Troy Brown Jr. was the 12th ranked prospect in the 2017 high school class [1].

In his one season at Oregon, the 18-year-old [2] accumulated 1,093 minutes of NCAA experience. Prior to it, he logged 86 minutes at the 2015 Nike Global Challenge, 122 minutes at the 2016 adidas Nations, 169 minutes with the United States National Team at the 2016 U17 FIBA World Cup, and 16 minutes at the 2017 Nike Hoop Summit [3].

Most recently, the six-foot-seven swingman averaged 14.5 points per 40 minutes [4] on 49.4% effective shooting and compiled a 15.8 PER in 35 appearances last season.

Oregon had a +4.9 pace-adjusted point differential with him on the floor [5], but played only the 84th toughest schedule in the country [6].

Brown looks like the 3&D wing every single team is looking for these days.

He isn’t quite that player on offense, though. Brown shot poorly from long range in his one year in college and didn’t get up as many three-point shots as you’d like for someone in his role (weak-side floor-spacer), instead showing a stronger preference for putting the ball on the floor to attack closeouts and isolating out of ball reversals.

When Payton Pritchard was out of the game, Brown was tasked with bringing the ball up the floor and triggering ball movement sequences but didn’t have many, if any, chances to run high pick-and-roll against a set defense. He was a point guard in high school and flashed some nice passing on side pick-and-rolls, so there might be some hidden potential for shot creation there.

On the other end, Brown proved he is able to execute the scheme as a weak-side help defender and has the physical profile to be expected to offer versatility picking up bigger players on switches. He doesn’t appear to have the lateral quickness needed to develop into an ace stopper and isn’t suited to defend smaller players for longer stretches, though.

Off Ball Defense

Brown impressed with his attention and awareness.

He keeps his stance off the ball, can switch on the fly, rotates in to help crowd the area near the basket, comes off the weak-side to bat away or prevent simple passes to the roll man and knows how to position himself to try guarding two men when Oregon blitzed an action on the opposite side.

Brown knows not to help one pass away off the strong-side corner and is a proactive communicator on those switches.

He is not an explosive leaper off two feet and doesn’t act as a threat block shots regularly but can help protect the rim in help defense by planting his feet and effectively contest shots with his eight-foot-nine standing reach [7].

Brown was also an asset finishing possessions by collecting 18% of opponents’ misses when he was on the floor and leveraging his six-foot-10 wingspan to get into passing lanes, as he averaged two steals per 40 minutes last season.

His struggles off the ball were when he had to chase shooters off screens and closeout to spot-up shooters. He is not very quick disentangling himself from traffic and needs to sell out to run the shooter off his shot, allowing an easy path off the bounce and exposing the defense behind him.

On Ball Defense

Brown bends his knees to get down in a stance, has two or three lateral slides in him to stay in front of similarly sized players out in space and puts in the effort to contest pull-up shots effectively, though he doesn’t use the strength in his 208-pound frame to chest up and contain dribble penetration through contact often.

Oregon switched somewhat aggressively, not just on screens but on people movement as well, and Brown was asked to defend players of different sizes from time-to-time.

He has just about enough agility to pick up less explosive smaller players midway through the shot clock but isn’t suited to cross-match onto them for entire possessions due to his inability to get skinny over screens at the point of attack.

He did well against bigger players though. Brown showed some tenacity late in the season trying to front the post and prevent easy entry passes. He can also play stout post defense and box out softer big men, though he is not very physical and tougher types can still push him out of the way or rebound around his boxouts.

But his most impressive work was probably in pick-and-roll defense. Brown looked good in drop defense keeping pace with a ball-handler attacking downhill, stepping up to the front of the basket acting as the last line of defense and on short closeouts against shooting big men in the pick-and-pop.

Offense

Odds are that in order to make it in the NBA, Brown will need to be a shooter. His one year in college wasn’t very promising, though.

He missed 70.9% of his 110 three-point shots, at a pace of just four such attempts per 40 minutes, though his 74.3% foul shooting on 105 free throws offers hope that this was an unusually poor year instead of one reflective of his low potential as a shooter.

Brown likes setting up his catch-and-shoot jumpers off 1-2 footwork, takes a pronounced dip for rhythm and has a bit of a long release. Given these issues, he hasn’t yet developed a quick trigger and doesn’t always get a great arc on his shot. He took a few shots drifting around the wing but for the most part didn’t show much in terms of being able to take shots on the move.

Rather than pulling the trigger aggressively, Brown showed a stronger preference for operating off the bounce.

He doesn’t have a quick first step out of triple threat position, isn’t fast with the ball, lacks shiftiness and showed only a rudimentary handle - averaging 3.1 turnovers per 40 minutes.

But he got all the way to the basket often by leveraging his strength to maintain his balance and his momentum forward through contact, while mixing in the eventual light hesitation move. 40.4% of his shots were at the rim and he earned 3.8 free throws per 40 minutes - a decent, if not necessarily impressive, mark.

Brown isn’t an explosive leaper off one foot in traffic but can use his length to over-extend on finger-roll finishes and his strength to finish through contact - converting his 131 shots at the rim at a 63.4% clip [8]. He also flashed some ability to adjust his body in the air elevating off two feet after loading up to go up.

Brown wasn’t as efficient when forced to stop his drives short. He hasn’t yet developed into much more than a capable shot maker on step-back pull-ups and didn’t show much in terms of running floaters or floaters off jump-stops to finish over length from the in-between area - hitting just 34.6% of his 81 two-point shots away from the basket.

He is inclined to post up smaller matchups every once in a while. His turnaround fade-away jumper is OK but the best outcome out of him operating with his back to the basket tends to be his shot creation for others, as Brown has flashed appealing vision making cross-court passes after escaping a double team.

Passing is his most developed skill, by the way. He passes ahead in transition to speed up the pace, makes the extra pass around the horn to keep it moving, delivers shovel passes when he spots cutters coming across the lane and proved to be an adequate passer off dribble penetration - yet to show much in terms of passing across his body to the opposite end on the go but able to kick-out and drop-off against a collapsing defense.

Brown also had the chance to run some side pick-and-roll to keep the offense flowing and proved he can make the skip pass to the big relocating to the three-point line in the pick-and-pop and hit the roll man with passes over the top - assisting on 18.6% of Oregon’s scores when he was on the floor last season.