6:52pm: Thornwell’s new contract will be non-guaranteed, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
6:09pm: The Cavaliers will sign Sindarius Thornwell to a one-year contract, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The agreement was confirmed by Thornwell’s agent, Andy Shiffman of Priority Sports.
The 24-year-old shooting guard spent his first two NBA seasons with the Clippers after being taken with the 48th pick in the 2017 draft. Thornwell played 15.8 minutes in 73 games as a rookie, but those numbers dropped to 4.9 minutes in 64 games last season. He averaged 2.5 PPG during his time in L.A.
He became a free agent when the Clippers waived him last month before his $1,618,520 salary for next season would have become fully guaranteed on July 20.
The signing will bring Cleveland to 14 players officially under contract, along with one two-way player, plus the expected additions of Marques Bolden and J.P. Macura. Teams can bring 20 players into training camp.
Cavs strike finally!
YES. Fun fact: Thornwell led South Carolina to the NCAA final 4.
Thornwell had an insane year as a senior, 30PER, +33net, SEC POY. He had a decent rookie year, then fell off last year in that crowded Clipper backcourt.
The Cavs do not need another guard though. This has to make Windler a forward.
I doubt the Cavs’ plans will be influenced by a guy on a non-guaranteed deal. I’m intrigued by what Thornwell can do with more regular time (you’re right about him killing it in the tournament at South Carolina), but it doesn’t seem like a lot of other teams must have been intrigued or else he probably would have been signed already.
Either way though, I think Windler will probably be a bench scorer, and I think he’s more of a 2/3 combo than strictly either a guard or a forward.
Well he got surpassed by SGA and Shamet and slumped. But that’s not a great demerit.
The opening is at the 3 though for Windler. Osman has to stop getting beat by the refs!