4:20pm: Thornwell will get a three-year, $3.8MM deal, according to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders, who adds that the first two years are fully guaranteed (Twitter link).
The fact that it’s a three-year pact means that the Clips used their mid-level exception, leaving a very small portion of that MLE available. Assuming Thornwell signed for the minimum, the exact value of the deal over three years will be $3,812,377.
4:05pm: The Clippers have signed rookie shooting guard Sindarius Thornwell, the team announced today (via Twitter). Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but there’s no mention of it being a two-way contract, so Thornwell appears to have received a spot on the NBA roster.
[RELATED: 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings]
The 48th overall pick in this year’s draft, Thornwell was the SEC Player of the Year in 2016/17 for South Carolina, averaging 21.4 PPG to go along with 7.2 RPG and 2.1 SPG. He also upped his shooting percentages to .445/.395/.830, all career-bests.
The Clippers entered this year’s draft without any picks, but used cash to buy a pair of second-rounders and inject some youth into their roster. In addition to trading for Thornwell’s rights, Los Angeles also drafted and signed Jawun Evans with the 39th overall pick.
Evans received a portion of the Clippers’ mid-level exception, as did Euroleague point guard Milos Teodosic, but the club still has about $1.6MM of that MLE left. It appears likely that L.A. will use another chunk of that MLE to finalize Thornwell’s deal — a report last week from The State indicated that the rookie guard would sign a three-year contract, which is more than he could get with the minimum salary exception.