Sindarius

Thornwell

Once this second 10-day deal expires the Pelicans will need to decide if they want to sign him for the remainder of the season, but he’s a complete non-factor in fantasy hoops.

The Pelicans just waived him a couple days ago for financial reasons but now he’s back as an emergency depth piece.

This was a cost-saving move by New Orleans, but Thornwell should be able to snag another deal elsewhere. He’s a non-factor in fantasy hoops, though.

Thornwell got a spot start on Wednesday, but he was scoreless with one rebound and one steal in 19 minutes. Evidently that did not compel coach Stan Van Gundy to play him more.

Now we know why he was unavailable for Saturday’s game, but he’s a non-factor in the rotation, anyway.

Teams can only have 15 active players on any given night, and Thornwell drew the “short straw” for Saturday’s game. He isn’t a worthwhile fantasy option when active, so this isn’t a big deal in that regard.

Thornwell had a couple good games in the Orlando bubble as a “substitute player.” The Pelicans rewarded that effort with this deal but he has little to no chance of cracking the rotation to open the season. He can be ignored in fantasy leagues.

The Pelicans are adding Thornwell as emergency depth as they are not expecting Darius Miller (Achilles) to be ready in time for Orlando. Thornwell has 137 NBA games under his belt for the Clippers but hasn’t made much noise yet with career averages of 2.5 points on 41.5% shooting. Don’t expect to see him much.

It wasn’t the best showing from Nance, who also bricked both of his free throws, but none of the Cavs’ main rotation players had a great game in the blowout loss. Collin Sexton went 1-of-8 from the field on his way to four points, three assists, two rebounds and seven turnovers in his 24 minutes of floor time, and Sindarius Thornwell was the only Cleveland player to crack double digits in the scoring department with 12 points over 16 minutes.

Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com reports that Thornwell’s deal is non-guaranteed. He appeared in quite a few games in his first two years in the league, but made no fantasy impact. The Cavs don’t have a ton of wing players, so it’s possible Thornwell works his way into the rotation after a strong training camp.