Twin brothers Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson were nominated for Defensive Player of the Month

Brandon Rahbar: Alperen Sengun. Amen Thompson and Dillon Brooks are OUT tonight vs OKC. Thunder fan favorite Steven Adams will be available for the Rockets. -via Twitter @BrandonRahbar / March 3, 2025

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said he has “no hard feelings” toward Amen Thompson after the Houston Rockets forward was ejected for pulling him down from behind by his head and neck Tuesday night. The Bucks were down by two with about 4½ minutes left when Thompson committed the foul as Antetokounmpo went up for a shot in the lane. The play was reviewed and determined to be a flagrant foul 2, and Thompson was ejected. -via ESPN / February 26, 2025

“At the end of the day like you don’t wanna to have a league that’s soft,” Antetokounmpo said when asked about the play. “I love guys that play hard. I love guys that they’re great competitors.” “I’m one of those guys. Sometimes your competitive nature gets in the way (of) making the best decision, the best judgment at the time. And I feel like he wanted to make it a hard foul, but he grabbed my neck. But there’s no hard feelings.” -via ESPN / February 26, 2025

Ausar Thompson: Yeah, definitely. I would definitely participate in it. I would just need to practice some dunks over the summer. I think I could do some cool stuff. I haven’t worked on a dunk in like three years. But once I get that back down, I’m ready. I think Mac McClung is ridiculous when it comes to dunking. People were talking about the car dunk. I think his second dunk: He acted like he was about to reverse it and 360. I think that dunk was crazy. Nobody is talking about that one quite as much. I think Stephon Castle was going off in it. He honestly surprised me. I swear I don’t remember him jumping like this. He was dunking on people. -via For The Win / February 18, 2025

Ausar Thompson: I think I’m the best perimeter defender in the league. That’s what I believe. I don’t think I’m a near and finished product, though. I think I can get over screens better. I think I can be locked in at all times better. I want to be NBA Defensive Player of the Year. But it’s so hard with Wemby because he is going to get four blocks every game. It’s something that I think is possible though. -via For The Win / February 18, 2025

Do you like Jalen Williams’ idea to have a perimeter DPOY and big DPOY? Ausar Thompson: I don’t like it. I like the idea of it, but I’m kind of an OG guy. I like how the awards are. But I wouldn’t be mad. I just think they need to factor in how much a perimeter defender really runs around. Because if they did that, I don’t think they would need to have two different awards. I think perimeter players would get more awards because guarding the best perimeter player is a very tiring task. Actually, you know what? Now that I’ve said all that, I actually do like the idea. If perimeter players aren’t going to get the award anyway, they might as well do this. -via For The Win / February 18, 2025