Tag: JT Thor

JT Thor scores 28 as Hornets fall short in summer league finale

Charlotte closes out their time in Vegas with a 2-3 record.

The Charlotte Hornets fell short in their final summer league matchup, losing 89-86 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Charlotte was led by second-year player JT Thor, who finished with a game-high 28 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 5 steals on 9-of-14 shooting from the field.

Last Sunday, Thor his the game-winning sudden death shot to defeat the Lakers in double overtime.

2022 first-round pick Mark Williams finished with 8 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block in 20 minutes of action.

LiAngelo Ball did not make an appearance in Saturday’s summer league finale.

The Hornets’ time in Las Vegas showed promising big man depth in Williams and 2021 first-round pick Kai Jones along with the play of 2022 second-round pick Bryce McGowens.

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WATCH: JT Thor makes game-winner to beat Lakers

JT Thor is still dangerous from 3.

[autotag]JT Thor[/autotag] was the hero for the Charlotte Hornets in their game against the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday night.

Thor hit a walk-off three-pointer in double overtime to beat the Lakers 89-86 in the Summer League matchup.

The Lakers got the ball first in the second overtime with a chance to end the game but were unable to score. The Hornets then turned to Thor, who was 1-of-5 from 3 and 2-of-12 overall with the game on the line and he delivered. He nailed a corner 3 to give the Hornets the victory.

He finished the night with 12 points and three rebounds in 29 minutes of action. Thor, a 6-foot-9, 203-pound power forward, is looking to establish himself in the NBA after playing in 33 games for the Hornets in his rookie season.

The former No. 37 overall pick averaged 2.0 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 7.9 minutes per game.

The 6-foot-9, 203-pound power forward played at Auburn during the 2020 season and averaged 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in 27 games.

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Hornets’ JT Thor taking advantage of newfound role amid injuries

Thor explained how he is taking advantage of a newfound opportunity given the current injury situation facing the Hornets.

JT Thor on Thursday explained how he is taking advantage of a newfound opportunity given the current injury situation facing the Charlotte Hornets.

The Hornets currently have five players in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, including LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier and Mason Plumlee. With those players out of the lineup, the Hornets have relied on Thor extensively recently.

Thor logged just two appearances all season prior to this week but has played in each of the Hornets’ last three games, averaging 4.3 points and two rebounds in 15.8 minutes. He has given the team a spark off the bench and helped make an impact on defense.

He can see progress being made every time he steps onto the court.

I feel like it’s just building blocks now from the first game to the second game to the third game now. It feels like I can just keep adding onto it each game. I feel like just showing my effort out there defensively. I feel like I can impact that now and just being able to use most of my opportunities with the guys who are out with COVID and just doing what I can for us to try to win.

The recent stretch allowed Thor to register his first career points, and the 37th pick got on the board in a big way. On Monday, Thor rotated toward the basket, caught the pass from Gordon Hayward and threw it down over Andre Drummond.

Thor will continue to see an uptick in playing time with those players out as the Hornets play shorthanded. The situation is certainly not ideal but it will allow the team to get an extended look at Thor and what he can bring to the lineup on a nightly basis.

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WATCH: JT Thor has incredible dunk

JT Thor is a monster.

JT Thor has already had several explosive plays during his professional career.

Monday night with Charlotte Hornets, he slammed the ball through the rim with authority.

The Hornets ended up losing to the Philidelphia 76ers 127-124. Thor played 20 minutes and had a +/- of +7. He was 3 0f 5 shooting, made a three-point shot, and scored eight points.

He’s averaging two points per game this season.

The former Auburn forward was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the 37th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

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Former Auburn Tiger JT Thor has strong night in NBA G League debut

Here’s more Auburn basketball news.

JT Thor showed the NBA what he’s capable of Friday night.

Thor made his NBA G League debut for the Greensboro Swarm last night and had quite the showing against another former Auburn Tiger.

He scored 34 points off of 14-22 shooting. He also added 12 rebounds.

Despite Thor’s great effort, the Swarm fell to the Birmingham Squadron 128-117. The Squadron were led by former Auburn guard Jared Harper’s 35 points.

Thor was drafted with the 37th overall pick in the second round of the 2021 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. The former Tiger knew he would need to be developed to be an NBA player but he really showed out in his debut.

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Hornets season preview: Is LaMelo Ball ready to become an All-Star?

The Charlotte Hornets are a team that can potentially exceed expectations, especially if LaMelo Ball is able to further improve his game.

The Charlotte Hornets are a team that can potentially exceed expectations, especially if LaMelo Ball is able to further improve his game.

Ball is one of the most exciting young players in basketball and the sky is the limit when it comes to his career. But there are still some questions about if that will translate to winning for the Hornets. For example, will he have enough talent around him to make a splash in the postseason?

Below, check out our preview for the 2021-22 Hornets campaign.

WATCH: JT Thor throws down high-flying dunk in summer league

Check out the tomahawk slam from Thor in last night’s contest.

