Bruce Brown has gained a small amount of notoriety for being one of the most do-nothing players in the league. He just doesn’t put up stats. He doesn’t score (much), rebound (much), or pass (much). He does do a little bit of each of those things, and he also supposedly plays defense. I mean, he has to play defense, right? Otherwise why would he be getting any minutes at all.
The reason he got minutes tonight and the reason you see that gaudy statline in the title of this video is that Reggie Jackson (starting PG), Derrick Rose (backup PG), and Tim Frazier (end-of-bench emergency PG) we’re all out with various afflictions. Brown didn’t have a choice here. He was going to start as the PG, and if he didn’t at least pretend to be aggressive, the Pistons were going to lose.
We’ve seen evidence of his PG skills before, albeit in a radically different setting. You remember that triple double he had in Summer League? I don’t blame you if you don’t, but it totally happened, and he totally flashed some real PG skills during it. Summer League doesn’t mean much, but it at least represents what players could do in a theoretical NBA where everyone is just way, way worse at everything.
Are the Nets that theoretical NBA where everyone is just way, way worse at everything? They must be, because Brown had the game of his frickin’ LIFE, dropping a career-high 22 points and also diming 7 times while Cryrie Virgin and Spenis Kid-diddle could do nothing but watch and hold their L.
Do people even say “Hold this L” anymore? I don’t want to seem out of date here.