One of the more curious cases of playing time early in the 2015-16 season has involved the Houston Rockets and new addition Marcus Thornton.
On paper, Thornton seemed to be an ideal offseason addition. Under progressive GM Daryl Morey, the Rockets are known for a run-and-gun style that involves more three-point attempts than any other team in the league. There’s just one problem with that identity, though. Prior to this season, the Rockets had only one player — reserve guard Jason Terry, at 39 percent — who was actually an above-average shooter to take those shots.
Enter Thornton, who now entering his 7th NBA season, has averaged 12.7 points per game in his career on 36.3 percent shooting from behind the arc. Most importantly for the Rockets, his shooting continues to get better — after shooting 38 percent from deep in 2014-15, he’s at over 43 percent this season. That’s even with a staggeringly high 7.5 three-point attempts per game. To put it succintly, Thornton is locked in, and he’s now the team’s second-leading scorer after James Harden.
The 28-year-old swingman has given Houston everything it could reasonably hope for. In hindsight, that makes it all the more baffling that Thornton racked up two DNP-CDs in the first two games of the year, both losses in which the Rockets clearly struggled on the offensive end.
But when incumbent starting power forward Terrence Jones went down with an eye injury after Houston’s second game, head coach Kevin McHale opted to replace Jones by playing more “small ball”. That meant regular small forward Trevor Ariza slid over to the power forward spot, with Thornton taking Ariza’s usual role at small forward.
So far, so good. After a shocking 0-3 start, the Rockets have now won three consecutive games to even their mark at 3-3 — punctuated by a 116-110 win in Sacramento on Friday. With Dwight Howard in and out of the lineup as he recovers from a preseason back injury, Houston’s revival has been sparked by a resurgent offense that’s scored 115 points per night during the three-game streak.
It starts with spacing. With Ariza and Thornton bringing opposing defenders out to the three-point line, that’s giving all sorts of driving lanes for Harden — who had his best game of the year on Friday night, scoring 43 points (on 13-of-23 shooting) to go with 13 assists. Quite a few of those Harden assists went to Thornton, who scored 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds on 4-of-10 shooting from behind the arc.
In short, the Rockets’ early-season struggles turned around quickly upon Thornton’s promotion — and many of the team’s key players, including point guard Ty Lawson, have certainly taken notice.
“I think it’s working,” Lawson said of Thornton in the starting lineup, speaking to The Dream Shake. “He’s knocking down threes, spreading the court a little more, I think it’s working for us and we should keep going with it. We’re [3-1] with that starting lineup and we’re playing a lot better.”
Thornton signed with the Rockets on a minimum contract in the offseason, believing a year with the three-point-happy Rockets could go a long way toward reestablishing his value around the league. So far, so good. In 35 minutes per night, he’s averaging 16.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game on better than 43-percent shooting from behind the arc. Best yet for the Rockets, those numbers have coincided with a return to winning form for the team.
That’s quite a week for a player who, as of last Saturday, had still yet to even make his 2015-16 debut. For both Thornton and the Rockets, the goal is simply to keep that momentum rolling.
Keep this thang Rollin #Pursuit
— Marcus Thornton (@OfficialMT23) November 7, 2015
The Rockets return to action on Saturday night for a highly-anticipated playoff rematch with the rival Clippers at Staples Center. It’s the sixth game of the season for Los Angeles, and they’re undoubtedly hoping it goes a lot smoother than the last time they faced Houston in a sixth game.
Thornton wasn’t in Houston during that playoff run, but he’s there now. And if the Rockets are going to keep their streak going, Thornton’s perimeter stroke must continue to play a key role.
Ben DuBose is a veteran sports reporter who has followed the Houston Rockets and the NBA since Hakeem Olajuwon was Akeem Olajuwon. He writes for both SheridanHoops and ClutchFans, an independent Rockets blog. You can follow him on Twitter.