Cavs: Reported Sindarius Thornwell signing could stick to help young guards

The Cleveland Cavaliers are filling out their roster for training camp, and the latest training camp signing that should be a candidate to make the regular season roster is reportedly Sindarius Thornwell, and I could see him warranting a regular season or two-way spot to help Cleveland’s young guards.

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to play young guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland a bunch of minutes together in the 2019-20 season.

Those two players, while neither being known for their defense, project as crucial parts of the Cavaliers’ full-rebuild, thanks to both being able to create offense for themselves currently, and I would imagine with quality coaching in coming years, they can improve as passers, too.

Just like seemingly everybody else, I want Sexton-Garland to resemble the Portland Trail Blazers’ star backcourt duo of Damian Lillard–CJ McCollum, but again, that’s a tough expectation to shoot for.

For the Cavaliers to be able to play both a considerable minutes-share in the coming years, though, it will be more suitable for them to have more competent defenders around those two young guards, and when they are staggered, that’ll be the case especially.

The latter is particularly the case to me, because when the two are playing together, it’s about the Cavs needing young players to have their chemistry grow with more minutes on the floor, and while the offense could have plenty of fireworks with Garland and Sexton playing with pieces such as Kevin Love, Cedi Osman, and Dylan Windler, the defense wouldn’t be prioritized, and even less in a rebuilding situation.

So in terms of a player that could be a buffer or 3 in minutes when Garland and Sexton aren’t sharing the floor together, reported signing Sindarius Thornwell could be a solid option in that realm.

Thornwell signed a one-year deal with Cleveland on Saturday, according to a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (and per Thornwell’s agent, Andy Shiffman).

As of now, the Cleveland Cavaliers have 13 roster spots filled and have one two-way spot open, and with them expected to bring 20 players to training camp next month, Thornwell, who is on a non-guaranteed deal, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, will be a player competing for realistically, the last open roster spot.

As Fedor noted, with Cleveland being “about $2.85 million” below the luxury tax threshold for the 2019-20 season, they likely won’t have a full 15-man roster at the outset of next season.

For now, the Cavaliers reportedly agreed to Exhibit 10 deals with both J.P. Macura and Marques Bolden, and Thornwell marks the latest training camp invitee.

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He was released by L.A. this summer after them needing to clear cap space after acquiring stars Kawhi Leonard via free agency and trading for Paul George, as Fedor hit on.

As we’ve previously touched on here at KJG, Thornwell’s potential role with the Cavs, either as a two-way addition or as a normal bench contributor, would be as a highly-capable wing defender that could help either Sexton or Garland a bit on that end (with Cleveland feasibly trading a few of their expiring guards, too), and potentially enable them to stay more matchup-sound on more low-usage guards that operate more as off-ball cutters/floor-spacers.

The quick-footed 6-foot-5, 215-pound Thornwell is a player that, though his role was really decreased last year with the Los Angeles Clippers in his second season with them (just 4.9 minutes per game, per Basketball Reference), could be able to give Cleveland some productive rotational minutes playing against opposing primary playmakers.

He slides and mirrors opposing ball-handlers well, and as Clips Nation’s Sabreena Merchant highlighted, when put in last season as a defensive piece, consistently did great work preventing opponents from driving into the paint due to his quickness and was especially good at preventing good corner three-point looks (which Cleveland gave up way too often last year) thanks to his awareness and his listed 6-foot-9 wingspan (per NBA.com).

Along with that, in the 2017-18 season, when Thornwell played 15.8 minutes per game, as a defensive shooting guard, as Fear The Sword’s Chris Manning mentioned, Thornwell “was fourth in DRPM.”

Factored in with Kevin Porter Jr., too, Thornwell, though he is a non-scorer (just 8.4 points per-36 minutes for his career, per Basketball Reference), is a very alert defender both on and off the ball, good cutter and is a player that could line up at the 2 or 3 in rotational minutes, which could help Garland or Sexton, and with David Nwaba, Cleveland’s best perimeter defender last year, now on the Brooklyn Nets, this sort of signing either as the other two-way or as a rotational player, would make some sense going into the season.

Thornwell is 24, for the record, and him being on the roster next year or getting some minutes as a two-way player with Cleveland in a rebuilding situation could work out well for him.

As of now, the Cavs are reportedly expected to have the maximum of 20 players allowed in their training camp, per Fedor.