NBA Draft: Is the shooting of Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson this year's biggest swing skill?

Can you teach touch? It is a question that dives a little bit deeper into the aspect of shooting. Sure, it has been seen when a player enters the NBA and he improves his shooting. However, within that, the majority of those players had a base level of touch, and they were able to improve their mechanics (footwork, core, balance, release, hand placement, etc.). For me, this is an interesting question leading into the draft because two of the 2023 NBA Draft’s most polarizing prospects, twins Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson, are noted as poor shooters.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will walk to the podium and announce 30 names on Thursday night for the first round of the 77th annual NBA Draft. The conversation leading into this year’s draft has been one that has been very interesting. The player at the top, Victor Wembanyama, has had people talking about the 2023 draft for years. Phrases like ‘best prospect since LeBron’ and ‘generational talent’ have regularly been thrown around. He has brought star power to the 2023 NBA Draft.

Wembanyama is the 7-foot-3 French National who is listed at 230 pounds with an 8-foot-0 wing span. He will step on the court as the longest player and one of the tallest in the entire league. His 21.6 points per game led the French League this season. The 19-year-old also led the league in rebounds (10.4) and blocks (3.0). The San Antonio Spurs won the draft lottery and will almost assuredly be drafting Wembanyama at No. 1. 

However, the 2023 NBA Draft has also started to become known for the sub-standard depth of talent in the lottery. There are very clear tiers of players at the top of this draft, with Wembanyama in a tier of his own, followed by the G-League Ignite point guard Scoot Henderson in a tier of his own. By most accounts, you have Alabama forward Brandon Miller and Villanova forward Cam Whitmore alone in the third tier.

After those four, it becomes a matter of preference for which role you want to serve best. Two of the more talked about players following the top tier, some even having them in that third tier, are twins Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson.

The Thompson twins

When the basketball season started back in October, Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson were both being talked about as top five players. As the season wore on, many saw a clear delineation between the two, keeping Amen in the back end of the top five and dropping Ausar to the back end of the top ten. 

Past the top four players, as you go through the NBA Draft Lottery, things can get jumbled up pretty quickly. You either have high-floor players like Jarace Walker and Cason Wallace or home-run swings like the Thompson twins. The consensus seems to be somewhat divided on many of the remaining parts of the lottery.

While there are more questions about them, the major swing skill with both Thompson twins is the shooting. They check all the boxes from a work ethic standpoint. By all accounts, the pair are two of the hardest workers ever in the Overtime Elite program. They are also all about business and the work, holding their teammates accountable in a vocal leadership role. They also possess incredible physical tools. 

Amen measured 6-foot-5.75 barefoot at the NBA Draft Combine. He also weighed 214.2 pounds and had a 7-foot-0 wing span. Ausar measured the same height and wingspan but weighed in at 218.2 pounds. The background checks out; the physical tools are all there. Even with these measurements, it does not tell the story of their physical burst you can clearly see on film. Amen measured a 40-inch max vert with Ausar at 38 inches. They both have jet-quick first steps, which they showed off often in the Overtime Elite League, especially in transition. 

The boxes quickly get checked off.

Real questions

We have all seen the horrific misses that the Thompson twins had during their play in the Overtime Elite League. The uncontested airballs and the straight-on pull-up shots that touched nothing but styrofoam. This brings up back to the initial question at hand, can you teach touch? 

I wanna like the Thompson twins but I need to know which NBA franchises can fix this #NBADraft pic.twitter.com/wiIu6ZnSXn

— ᗩᑎT ᗯᖇIGᕼT (@itsAntWright) May 19, 2023

Between preseason, playoffs, and the regular season, Amen Thompson played in 25 games for the Overtime Elite program last season. He shot 25.97 percent from three on 77 attempts (3.1 per game) and 67.4 percent from the free throw line in 126 attempts (5.0 per game).

In the same amount of games, Ausar Thompson shot 30.4 percent from three on 112 attempts (4.5 per game) and 67.6 percent from the free-throw line on 102 attempts (4.08 per game).

With the actual mechanics of shooting a three, there are a multitude of checkpoints coming together in concert as you release the ball. Starting with your footwork, and rising up through your base and core, getting into your shot pocket and hand placement on the ball, rising into your release point. Each aspect of the mechanics is different, but also each aspect can be re-tooled and worked on to be ironed out with tweaking and repetitions. Without getting too much into the weeds here, with work and improvement in these elements, players can go from below-average to above-average shooters.

And while the mechanics of a shot can be taught, can a person’s touch be learned? In years past, many have been able to look past three-point shooting percentage and look at their free-throw percentage as an indicator of potential shooting touch. Shooting from the free-throw line is a standstill movement. While it, like the jump shot, has multiple mechanics that come into concert before your shot, there are a lot fewer variables in play, with no defense, movement, and set ball placement leading into the attempt. People have thought you can teach the mechanics as long as the touch is in place.

Touch also plays into passing ability, making reads, and delivering on target and on time. However, we are just focusing on the shooting here.

Can you buy the Thompson’s shooting?

Can you buy the shooting with either Thompson twin? While you can build the mechanics around shooting touch, in its most natural sense, many believe that you either have touch or you do not. Both Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson are high-level athletes. They have great length and are wildly explosive in the open floor. That is clear to see anytime you fire up the film. They are relentless workers and ultimate competitors when looking into their background. However, what will they look like in the half-court? Will NBA defenders respect the jump shot enough not to go under ball screens, playing a step-off? Will they be able to execute the proper reads with an NBA scouting report designed against them? 

Many people within the mock draft community are buying the Thompson Twins. I had one NBA scout tell me point-blank, “They’re good, don’t overthink that one.” The 2023 NBA Draft will take place Thursday night. Undoubtedly, both Thompson twins will be taken as first-round draft picks and start their journeys as NBA players. From there, it will be interesting to track where their careers take them.