Coty Davis and Tarohn Finley talk about J.B. Bickerstaff’s rotation strategy
Coty and Tarohn discuss this week’s loss to the Spurs and the win against the Thunder.
Detroit — When you do a little bit of everything, it’s sometimes difficult for others to see how much you’ve done.
Especially when what you do best seems so effortless, at times.
But if that’s part of the challenge for Ausar Thompson at this stage of his NBA career, it’s also going to test his coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, as the Pistons continue their rapid ascent as NBA title contenders this season.
They both got a passing grade after Wednesday’s exam against an injury-depleted Oklahoma City team, as Thompson bounced back from a second-half benching against San Antonio two nights earlier with another sublime effort in a supporting role. The final box score probably didn’t do it justice on a night where Cade Cunningham (29 points, 13 assists) and Jalen Duren (29 points, 15 rebounds) led the way in a 124-116 win over the Thunder, who were sitting four starters and two other key rotation pieces.
But that’s typically the case for the uber-athletic Thompson, who finished with 11 points, seven assists and five “stocks” — three steals, two blocks — in 28 minutes. The Pistons were a plus-15 in his time on the court Wednesday, and it was during Detroit’s second-quarter rally to take the lead that Thompson’s full ability was on display.
On one possession, he attacked the baseline hard and made a no-look dropoff to Duren for a dunk. At the other end, Thompson switched a screen with Tobias Harris on the wing and then snuffed out a back-cut layup attempt with a ridiculous left-handed block. As the trailer on the ensuing break, Thompson called for the ball at the free-throw line, then sent a perfect lob to the rim for another Duren slam. That brought the LCA crowd to its feet and forced Thunder coach Mark Daigneault to call a timeout. A few minutes later, the Pistons had the lead for good.
“I mean, tonight is who he has always been,” said Bickerstaff, whose team improved to 43-14 on the season and leapfrogged Oklahoma City (45-15) for the best record in the NBA. “And we don’t pick one game that determines how important each individual guy is to us. We’re not in this position right now if Ausar hasn’t played the way that Ausar played all season long. Ausar is a huge part of what we do. And night in, night out, he does the job for us. So it’s him, it’s who he is, and we’re not surprised by it.”
Maybe not, but it was a bit startling to see Bickerstaff leave Thompson on the bench for virtually the entire second half in the loss to the Spurs two nights earlier. The Pistons’ coach shrugged it off after the game, saying only that he’d liked the minutes he was getting from Ron Holland II that night. But he was clearly upset with another defensive breakdown — this one involving Thompson early in the third quarter of that loss to the Spurs — and after subbing him out, Bickerstaff never brought his starting wing back over the final 20 minutes.
“Yeah, just not playing with the energy I normally play with,” Thompson explained Wednesday. “They have every right to pull me if they feel that way and I just have to bounce back, know it was nothing personal.”
That’s easier said after a win than it was immediately after it was done, of course. But give both sides credit for working through whatever issues there were without any real drama here.
“Learn from my mistakes,” Thompson said. “If I’m messing up, (I need to) see who’s doing the right thing and learn from it and apply it to the next game. And that’s what I did. You know, Ron came out there doing all the right things, and I was like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna learn from him.’”
Still, the real lesson here is one they all should know by now. And it has to do with Thompson’s value on the floor.
He’s a leading candidate to earn first-team NBA All-Defense honors this season, and not just because of the way he can put the clamps on opponents’ best players on the perimeter. When he’s not pressuring the ball, the 6-foot-7 Thompson is blowing up pick-and-roll actions as few defenders can, using his athleticism to fight through screens in a way that “lets our defense continue to play 5-on-5 instead of playing 5-on-4 or 4-on-3,” Bickerstaff says.
His quick hands routinely create turnovers — Thompson ranks third in the NBA in deflections and fourth in steals — and his springy explosion off the floor helps explain his elite block rate. But if you ask Duren to identify his teammate’s most impressive trait, he’ll tell you it’s the way he seems to teleport around the court.
“The way he slides his feet, it’s kind of like he be floatin’,” Duren said, smiling, as he also touted Thompson’s uncanny instincts. “That might be something small for people, but that’s a true skill. Being able to move that way — like, effortlessly — and move with defenders, being able to cut people off … I mean, on the defensive end, he’s a guy that’s easy to play with, because he covers up so much.”
And since so much of this team’s identity is wrapped up in that tenacious, physical brand of defense they play, it’s easy to take for granted some of the other things Thompson does.
The third-year pro, who just turned 23 last month, can be an offensive catalyst for the Pistons despite some of the floor-spacing issues his presence as a non-shooter helps create. (Thompson is just 6-for-21 from the 3-point line this season.) Particularly against some of the other top defenses in the league, this Detroit team has nights where it struggles to generate half-court offense. The loss to San Antonio was the most recent example — and the most exaggerated one, largely due to the presence of Victor Wembanyama — but the playoffs no doubt will bring more.
Yet that’s all the more reason why Thompson needs to be out there, generating fastbreak points or easier offense in transition. That second-half statement Bickerstaff made in the loss to the Spurs was fine. But this speaks volumes, too: The Pistons are 21-4 this season in games where Thompson plays 26-plus minutes.
That’s neither a mistake nor a coincidence.
