NBA Draft Combine update: Sindarius Thornwell and PJ Dozier

Day one of the combine is in the books and for two former South Carolina Gamecocks it was a chance to improve their draft stock among a crop that’s being touted as one of the best in recent history.

Both Sindarius Thornwell and PJ Dozier were among the select group of prospects who participated in the traditional combine drills and the 5-on-5 scrimmages during Thursday’s portion of the combine. As for how things went for the pair, it’s up for debate whether or not Thursday’s events helped their draft stock.

First and foremost, let’s look at how Thornwell and Dozier measured up against the other prospects who decided to be sized up.

Take the physical measurements with a grain of salt if you’d like. It’s true there are some players who can get past sub par height like Isaiah Thomas and Chris Paul, but generally those are outliers and not the norm.

There should be an asterisk next to Dozier’s name because he was only one of four true shooting guards who were measured out, but he was still easily the biggest true two-guards at the combine. It was no secret Dozier’s size was going to be an advantage — it was one of the main reasons he was a five-star prospect coming out of Spring Valley High School.

There’s no doubt these measurables helped his stock. NBA teams love big, long perimeter players and Dozier absolutely fits the mold of where the Association is headed in terms of ideal player frame. However, that’s where Thornwell falls short.

Thronwell’s frame is ideal for a point guard in today’s NBA, however he’s not fooling anyone as a floor general. Thornwell is listed as a shooting-guard/small forward hybrid and was significantly smaller than his constituents. Though it probably shouldn’t ding him, one would think some scouts will use Thornwell’s size against him in a draft room.

Then while Dozier opted out of doing the agility drills, Thornwell did participate in all of them except the shuttle run. Here were his numbers stacked up against the other two’s and three’s:

Once again, Thornwell ranks near the bottom of his position group in all of the speed drills. Anyone who’s followed Thornwell throughout his career at South Carolina knows speed and explosiveness aren’t his defining traits, so it didn’t come as a surprise to me at least when Thornwell tested slower.

However if you’re a Gamecock fan you’d have to worry if some scouts or executives will use these measurables against him in the war room. If anyone has any doubts on whether or not Thornwell can play, I would point them in the direction of the second round game against the Duke Blue Devils when Thornwell shut down fellow prospect Luke Kennard — but scouts seem to over think these things all the time.

Then came the five-on-five scrimmages, where Dozier and Thornwell played on separate teams in different games.

Both guys played decently enough coming off the bench for their respective teams. Decently enough as a matter of fact for both Dozier and Thornwell to strike up meetings with a couple of NBA teams. Check out these tweets:

The Philadelphia 76ers have picks 4, 36, 39 and 46. From the other mock drafts I’ve seen Dozier seems to fall somewhere between the late first and the early second round. After Thursday’s performance Dozier might be trending more towards late first, but the 76ers could snatch him at 36 to try and add more length to their perimeter with Ben Simmons and Dario Saric.

Interestingly enough the Miami Heat only have one pick in this year’s draft at 14, which seems really high for someone with Thornwell’s skill set. Thornwell has the same sort of range Dozier has from the mock drafts I’ve seen, but even 14 seems a little rich. But when it comes to Pat Riley, who knows what the Godfather has up his sleeve.

Dozier and Thornwell will be back in action this afternoon on ESPN2 again from 3-7 p.m. for more shooting drills and 5-on-5 action. We’ll have another update for y’all Saturday following today’s action. Until then, enjoy this video of Thornwell pumping some iron: