Amen & Ausar Thompson: Should the San Antonio Spurs roll the dice?

The San Antonio Spurs have finally made it to the halfway point of the NBA season having won 13 of their 42 games. This evening, the team will be facing the Golden State Warriors for the second time this season in what will undoubtedly be an unforgettable game back in the Alamodome.

While fans will likely be soaking in the momentous occasion regardless of the outcome, it should go without saying that the Spurs have hit many hurdles this season. Keldon Johnson had his worst stretch of games since earning a starting spot, having only shot 32% from three and recording a team-worst +/- of -13.4 in the month of November. And just as he's begun to turn the corner again, news broke that Devin Vassell would be undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

The Spurs currently sit in 14th place in the Western Conference and have the 4th worst record in the league, meaning the team may have a good shot at one of the 2023 NBA Draft's top prizes: Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson. For those paying attention, however, even if the Spurs were to end the season with the worst record in the league, they would only have a 27.4% chance at one of the top two picks. So, while we'd love to focus our analytical efforts solely on Wembanyama and Henderson, the reality is that we need to be paying attention to many, many more names in the draft.

We've neglected to go in-depth on some of the draft's top names up to this point purely because of how early it still is in the draft cycle and because of how quickly things can change. But that ends today, as we'll be doing a deep dive into two of the draft's most hyped names: Amen Thompson and his identical twin brother Ausar Thompson, both of whom are currently playing with the Overtime Elite's City Reapers.

Here, we're going to go over why both brothers have been frequently labeled as top-five-level prospects, their strengths and areas for improvement, and whether or not either brother would be a good fit with the Spurs.

A Brief background on Amen & Ausar Thompson

The Thompsons are Oakland, California natives whose older brother, Troy Thompson Jr., played two seasons of basketball at the City College of San Francisco followed by two seasons of D1 basketball at Prairie View A&M. He has sporadically played both in the G-League and overseas and, according to Amen and Ausar, is the only member of their immediate family to play sports in college or professionally.

Amen and Ausar moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in eighth grade to attend Pine Crest School, where they both posted some eye-popping stats. In their junior season in 2020-2021, they led the school to a 4A state championship. Amen posted 20.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 3 steals per game, while his brother Ausar put up 22.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.7 steals per game that season.

Rather than staying with Pine Crest School for their senior season, however, the twins opted to join the Overtime Elite program in its inaugural season. At the time, the Overtime Elite was only made up of three teams: Team Overtime, Team Elite, and Team OTE. While Jean Montero and current Spurs rookie Dominick Barlow both played for Team Overtime, Amen and Ausar played for Team OTE and Team Elite, respectively.

Since then, the Overtime Elite league has expanded to six teams and Teams Elite, Overtime, and OTE were renamed the City Reapers, Cold Hearts, and YNG Dreamerz. Amen (#1) and Ausar (#0) Thompson both now play for the City Reapers under Head Coach Dave Leitao.

Why are Amen & Ausar Thompson considered top prospects in 2023?

I'm going to be diving into the minutiae of each twin's strengths and areas for improvement up next, but generally speaking, their high draft stock is mostly predicated on their elite athleticism and how they leverage it to be productive in games. Amen and Ausar are debatably the two best athletes of the 2023 NBA Draft class--yes, even over Scoot Henderson and Victor Wembanyama--and they have some must-watch highlight reels as a result.

Since the beginning of this draft cycle, many outlets have named Amen Thompson as the early consensus #3 overall pick behind only Wembanyama and Henderson, while Ausar initially began a bit further down most boards. Even now, while Tankathon, CBS, and Bleacher Report all have Amen listed as the 3rd overall pick on their latest mock drafts, Ausar comes in at 6th, 6th, and 4th in those respective mock drafts.

