The Washington Wizards added another important piece in their quest to reach the playoffs this season, as President Ernie Grunfeld announced that the team has signed guard Marcus Thornton.
The team also waived guard Gary Neal.
Thornton is an undersized 2-guard, but is a good outside shooter with three-point range who will be expected to provide some scoring punch off the Wizards bench.
“Marcus brings experience and shooting to our backcourt and helps us fill a void caused by Gary’s injury with another veteran player,” said Grunfeld. “His skill set will allow him to fit right in to our system and give our offense another option.”
Thornton (6-4, 205) has appeared in 436 career regular season games (132 starts) over six-and-a-half seasons with New Orleans, Sacramento, Brooklyn, Boston, Phoenix and Houston. He has averaged 12.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists while shooting .426 from the field and .359 from three-point range.
The former 43rd overall selection in the 2009 NBA Draft has averaged double figures in scoring in five of his six full NBA seasons. He averaged 14.7 points over his first four NBA seasons and tallied a career-best 18.7 points per game in 2011-12 for Sacramento.
In 47 games (six starts) with the Rockets this season, Thornton averaged 10.0 points while shooting .338 from three-point range. He was waived by Houston on Feb. 26.
Neal, who was signed as a free agent on July 9, appeared in 40 games for Washington this season while averaging 9.8 points per contest. He missed 23 games due to injury, including the team’s last 14 games.
By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com and news services
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