How does Bruce Thornton fit into the future plans for the Houston Rockets, and how he sticks in the NBA.
With the 31st pick in the NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets selected Ohio State guard Bruce Thornton.
In four years at Ohio State, Thornton worked his way to becoming the most prolific scorer in the history of Ohio State basketball. He finished with 2,164 points, which was 68 points clear of second-place Dennis Hopson.
Thornton was as steady as it gets for four seasons at Ohio State. He averaged 15.9 points per game over four seasons and never had a year that was less than 10 points per game.
He is a career 48.6 percent field goal shooter and a career 38 percent three-point shooter. He averaged just four assists per game throughout his entire career and definitely positions himself as more of a scoring guard than a point guard.
As a four-year player and an undersized guard who was drafted in the second round, the comparison is uncanny. Thornton's comp across many platforms and many people is, yes, Jalen Brunson.
It took a couple of years for Brunson to prosper in the league, but he has proven that a ball-dominant, undersized scoring guard can not only prosper, but can lead a team to a Championship.
The Rockets aren't going to expect Thornton to make that type of impact in year one, but it's hard to be convinced that that definitely wasn't on the back of their mind when they made the selection.
The Rockets have a very young team with a ton of guards on the roster. They are led by future star Amen Thompson, but after him, they didn't get much production from their depth players.
Thornton's expectation in Houston right away will be to ease the burden when the second and third units are in the game and be able to not only handle the ball but also be a legitimate scoring threat coming off the bench.
As he develops, the hope would be that he can run alongside Thompson and Alperen Sengun at the point guard position, but not as a facilitator, but as a scorer.
Thornton consistently improved as a scoring threat throughout his time in Columbus and, most importantly, improved as a three-point shooter.
He will have a long leash to develop and will have time to take those next steps. Until then, he will be asked to come off the bench and provide some depth scoring for the Rockets as they try to work their way back to relevance in the West and in the NBA as a whole.
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