The Importance of Being Buckets

Marcus Thornton is a good basketball player. This is a pretty easy observation to make, as anyone who has watched a Hornets game can probably extol the virtues of this guy. He's been averaging 26.2 points per game over the past 5 on 54% shooting (overall AND on threes) in a fairly brief 33 minutes per game. This level of efficiency culminated in last night's explosion of 30 points in 27 minutes. Save for a single garbage time three, ala J.R. Smith, he was absolutely perfect from beyond the arc.

In short, the guy is red hot right now. The obvious conclusion seems to be to start him in favor of Mo Pete. For one, Morris Peterson is a pretty awful basketball player, or simply looks that way next to Thornton. Secondly, every starter had a negative adjusted plus/minus. This may indicate a change is necessary.

I disagree with that notion.

I think Marcus Thornton has a chance to be a spark plug on an otherwise exceedingly thin Hornets bench. The fact is that he had ten times as many points as the next Hornets bench player while only playing four minutes more. Posey gives out great hugs, but he's not the guy you want running your secondary. By some miracle, they've found a backcourt tandem that could definitely run the show.

Collison is doing a pretty admirable job (turnovers and all) of leading this Hornets team through what would be a horrid season under normal circumstances. NOLA may only be one game over .500, but that's without the heart and soul of their team, Chris Paul. When CP3 comes back, he'll be able to ease his way back into starter's minutes because of Collison, and eventually, he'll reclaim the job. It's a pretty good situation to come into when you're recovering from injury, and from that point on, they can sort out this somewhat favorable situation. One All-Star and two potential All-Stars in your back court is nothing to sneeze at.

The Hornets are looking at a situation where they have an explosive scorer able to come off the bench and take over when their starters are resting, or they can take him off the bench as instant offense. In that sense, I see him fulfilling a sort of Ginobili or Terry role: integral part of the team, making starter's money, but just coming off the bench and filling up the stat sheet where it needs filling. When the Hornets bring Thornton off the bench, he already knows what he's supposed to do: score, score often, and put pressure on the other team so that his teammates can get open. He already is good at his job in the ruins of what used to be the Hornets. Imagine how valuable he'll be on the Hornets when they're ready to contend.

Beyond the ridiculous bucket-getting, it's worth noting that his game seems fairly polished already, and given that it's his rookie season, he's probably only going to get better.

Could he thrive in a starting role? I wouldn't doubt it. Shooting guards of his (potential) caliber are incredibly rare. However, he's done so well coming off the bench, and finding a player that can come off the bench and devastate the other team is even rarer. The Hornets are in a good place as far as the production possibilities of their backcourt. What remains to be seen is how it will all fit together.