Sterling Brown played 36 minutes in this contest, the first time he’s played more than thirty in a game this season. He took sixteen shots (a season high) to score sixteen points (also a season high). There are a lot of factoids you can pull from the Bucks’ lineup this game to drive home the point that their lineup was just complete garbo, but those three facts combined together paint a picture of a team who really, really did not care at all about winning this game. At all.
Brown is playing for his NBA life right now. His rookie deal, which was three years, is coming due at the end of this season. Has he shown enough to be picked up by another team? Last season I would have said “yes”, but this season, wherein his true shooting percentage (a stat whose formulation will forever remain a mystery to me) has dropped by 9% from the previous season, I’ve gotta say “no”. Maybe he’ll get a camp deal and then float around in the G-League for a bit.
I wouldn’t say that I “love” being proven wrong, but in this case, I wouldn’t mind if Brown proved me wrong. If he somehow ends up being a 10 PPG per game scorer off the bench on some team, I’ll be like, “Where was that Sterling Brown when he needed him to step up and beat the Nuggets all by himself”, and then I’ll be happy for him. Actually, I’m already happy for him. I feel like the average second round pick has a way worse career than he has had. Minus the tasing.
And here you thought I was going to make it through the entire description without talking about Brown getting tasered.