We've had NBA players post on here or read the forum. So technically Brian Scalabrine is not closer to MJ than anyone on CF.
While I agree with that for Scalabrine, I have to disagree for Tate and Holiday. For no reason other than the fact that Ime wouldn't force me to play over more capable younger players. I'm less harmful than Tate and Holiday because I wouldn't see the floor. And if I ever do, I'd pass it the second I touch the ball.
He's not a high draft pick - he's a guy who might help us upgrade the Aaron Holiday minutes(he at least fights 10x harder than Holiday when he gets switched onto bigs). Struggling in Summer League is par for the course for guys like that. No one plays lock down defense in Summer League - it tends to be lot of fouls, lots of poor decisions leading to TOs. If you thought we were evaluating a future key rotational player...
It is definitely a win to get a low maintenance, no chemistry issue--- rotation player under team control for years. The Thornton pick is very solid. Thornton is better than Christopher and Washington because he actually knows how to play basketball. I like the fact that he doesn't turn the ball over - he isn't afraid of pressure and can hit open shots.
I think he will lose 5-10 pounds by the end of training camp just because he is in the NBA for the first time - but his conditioning is already good. He is known as a very hard worker and is very regimented, he is older than these other kids and in all honesty, he knows he can't get away with being out of shape if he wants to be in the league long term. He is just a very strong and somewhat bulky guy. It works well for him and helps off set his lack of speed - he gets separation as well with his strength and can switch inside well because of it. He has a very thin margin of error athletically - but he has shown that he knows how to maximize his strengths.
This photo is more flattering for his wingspan than what I saw on TV. He looks like an all-torso body, but those forearms are quite a bit longer than what you'd expect with that frame, which portends well if he can lose, say, 10lbs to increase his lateral quickness. There is some potential there to be very good defensively--stuff that Reed just doesn't have with his John Stockton, New Balance with high white socks, dad bod. In a sense, Marcus Smart might be his best possible mentor. I still don't think having an extreme strength build and a midrange game at that height will work in the NBA. Jalen Brunson is a 1/1,000,000 outlier, and you can't expect anyone else to go down that path. If I were Rockets coaches, I would focus on making this guy a 3-and-D in his first season--being relegated to only guarding the 1 and 2 positions--with room to expand ball handling and being a low-turnover floor general in future years.
It is very unlikely that he is ever going to be an overall really good defender because of some physical and athletic limitations. However, as a bench player on the perimeter, it matters less. Effort, knowing when to switch and strength can go a long way defensively. He will be match up specific - he is never going to be able to guard SGA, but he isn't going to be asked to for more than a few minutes.
If Houston is playing OKC, Cason Wallace is in the game for the Thunder, and halftime is around the corner, you could hand the ball to Thornton and know you wouldn't just turn it over in the backcourt. At least he would get you two or three organized possessions. As much as I like how Davison looked in last year's summer league, Thornton is a straight-up upgrade. Davison is the one who will have to make a marked improvement in his game, or Thornton may just take his spot. That's the only "math" here.
Again, I think it's worth resetting expectations here - we aren't looking for Thornton to play with/against starters regularly. He's here to be a slight upgrade to Holiday's 2nd string minutes at less money. Of course we would love it if he somehow turned into a lead scorer like Brunson but not every player they bring in is trying to solve THAT problem. Holiday is a decent scorer for 2nd units but struggles to defend against anyone because of his lack of strength - if Thornton pans out, he is basically Holiday type of scorer with a little more defensive fight/strength. Again he's not a game changer, but if he can win us even two more points when those 2nd units are playing(by any combination of scoring more/protecting the ball more/defending a bit better), it has the net effect of taking more pressure off our starters to have to play so many minutes....less minutes for our core rotation is less injury risk/more availability. It's not exciting but it's meaningful to the big picture. Basically Stone wants him to be 'Fred Van Vleet level' solid for 2nd units - find open guys, hit open shots, don't turn the ball over, give defensive effort - that's what this is. Holiday could hit open shots - he didn't do those other things quite as well.
I think Thornton takes Davisons spot immediately. He’s a significantly better shooter, I hope we get to see him take any of the little Davison minutes there may be. And I’m a fan of Davison nothing against him, just think Thornton is better
Just 10 minutes a game of bringing the ball up without turning it over, standing in the corner and hitting an occasional 3 and not getting cooked on defense will be a huge bonus for the team. I know his summer league performances make us want more but just having a brain and being a PG gives you a massive boost in summer league that you can't expect to have in the actual league. I was there yesterday and in 2 games I watched, veteran PGs who probably have no hope in the NBA, Scott Pedulla and John Tonje on the clippers and Celtics respectively looked really really good just because they could out maneuver the other kids out there.
True but the BBIQ required of a PG is a lot higher than that of a center. Meanwhile Dorsey was more way athletic, which was part of his appeal despite being an undersized center. In the end both lack the traditional metrics expected out of the position but has the college production and advanced stats. The reasoning for drafting these players are similar. But after skimming Morey's draft history I do admit there are actually a lot better comps. Morey drafted Jermaine Taylor, Isiaiah Cannan, Nick Johnson, And De"Anthony Melton which do fit better. The fact that of those players, only Melton did something in the NBA say something about this archetype. Meanwhile, Morey got a lot more hits drafting bigger players, with Landry, Budinger, Parsons, Llull (would've been a hit if he came to the NBA), Harrell, Hartenstein as notable rotation players coming out of the 2nd round. So the undersized guard route just looks to be very unsafe in general.
Nice - I want to go next year. Any hot tips for attending? Was literally in Las Vegas earlier in the week coming back from Zion but because we don't have a first rounder this year I didn't even think about Summer League until I got home and realized it had already snuck up on us.
