David Thorpe says that Marcus Thornton is a better scorer than Brandon Jennings
Wait…what?
In his Rookie Watch: Midseason Awards (Insider subscription required), Thorpe says that Thornton is the next best rookie scorer after Tyreke Evans.
There are a few obvious choices here, but I think Thornton is the most deserving simply because of what he’s done in difficult circumstances. Despite being pulled into and out of the rotation, playing for two coaches already and often getting paired with another rookie in the backcourt, he has been able to put up points and help drive the Hornets back into playoff contention.
Ultimately, I think Thornton will be an excellent scorer off the bench for a contending team. He has supreme confidence in his ability to get a bucket from anywhere.
Difficult circumstances? Thornton has played with Chris Paul and Darren Collison at point guard, maybe the best 1-2 punch at the position in the entire league in terms of setting up teammates for shots. Meanwhile, Brandon Jennings has been asked to run the Bucks offense, deal with the absence, arrival and disappearance of Michael Redd, and has helped Andrew Bogut develop into an All-Star caliber player, all while leading the Bucks in scoring.
Thornton’s has a higher points per shot (PPS), averaging 1.15 to Jennings’ 1.05, but Jennings is averaging almost seven more points per game while being the focus of the opponent’s defensive game plan. Jennings is just as good from long range and gets to the line twice as often. Sure, he’s struggled of late as teams have started to figure out how to stop him, but that’s just it — teams are trying to stop him. Is anyone game planning for Marcus Thornton?
This is a head-scratcher.
I don’t see why this is really surprising. Does anyone really think Jennings is an exceptional scorer? He’s reasonably effective from long range but he’s got one of the worst 2P% of anybody in the game. He hasn’t been able to figure out how to convert at the rim and he’s still trying to develop a midrange floater.
Thornton, on the other hand, was one of the best scorers in college basketball last year and hasn’t really had a chance to shine yet at the next level like Jennings.
Jennings has a very good floater. He beat the Heat the other night with it if I remember correctly. He averaged 22.1 points per game in November including a six-game run where he averaged 31.0 ppg.
And I didn’t say he was an exceptional scorer. I said he was a better scorer (at the NBA level) than Marcus Thornton. Thornton hasn’t taken as many shots, but he doesn’t have defenses game-planning for him, either.
Yeah, he had a very short stretch *IN NOVEMBER* when he was scoring like crazy. Since that 6 game stretch, what was his average? Go ahead, you can say it. It’s under 15.
And, contrary to what you might believe based on one shot the other night against the Heat, Jennings does not have a good midrange jumper. Statistically, he’s one of the least efficient 2 point field goal scorers in the league and that’s partly because he struggles at the rim due to his lack of size/strength, but it’s also partly due to his very strange shooting mechanics.
Marcus Thornton on the other hand has been a natural scorer since college. I’m guessing you didn’t follow him that much last year. He hasn’t had many chances yet to prove that will carry over into the NBA but in his past few starts he’s been nothing short of excellent.
Thornton is an excellent scorer. So, in order to be better than him, Jennings has to be exceptional. And he’s just not (yet).
Alright, I have to come clean here. I didn’t even know who Marcus Thornton was until you wrote this post. But I do know that BJ has shot like shit since late November and that’s not just a “slump”. That’s like… wow.
I get your schtick, Dr. E. I write a post and if you don’t 100% agree then you will make up some fault with it just to try to get under my skin. Then when I call you on it, you call me a whiner. It’s the same old, same old.
How many Bucks games have you watched this year? As a long-time fan, I’ve watched roughly three-quarters of them and Jennings is a good scorer, but teams have done a nice job of containing him as the Bucks don’t have a lot of other options offensively. Andrew Bogut is good, but they’re starting Charlie Bell, Carlos Delfino and Luc Mbah a Moute (or Ersan Ilyasova) most of the time. He is constantly being double teamed on the pick and roll and defenses are paying a lot of attention to him.
I said he has a nice floater, not midrange jumper. However, his midrange game is good when he’s open and he’s a decent finisher around the basket. The main reason his numbers aren’t higher is because opponents are keying on him.
His less than 15.0 ppg is still four or five points higher than Thornton’s average; besides, you can’t just drop a guy’s big games and say that’s proof that he’s not a good scorer.
Paulsen, quit whining!
As for Thornton’s average… he’s only started like 4 games this year! C’mon! Of the games he’s actually played 30+ minutes, he’s averaged like 20 points.
And the whole double team argument… I say quit whining again. Every great scorer gets double teamed. Thornton is gonna get double teamed if he keeps putting up numbers like this. If his FG% drops to the abominable lows that Jennings has, I’ll eat my own crap.