Why did you all trade Al Thornton

[Rocketsftw]

His name isn't well known but it seems like the Clippers basically gave him away for free in the Wizards deal. I originally thought they traded him to get out from Telfair's contract but I looked at Sebastion's contract and it didn't seem that bad since most of the years left on it were almost up.

Was this a luxury tax type situation? I still don't understand as I thought Thornton was the perfect sixth man who could start if needed.

[donemilio21]

Clippers sent away Telfair and Thornton to open up more cap space in order to make a pitch to Lebron.

[mattfish]

I'm not sure why we traded him, but I'm glad we did. He was decent at scoring, but was deficient at almost everything else. The main problem I think was his lack of passing IQ. Every time he touched the ball, he had to shoot it, even if it was a crazy turnaround fadeaway 18 footer. In turn, he killed the offense and didn't score efficiently. He never really showed much improvement, and there wasn't any more upside to his game.

[illastrate]

His name isn't well known but it seems like the Clippers basically gave him away for free in the Wizards deal. I originally thought they traded him to get out from Telfair's contract but I looked at Sebastion's contract and it didn't seem that bad since most of the years left on it were almost up.

Was this a luxury tax type situation? I still don't understand as I thought Thornton was the perfect sixth man who could start if needed.

Thornton is far from the perfect player. His many flaws were what lead to his departure. I think in the long run Aminu will be a better all-around player.

[ClipperDomination]

He's a solid player, just had problems with defense and passing the ball out of situations where he was not going to score in the first place.

[Recently]

It was for cap space (that didn't end up netting anything big). Al is a blackhole on offense though, watching him play was like watching the Mag's play but instead of getting to the line and getting people in foul trouble, he would just chuck up long 18-20 footers.

[mike3]

I've always liked Thornton and kinda wondered the same thing, i get the issues with Thorntons game but i always liked his energy, especially on offence. I was intially dissapointed when we got rid of him cos i thought he was worth persisting with, telling him straight up what needed to change. If he stopped chucking up shots and continued his energy out on the court, i think things could've turned out a lot differently. I guess that wasn't to be though.

[JGlanton]

I liked Al in his rookie season, but pretty soon the bloom was off the rose. When he lost his shooting touch it became painfully obvious that he had nothing left to offer at either end of the court. He never knew where to stand. Never put enough energy into the game. Terrible defender. He never had a positive Wins Produced number for the Clippers, and in 2008/9 it was -3.59. In fact, he was the worst player on the team for that stat in his first two seasons, and last season was 2nd worst behind Ricky Davis. Statistically, he took wins away from the team. I see he is still negative at WAS, but they have Nick Young with a secure grasp on the team's production cellar.

[mj_shoefanatic]

He plays zero D. Good luck Washington.

[thanumba2clippersfan]

I really liked Al in his first two years. I thought he was really going to be something, but he didn't show much improvement and in his third season I had a feeling that he wasn't going to be a big part of this team. He is so athletic and why he can't defend is beyond me.

[clippermitch]

I liked Al but his bball IQ wasn't high. Also, it was really to cleap cap space. We basically traded Al for Randy Foye in the end.