Wizards rookie swingman Troy Brown Jr. didn’t have the ideal start to his NBA career like most first round picks would. He often spent time early in the season on assignment with the Capital City Go-Go G-League team. And when he was with the Wizards, Brown didn’t average more than 3 points a game in any month from Oct. 2018 to Feb. 2019.
In March, Brown began to play more when it became clear that the Wizards weren’t making the NBA Playoffs. In the first half of the month, Brown played at least 13 but no more than 18 minutes in any game. But on Mar. 15, he scored a then career-high 10 points in a loss to the Hornets on 4-of-7 shooting including going 2-of-2 from the three-point line.
Since that game, Brown played 21 or more minutes in nine games and made two consecutive career-high performances. First he scored a then-career high 15 points on Mar. 29 vs. the Jazz in a loss. Then he scored a career-high 24 points on Mar. 31 vs. the Nuggets in a win. You can see Brown’s highlights in the video above.
It isn’t just that Brown scored 24 points and the fact that the Wizards. Brown shot 9-of-16 from the floor, made 5-of-7 three pointers and played 42 minutes overall. After many months, Brown is starting to come into his own.
In March, Brown averaged 7.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He also shot 43.1 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from the three-point line. All-in-all, it’s been a great month for him.
I hope Brown can continue to play like this for the remainder of the regular season. However, it’s just another damnation of the Wizards front office when it took practically the entire season to see their rookie play meaningful minutes in the regular season.