Editor's Note, by rook6980: This is the eleventh (11th) installment in a series of regular postings on draft prospects. This series will take a look at the top draft prospects for the 2018 NBA Draft in June. The plan is to have one or two a week, leading up to a flurry of activity the week of the draft.

Troy Brown

Troy Brown was once a top-20 high school prospect; but he may have regressed in College. After reading some scouting reports on Troy Brown, I was expecting to see an athletic, first-round prospect with NBA skills. But when I went back to watch the games and take notes for this profile, not once did I think "wow, Troy Brown really took over that game"; or "whoa, THAT was a great play"; Instead I was oohing and aahing over Arizona's DeAndre Ayton, or Oklahoma's Trae Young or even Brown's own teammate, Point Guard Payton Pritchard. And that's the problem with Troy Brown, he just doesn't stand out.

He has nice size (6'6¾" with shoes) and very good length (6'10¼" wingspan) for a wing. His overall athleticism is good, but not elite. He possesses good quickness and agility, but he's only average vertically (33" max vertical) and while his first step is good enough for college, it won't be in the NBA.

On defense he has the size and ability to become a solid defender, but he’ll need to put in a lot of work in the weight room. He has decent lateral quickness and his length will certainly help. He plays with energy, and seems to make all the right defensive decisions, rotating on time, closing on shooters, playing the passing lanes, etc. He is sound defending the pick-and-roll.

He can get stuck on screens occasionally and can be beat by smaller, quicker guards on switches. He holds his own in the post, but bigger players can shoot over him. He’s a very good rebounder for a wing. Overall he’s more of sound team defender than an individual lockdown defender at this stage.

In the NBA, playing on the wing is all about shooting. The more shooters a team has, the better. While Troy Brown has good shooting mechanics on some shots, he is inconsistent on others and doesn’t shoot the ball the same way every time. He would follow up two or three good shooting games with three or four bad ones. He shot only 29.1% from the college 3-point line in 110 attempts. He’s also just an average free throw shooter (74%) which does not bode well.

Brown did show a nice mid-range jumper from time to time, and he is big enough and long enough to get his shot off against most defenders, even if he’s contested closely. He was not much of a shooting threat in college, but despite that college defenders still closed out aggressively on him for some reason. He liked to attack those aggressive closeouts and go straight at the defense; unfortunately he doesn’t finish well at the rim. When he tried avoiding contact, his shots were wild and when he went right at the defender, he couldn’t finish through contact.

Brown has a solid handle but not good enough for him to be primary ball handler at the next level. He was a Point Guard in high school so he has some playmaking ability and is a decent passer. It doesn’t appear his dribble has improved much since high school; he lacks advanced dribble moves like spins, hesitations, etc. He can occasionally get free using a cross-over, but it was rare to see him pull one off.

Overall offensively he was just way, way too passive; mostly drifting around on the perimeter watching the plays, and then trying to crash the boards when a shot went up. His shot is not where it needs to be, and he doesn’t bring anything offensively that I could say is NBA ready. He is very unlikely to become a go-to scorer at the next level, and I’d opine that he’s unlikely to ever be much of a go-to scorer at all.

STRENGTHS:

Excellent size and length

Good motor/energy

Mid-range scoring

Defensive upside

Very good rebounder

WEAKNESSES:

Only average athleticism

Must become a better shooter

Finishing at the rim/through contact

Disappears during games

I was actually disappointed watching Troy Brown play this year. He doesn’t seem to play anywhere near his talent level. He doesn’t seem like an aggressive type that wants the ball. He drifts on the perimeter, disappears for long stretches, and doesn’t ever seem to make "impactful" plays. He may carve out a role in the NBA as a defender/bench role player.

FIT FOR WIZARDS:

There are better wing options. (Khyri Thomas, Kevin Huerter, etc.)

Previous Draft Profiles:

Mitchell Robinson

Khyri Thomas

Daniel Gafford <--- Returned to school

Jacob Evans

Hamidou Diallo

Gary Trent Jr.

Grayson Allen

Robert Williams

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Jontay Porter <--- Returned to school