Though the Charlotte Hornets struggled to win a game at Las Vegas Summer League, their young players showed some promise.

That includes JT Thor, who the Hornets drafted with the No. 37 pick in the second-round.

In Monday’s loss to the Chicago Bulls, Thor finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds, 1 steal, and 2 blocks on 5-of-13 shooting.

About four minutes into the fourth quarter, Thor caught the ball at the top of the key, crossed over, and drove the open lane for a high-flying tomahawk slam.

Check out the highlight below.

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A roundup of NBA sleepers draft analysts are higher on than others

Who owns the most real estate on Davion Mitchell Island? Who is buying stock in Sharife Cooper?

Everyone loves Cade Cunningham. It’s not a hot take for an analyst to say that Cunningham is their favorite player in the class. That’s not particularly interesting to read, either.

But what is fascinating, however, is when an analyst deviates from the norm and ranks someone significantly higher than where the prospect falls in other rankings. What does that tell us about their individual scouting process and what they value? Further, what does that tell us about the potential draftee?

Some folks call it “buying stock” in a player. Others, like ESPN’s Zach Lowe or The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, call it owning real estate on a player’s island. I like to refer to it as a “draft crush” when I wind up higher than consensus in my evaluation of a player.

My process is ridiculously tedious but the results can be fairly useful. I’ve tracked the evolution of more than sixty unique mock drafts, big boards and draft models from trusted analysts and popular accounts on Twitter.

Each placement is assigned a value based on Kevin Pelton’s draft pick trade value chart. I do this because, as Pelton notes, the difference in relative value between the No. 5 overall pick and the No. 7 overall is much more stark than, say, that of the No. 45 pick and the No. 47 pick.

After composing an aggregate score based on each ranking, I can see where each analyst strays from the pack.

I’ll leave the conclusions drawn from these results up to the reader. But if nothing else, this can eventually be used as a bragging point if one writer was higher than consensus on a draftee who eventually ends up outperforming his draft position.

Final 2021 NBA Mock Draft: Latest intel, trade rumors and predicting all 60 picks

Wasn’t it just the 2020 NBA draft? How is the 2021 NBA draft already here? Crazy, maybe, but the league is about to have a ton of new faces.

Wasn’t it just the 2020 NBA draft? How is the 2021 NBA draft already here? Crazy, maybe, but the league is about to have a ton of new faces.

The names that you’re most likely to hear at the top are Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and Evan Mobley. But the draft will start heating up once guys like Jalen Suggs, Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Kuminga start to find their new homes.

This draft will also be unique in that there will be fewer players in attendance than usual. According to one prospect who recently spoke to For The Win, due to COVID-19 restrictions, those not invited to the green room are not allowed to come to the stage and shake the hand of the commissioner as they have been in years past.

Regardless of who is actually in the building, however, it is certain to be an exciting and life-changing night for the next generation of NBA talent.

Based on conversations I’ve had with scouts around the league, and from reports and tea leaves left in other mock drafts from trusted draftniks, below is how I project the events will unfold at Barclays Center and on ESPN and ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET on July 29.

2021 aggregate NBA mock draft 7.0: Ranking the full class of prospects

The 2021 NBA draft is less than a week away and we finally have an idea of who is in — and who has withdrawn — from the class.

The 2021 NBA draft is less than a week away and we finally have an idea of who is in – and who has withdrawn – from the class.

In order to get a better sense of where all of the prospects stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo, The Athletic, The Ringer, Yahoo, NBA Big Board and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win to see where the prospects rank at the moment.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Since our previous update last month, some of the players with the most positive momentum include Quentin Grimes, Joe Wieskamp, Vrenz Bleijenbergh, Aaron Wiggins, Justin Champagnie, Jericho Sims, Jason Preston, Josh Primo, Neemias Queta, Trey Murphy and Bones Hyland.

Among players who ranked on our previous update who have since withdrawn from the draft include Roko Prkacin (32), Marcus Bagley (39), Terrence Shannon (48), Ariel Hukporti (50), Max Abmas (53), Johnny Juzang (54), Jordan Hall (66), Carlos Alocen (69) and Ochai Agbaji (75).

The most notable omissions who remain in this class but not these rankings are Yves Pons, Scottie Lewis, Jay Huff, Marcus Zegarowski, Aamir Simms, Dalano Banton, Matt Mitchell, Jose Alvarado, Carlik Jones, Derrick Alston Jr., Romeo Weems, Balsa Koprivica, Chaundee Brown, Isaiah Miller, Jordan Schakel and D.J. Carton.

Note that for the offensive roles, we borrowed a fun idea from Todd Whitehead (formerly of Nylon Calculus) with help from our friends at Bball-Index.com to create a slightly tweaked formula from the version they use.

The goal of that is not to explain how well a player scores but rather offer context for the way that he was used on his most recent team. This should help you predict how he might be used at the next level.

Meanwhile, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report