I was originally very skeptical of both prospects for reasons I'll get into momentarily, but after watching several games more closely, it's abundantly clear that both twins are lottery-worthy players. But ultimately, if you're here, that probably means you're wondering which one is best-suited to be wearing a Spurs jersey next season, and to give a bit of a spoiler, I have one brother rated markedly higher than the other despite having little separation between them on my overall big board. After watching an extensive amount of film on both brothers, here's what I noticed.

The Thompson twins' strengths

As I alluded to earlier, the Thompson twins' most obvious strength is their athleticism--in nearly every sense of the word. They're lightning fast in the open court, have a Lonnie Walker-like float to their athleticism when they jump, and have an elite first, second, and third step when driving toward the basket from a standstill. Upon entry into the NBA, they'll be among the top athletes in the league.

Amen is often considered the slightly superior athlete, and while I don't necessarily disagree with that sentiment, the impact of their athleticism on the court will likely be nearly identical. They'll both be able to blow by most defenders in the league, easily finish above the rim on many occasions, and have the functional strength and lateral foot speed to keep up with most players on defense. Simply put, their athleticism alone gives them a massive upside because of how advanced it already is.

With that in mind, though, elite athleticism isn't enough to make players as highly touted as the Thompson twins are. Their ancillary skills that accompany their athleticism are what make them top-five-level prospects. Both Amen and Ausar are high-level playmakers, averaging 6 and 5 assists per game, respectively, and both can make difficult passes in transition and in the half-court. Amen appears to be the better live-dribble passer at the time of writing, but this could be more a result of role rather than sheer talent, which I'll speak more about later.

Being that both stand at roughly 6'7" with 6'11" wingspans, Amen and Ausar use their length to their advantage on both ends of the floor. They're both very good rebounders for their size, with Amen grabbing 6 per game and Ausar grabbing 7.7 per game. But they also use that length on defense, where Amen has earned 2.3 steals and just under 1 block per game, while Ausar averages 2.5 steals and 1.6 blocks (!!) per game. Generally speaking, both twins find ways to be productive outside of the 'points' column on stat sheets, which is important when factoring in some of their areas for improvement.

The Thompson twins' areas for improvement

The Thompson twins' most important area for improvement, and the one that rears its ugly head in nearly every scouting report you'll read on them, is their shooting. And contrary to popular opinion, I hold the belief that both players need quite a bit of work as scorers on all three levels. Both are hovering around the 70% mark from the free-throw line, with Amen sitting at 74% and Ausar sitting at 67%, which is approaching semi-okay efficiency, but they're also shooting 22% and 36% from beyond the arc, respectively. Ausar is quite clearly the better shooter at this point in their development, but both need to continue improving.

Perhaps even more concerningly, though, both brothers are also less efficient than one might assume around the rim. While their scoring efficiency in transition is certainly something to be excited about, that efficiency bloats their overall finishing numbers to the point that they appear far more impressive than they actually are in the half-court. Factoring out transition attempts, through Amen's first 10 games, he only made about 50% of his attempts at the rim, while Ausar made about 58% through his first 7 games. This Twitter thread from @drewgoodenssuit gives those numbers context quite well.

Outside of shooting and general scoring, if I were to pick one other area for improvement that both twins share, it's their ball handling. This is something that has widely been seen as one of their more positive attributes in scouting reports, and the high-level flashes they'll show (like in the tweet above) on occasion make me understand why. But in watching several full games, I've found that both brothers tend to stand a bit too high while they're maintaining a live dribble, making them prone to getting the ball ripped or poked away. On other occasions, they've lost their dribble without any defensive pressure at all.

This is something I'm far less concerned about compared to their shooting, but being that the Thompson twins' success as scorers at the next level is so predicated on them getting to the basket--particularly in half-court situations--watching how they continue to develop as ball handlers is crucial.

Differentiators between the Thompson twins & their fit with the Spurs

Amen and Ausar Thompson are almost always compared to one another rather than being evaluated independently of each other, and for understandable reasons. After all, they're identical twins that play on the same team, often sharing the floor together as well. But that makes it especially important to identify any differentiators between the two prospects if any exist. To reiterate a few that I've already glossed over, Ausar appears to be a better shooter at this point, while Amen is said to be a better playmaker and slightly better athlete.

