Detroit Pistons forward Ausar Thompson took him another Defensive Player of the Month award earlier this week
Not long after winning the Defensive Player of the Month award for the Eastern Conference, Detroit Pistons forward Ausar Thompson set out against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night to help make his claim for the month of March.
In the cross-conference showdown, Thompson logged seven points, nine rebounds, a career-high nine assists, three blocks and two steals in the Pistons’ 113-108 win, and the third-year forward’s performance showed just how impactful he is across the floor.
On the surface, Thompson’s seven-point production might be looked at as an underwhelming total for the dynamic two-way game changer, but AT seeks to impact the game first as a defender then secondarily as a playmaker– that’s why he won DPOM for his work last month.
So far, Thompson has won the DPOM award twice this season, which is the most in the Eastern Conference. But if you ask AT, there’s no limit to the number of times he’d like to earn the title of his conference’s most ardent defender.
“He’s dead serious that throughout his career, that’s what he wants to do,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after their five-point win over Minnesota. “That’s where he wants to put his impact on the game, and for a guy who understands that at this age and knows how important it is, particularly to our team, it means even that much more that he’s willing to go the extra mile to go out and do what he does every single night knowing that it’s not an easy job.”
From a responsibility standpoint, Thompson stands alone as the most ambitious defender on Detroit’s roster given his ability to guard 1-5 and his desire to lock down the opposing team’s top playmaker. That rare blend of talent and willingness to help out on defense has helped mold AT into the all-world defender that he’s turned into.
But bouncing back to the number of DPOM awards he’d like, Thompson provided a jovial look into why he’s such a determined player in an area that many players shy away from.
“I want like 70 of them, but I’m happy with two,” Thompson said. “That’s okay. There’s only five months you can get them.”
Once Thompson was named the top defender in the East before facing the T-Wolves, his twin brother, Amen, placed a phone call to congratulate his sibling on the impressive accomplishment that went answered.
So, what kept Ausar from answering the phone call?
He was busy resting up for another three block, two steal game against Minnesota so that he can potentially factor into the league’s All-Defensive teams when they’re announced later in the year.
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