LAS VEGAS — The Houston Rockets came to the Las Vegas Summer League hoping to find an answer to one simple question: Is Bruce Thornton ready?
While most of the headlines at this year’s summer league were about the incredible class of 19-year-old rookies entering the league, Houston’s attention was devoted to a first-year player who will turn 23 years old on Opening Night.
During last month’s NBA Draft, the Rockets traded up from No. 39 to No. 31 to acquire Thornton, who played four seasons at Ohio State and left as the school’s all-time leading scorer, with the first pick of the second round.
Given their consecutive 52-win seasons with a relatively young nucleus, the Rockets didn’t need to target another developmental project at the end of the bench. In this year’s draft, there were a ton of high-potential, four-year college players available after the first round. Although the Rockets will be adding two crucial veteran pieces to the backcourt with Fred VanVleet returning from a torn ACL and Marcus Smart joining the team on a two-year, $13 million deal, Thornton could add even more juice on the perimeter and fill a specific role.
Thornton lived up to all the internal expectations almost immediately, dropping 27 points in his summer-league debut, while displaying the skill to score at all three levels.
In five summer-league games, Thornton averaged 18.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.6 steals while shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from 3-point distance. He led Houston to the semifinals of the Las Vegas tournament, where the Rockets lost to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.
Thornton’s numbers would’ve been even more impressive if he didn’t struggle through a brutal 2-of-12 shooting performance in his final outing against Memphis. Despite his lack of scoring, he still contributed eight rebounds and seven assists.
“He’s amazing. … He was making all the right plays for us,” Rockets summer-league coach Will Dunn said of Thornton. “He made some huge, huge plays offensively for our group. Defensively, he was solid. Pressuring the ball. Helping his teammates. Being a leader out there.”
Thornton showed he has the poise, shotmaking and defensive versatility to be a first-year NBA contributor. But will he do it with this Rockets team?
It won’t be easy battling with Smart and third-year guard Reed Sheppard for backup point guard minutes. Rockets coach Ime Udoka also has a reputation for bringing younger players along slowly as they adjust to his defensive demands.
This will be where Thornton has the most to prove. Although he’s got a 223-pound frame that will make it easier for him to defend bigger perimeter players, he still has to make the right reads at the right times, especially for a Rockets defense that tends to be very switch-heavy.
Josh Okogie, Aaron Holiday and JD Davison played a combined 2,353 minutes last season, and while a big chunk of those minutes will go to Sheppard and Smart, there will be opportunities for Thornton to show what he can do.
If Houston can find one more reliable contributor on the bench, it’ll be a huge win for a team that needs all the young, cost-controlled assets it can find on a roster that’s going to be really expensive in the near future once Amen Thompson gets his extension.
Although Thornton looked impressive in Las Vegas, no one should expect him to be a Rookie of the Year contender. But if Udoka trusts him enough to give him some extended run, it’ll provide Houston much-needed lineup flexibility with the two-guard or even three-guard groupings they can throw out.
With VanVleet, Smart and Thornton all being bigger, bulkier guards, it should help Houston fight against some of the mismatch hunting teams do against those guard-heavy units.
There’s a lot of work ahead, but all signs point to Thornton being a steal for Houston with the 31st pick.
What’s going on with the two-way guys?
Houston has only two players signed to two-way deals: rookie forward Quadir Copeland and second-year guard Tristen Newton.
Both had some impressive moments during Houston’s five-game run in Las Vegas, but Copeland stood out for his attitude as much as anything he did on the floor.
Copeland caught my attention from the moment he stepped on the floor because he brought so much energy with his constant trash-talking and his willingness to take on different matchups defensively. That’s the kind of stuff that would make him a perfect fit with the culture Udoka is building in Houston.
Dunn told reporters that he pulled Copeland aside before the team’s first day of practice ahead of their trip to Las Vegas and presented the undrafted rookie out of NC State with a specific challenge. Dunn explained to Copeland that he loves his aggression and how much that infectious energy rubs off on his teammates. The key was to ensure that energy remained positive, even when things weren’t going well for him or the team.
“I told him, basically, we have a lot of dudes who play really, really hard, but you’re the only one in our main group here who has that kind of edge to him,” Dunn said. “He brings that juice. He’s talking trash. He’s getting in scraps and altercations out there. That’s a little bit of our Houston Rockets identity.”
Copeland was thrilled to hear his coach embrace the way he approaches the game.
“It was amazing,” the 6-foot-6 guard said. “The way I am, you can’t really put me on a leash or try to hold me back because my intensity just gets to a certain level. I’m trying to raise everybody up. Hearing him come up to me and tell me, ‘I want you to be Q,’ that’s all I needed to hear.”
Although Copeland averaged only 11.8 points during his time in Las Vegas, he racked up 13 steals in five games and knocked down six of his 11 3-point attempts. Copeland’s development will be centered around making him the next 3-and-D experiment for a Rockets franchise that’s repeatedly found success stories with players fitting that archetype.
It’ll be interesting to see how much Copeland’s defense can improve in the G League once he’s tasked with guarding different types of players on the perimeter. And it may sound trivial, but for a team that dealt with a whole bunch of weird vibes in the locker room last year, it won’t hurt to have a guy like Copeland around who can bring some energy and intensity, even if he is a rookie on a two-way deal.
Newton, who has only nine games of regular-season experience during his two years in the NBA, shot the ball with confidence during summer league and had some impressive moments creating 3-point looks off the dribble.
However, the 6-foot-5 guard from UConn also got outmuscled at times while trying to defend bigger players. His lack of switchability will make it tough for him on a Houston team that relies so much on switch-heavy schemes.
Having a second full season to learn under Udoka and find his role within the team will be a big opportunity for Newton. He may be able to stick around. But don’t be surprised if Rockets general manager Rafael Stone still has a few more moves up his sleeve to bring in more young talent with those two-way roster spots.
Davison and Isaiah Crawford both played some important minutes for Houston during the final few months of last season as Udoka looked for answers on his bench. Davison even earned a standard contract after he temporarily carved out a spot in the rotation.
The smart teams are always finding interesting ways to take advantage of those two-way spots.