But the twins' biggest differentiator at this point in their careers, without a shred of doubt, is their defense. Despite occasional lapses, I'm very comfortable with labeling Ausar a borderline-elite defensive prospect, as he has the athletic tools to defend four positions in the NBA, can switch on the perimeter, and is highly underrated as a weak-side rim protector. He'll need to work on remaining engaged and in a proper stance more consistently, but when he's operating at 100%, his instincts and feel for the game on that end of the floor are obvious.

While many seem to agree with that sentiment, where I diverge the most from the majority of current scouting reports is with Amen's defense, where I think he can stand to improve quite a bit. When away from the ball handler, he tends to get caught ball-watching, will sometimes lose his man and allow a wide-open shot, and frequently gambles for steals. While Amen has the same, if not slightly better athletic tools as his brother to succeed on that end of the floor, I would argue that his instincts and feel for the game on that end of the floor are questionable to the point that it's a bit worrisome.

While I'd hope that you're at least semi-curious about all the fine details we've just gone over, I'd wager that you're likely just as, if not far more interested in the big question: which brother would be best in a Spurs uniform?

I'm going to jump straight to the point before explaining myself a bit further: while the race for the next several spots after Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson is incredibly tight (and will likely remain that way for some time), I currently have Ausar Thompson rated as the 3rd best prospect in his class over his brother Amen. If the Spurs were to hold the 3rd overall pick on draft night, he is currently the selection I would make.

Ausar currently plays in more of an off-ball role for the City Reapers, while his brother Amen plays mostly as the team's lead guard that initiates the offense. This has led many evaluators to believe that Amen and Ausar will retain their current roles at the next level, but if you ask me, I think whether or not that actually happens is a bit more ambiguous than many are letting on. So, I'll propose this philosophical question: Are we sure Ausar Thompson can't be a lead guard in the NBA?

As you can see in the tweet above, Ausar is clearly a very capable playmaker, and even though he hasn't received as many reps as the team's primary ball handler, he is only averaging 1 less assist per game compared to his brother. There could be an argument made that some of Amen's passes have been more difficult--particularly those coming off the live dribble--and Amen will perhaps have an easier time transitioning to the NBA initially as a lead guard, but what Ausar brings on defense and away from the ball on offense are enough for me to overlook those trivial criticisms.

If I'm the Spurs and looking for a lead guard toward the top of this year's draft, I'm looking for a guard that can comfortably take on primary reps as a lead ball handler by operating in the pick-and-roll, making plays for others, and occasionally pulling up for some shots to keep defenders honest. But I'm also looking for a lead guard that could just as easily play off of other Spurs players like Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan and still remain effective on offense.

This is where Ausar's current role with the City Reapers comes into play. Being that he's having to play away from the ball more often than his brother, this has forced him to develop his jump shot a bit earlier, learn how to be effective as a cutter, and learn how to make quick decisions off the catch. This effectiveness away from the ball would allow guys like Sochan and Vassell to maintain a similar amount of ball-handling reps and allow the coaching staff to experiment with different lineups. This strikes me as the brand of "positionless" basketball that the Spurs have been trending toward.

It would be one thing for Amen or Ausar Thompson to come into the league, develop, and reach their individual ceiling at some point down the line. But it would be an entirely different thing for either of them to accomplish all of that while still contributing to winning basketball in a team context. If Amen Thompson has as much trouble playing away from the ball as I think he will early in his NBA career, then I don't see him contributing to winning basketball with the Spurs as they're currently constructed.

So, Spurs fans, keep a lookout for Ausar Thompson in the coming weeks and months. If he continues playing as he has been recently, he will almost surely be a top-five pick and may even have a significant chance to be selected before his brother.