Before the Clippers - Pistons game last night, Los Angeles head coach Ty Lue was asked by Sean Murphy about how difficult a player like Ausar Thompson is to go up against. Lue singled out Ausar's elite athleticism and his ability to switch on defense and to fight through screens as a few strengths to the third-year player's game, but he's still continuing to improve and develop as a defender-- which is the scary part for other teams.

This season, Ausar has taken a step forward in his defense at the point of attack, regularly shutting down opposing teams' point guard or main ball handler. Thompson unleashes a relentless aggression on defense each night, and Lue touched on how he can single-handedly sway the game in the Pistons' favor all by himself.

That's pretty high praise from a coach who has seen it all in the league over the course of several multiple decades. Thompson continues to grade out as one of the absolute elite perimeter defenders in the NBA, and his impact on that end of the court is not a quality that Lue took lightly on Saturday night.