Evaluating Ausar and Amen Thompson as their rookie seasons come to close

Ausar and Amen Thompson will forever be tied together … obviously. The rookie twin brothers were back-to-back picks in the 2023 NBA Draft. They took identical routes getting to the NBA.

As much as they’re rooting for one another — and checking up on one another — brotherly competition always kicks in.

“I told him I was going to kill him,” Ausar, who the Detroit Pistons drafted, said of facing his brother for the first time last summer. “He’s sitting right there. He can hear it.”

Ausar and Amen’s rookie seasons are coming to a close, and it’s likely neither brother will be part of the postseason. However, both rookies have impressed in various ways throughout their inaugural NBA season and have left many excited about the future. Both have a lot to improve to reach their sky-high potential.

To talk about the rookie seasons of both Ausar and Amen, The Athletic’s Pistons (James L. Edwards III) and Houston Rockets (Kelly Iko) beat writers discuss what the Thompson twins have shown to date, what they have to improve and more.

Kelly Iko: The regular season will be ending in a little over a month and with that, the Thompson twins’ rookie campaigns will be over. It feels like just yesterday that we sat beside each other in Brooklyn, NY, watching these two talents get selected one after the other. But with the weeks winding down, what is one thing about Ausar that has stood out to you, especially with the type of season the Pistons are having? We’ll get to the on-court aspect at some point, but I want to start with the human aspect of being a teenager in today’s fast-paced game.

James Edwards III: He’s a smart kid who cares about very little other than basketball and family. He thinks before he speaks — he’ll stop himself from talking mid-sentence, even if it is awkward, if he doesn’t want to say something. Ausar carries himself like a professional.

Just to give you an idea of how much Ausar is obsessed with basketball, after every game, you can find him at his locker, on his phone, watching the game he just played. He’ll watch specific clips or most of the game. This is every single day. Even if it means he won’t shower for an hour after the game ends. Ausar is going to watch film on his phone.

What about Amen?

Iko: I thought this was an anomaly the first time I saw Amen watching basketball clips after a game, but these two might be conjoined, to be honest with you. When you think of young players, you think about them hopping on social media after the game to check the pulse. Amen consumes the game like few players I’ve seen before. And he just turned 21 not too long ago.

But aside from that, Amen’s poise and his honesty are interesting to me. This is someone who wants to make sure he understands exactly what is going on and thinks about the game at a cerebral level, even while knowing his limitations. He’s an even-keeled individual which is a critical skill to have as a young player in a league that…