weapon. The encouraging sign is that the work has already started. His free throw shooting has climbed from 57.1 percent in 2025-26 to 68.4 percent in 2026-27.
If he can keep moving that number up, the rest of his offense gets easier to access. He’d be tougher to foul out of a drive, tougher to crowd, and tougher to keep from getting downhill.
There’s still another layer to his scoring, too. Ausar will need to keep improving outside the restricted area, but the touch around the rim is trending in the right direction. He shot 65.0 percent within five feet of the basket in 2025-26, and he’s at an eye-popping 81.5 percent on those attempts in 2026-27.
The formula is pretty clear from here. If Ausar gets his free throws into the mid-70s, defenders lose one of their best ways to survive against him. The contact becomes less useful, the physicality gets harder to sustain, and his offensive evolution has a chance to really take off.
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Bridges has long had the scoring and rebounding production that keeps him in the conversation, with career averages of 16 points and 6 rebounds per game, but the defensive questions have followed him from Charlotte to Phoenix. His recent stint with the Suns has only sharpened that concern, with his play on that end drawing criticism and factoring into a decline in Phoenixs defensive rating, which makes Detroits decision to pass look a little wiser in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]