The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t exactly make a big splash last offseason, leaving fans to hope one of their seemingly underwhelming free-agent acquisitions would overperform.
Forward Troy Brown Jr., who had played four nondescript seasons to that point, was one of those free-agent acquisitions, and not many expected him to shine brightly.
But he carved out a definite spot in head coach Darvin Ham’s rotation and kept it for much of the season. As the season wore on, he stepped up his play, especially in one area where the team badly needed help.
Brown's regular-season stats (in 24.5 minutes a game)
7.1 points
4.1 rebounds
1.3 assists
43.0 percent field-goal shooting
38.1 percent 3-point shooting
87.2 percent free-throw shooting
Takeaways
Early in the season, Brown seemed to be no better than what is termed a replacement player by analytics geeks. He was a decent, but not a great, 3-point shooter, and although he had some nice moments defensively, nothing stood out about him on that end of the floor.
But afterward, especially once the trade deadline passed and he was assured of finishing the year with L.A., he got very hot from downtown. In his last 29 regular-season games, he made 42.9% of his attempts from downtown, which was much welcomed by a Lakers team starving for accurate marksmanship from that distance.
Unfortunately, once the playoffs began and Ham tightened his rotation, Brown’s playing time evaporated. His minutes per game decreased with each round to the point he had four DNP-CDs in the Lakers’ last seven postseason games.
When he did get on the court in the playoffs, his hot shooting touch had deserted him. He converted a terrible 13.3% of his attempts from beyond the arc, which was likely a reason he fell out of the rotation.
Still, Brown was a reason the Lakers made it to the playoffs in the first place after many doubted they had a real chance of getting there.
Final grade: B-minus
