The NBA Combine has officially wrapped up, and the 2026 NBA Draft is 32 days away. It’s been three years since the Utah Jazz drafted Brice Sensabaugh with the 28th overall pick in the 2023 draft, and now Bruce Thornton, who was in the same recruiting class as Sensabaugh, is hoping to get drafted.
Thornton is projected as a mid-to-late second round pick, which means regardless of who takes him, he will likely wind up signing a two-way contract and spend some time in the NBA G League. His height will always count against him, but Thornton did shoot the ball pretty well at the NBA Combine last week, and it seems like he is being considered by some teams as a potential second round selection.
Last week, Connor and Justin debated whether Ohio State needs to try to add another high major home game to the 2026-27 schedule.
The Buckeyes are already going on the road to face Notre Dame and UConn, playing a neutral site game against Kansas, and another “neutral” site game against BYU, although that game will be played about 40 miles fro BYU’s campus, making it far less “neutral” than it seems. What’s missing is a fun non-conference home game to bring the fans out, but as of now, there’s not one on the schedule.
Connor said that it wouldn’t be smart to add a difficult non-conference game to that schedule on top of those four games and the 20 Big Ten games Ohio State is already playing. It’s already a tough schedule, and you don’t want to make it impossible to navigate — kind of like what happened two seasons ago.
Justin said that yes, Ohio State needs to find a way to get a home game on the schedule, and that Ohio State should have a ranked team playing at the Schott in the non-conference every season.
Back to Bruce – the NBA Draft is next month, and Thornton could be one of the very last players taken in the draft. We expect that he’ll end up signing with someone regardless, but will he become the first Buckeye to get drafted since Sensabaugh in 2023?
This week’s question: Will Bruce Thornton get selected in the 2026 NBA Draft?
Connor: No
Maybe I’m jaded from several Ohio State players who I thought would get drafted go undrafted (Duane Washington, Kaleb Wesson, etc.) and others going way lower than I thought they deserved (Keita Bates-Diop, E.J. Liddell, etc.), but I think Thornton might go undrafted next month.
But is going undrafted really that much worse than being selected between picks 50 and 60? If Thornton goes undrafted, he’ll be able to communicate directly with the teams he worked out with before the draft and sign with a team that he thinks gives him the best opportunity to carve out a role this season.
The biggest knocks on Thornton are things that he cannot change. He measured exactly 6-feet tall and 225 pounds, which is the furthest thing from a prototypical NBA point guard. He can’t change that, and his college production was off the charts, despite not being built like a pro guard.
However, for both offensive and defensive purposes, his height especially is a knock against him.
Thornton was also one of the slowest players at the NBA Combine, timing .08 seconds slower than Michigan’s Aday Mara in the lane agility drill. His time of 11.55 seconds was one of the 10 slowest times at the Combine.
This shouldn’t be a big surprise to Ohio State fans, as Thornton was more of a deliberate, “one play at a time” point guard rather than a quick, run and gun, make things happen in the open floor type of point guard. He also tested pretty low in standing reach and wingspan at the combine, finishing in the bottom 10 of each of those as well.
I don’t doubt Bruce’s resolve, and I think he will eventually work his way onto an NBA roster. But between the testing at the combine and his height, I’m skeptical that an NBA team is going to use a pick on him on draft night.
Justin: Yes
There is one reason why Bruce Thornton will be drafted: teams love a guy that can shoot the ball.
Thornton was an elite shooter for the entirety of his career in Columbus, shooting 40.0 percent from three-point range his senior season and 38.1 percent from three-point range for his career.
His worst three-point shooting season was his sophomore season, were he shot 33.3 percent from deep. The other three years were all over 37 percent, and his final two were above 40 percent.
Any team will take an efficient scorer and an elite shooter. Specifically, the Minnesota Timberwolves have the No. 59 pick, and that is somewhere I could really see Thornton landing and thriving.
They did just trade for Ayo Dosunmu and have Terrance Shannon Jr., but he could be a point guard that they take a flier on late in the draft with Mike Conley at the end of his career. Buckeye replaces Buckeye.
The one thing that could affect this is if Thornton decides to tell teams he wants to be an undrafted free agent. Austin Reaves famously did this to get to the Lakers, telling teams not to draft him late in the second round.
The reason this is an option is the money between late second round and undrafted is not that different, and as a UDFA you can pick the spot you want to go to. That can help you succeed more than a place that might not be a good situation for their growth as a player.
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