Daily Digits is a new daily feature we’re doing at Bullets Forever this year where we take a look at stats about the Wizards. We’ll dive into the numbers, add some context, and discuss how they affect the product on the court.
Today’s stat is the number of minutes Troy Brown Jr. has played with the Wizards this season, which is...
Over the weekend, Troy Brown broke new ground when he suited up and played two games for the Capital City Go-Go. He became the first Wizards first-round pick to ever be assigned to the G-League.
Sending young draft picks — even ones taken as high as Brown — has become quite common in the NBA, so sending him down shouldn’t be looked at as an indictment of his ability. The only reason Washington hadn’t done it sooner is because they didn’t have a G-League team until this season, and most of their recent picks were key parts of the Wizards’ rotation early in their careers.
Brown’s got a nice setup for his first experience in the G-League. The Go-Go hosted the Canton Charge on Friday and Sunday, so it simplified his preparations and made it easier to adjust. He had some nice highlights on Friday, but didn’t make much of an impact on the game, only scoring 13 points and getting 4 assists in Friday’s loss.
He bounced back with a 19-point, 6-assist, 7-rebound performance in Sunday’s 18-point win in which he was a +29. He admitted after the game it took him a little while to find his rhythm.
You know you have a lot more freedom too down here to just kind of play your game, and for the first game for me that was kind of different especially coming off of with the Wizards being a role player. Being a defensive guy, making the right play and stuff like that, and coming out here and kind of having more freedom to be able to play my game. It was a little hard for me to adjust but I felt like today, I did a better job.
Go-Go head coach Jarrell Christian was impressed with how Brown adjusted from Game 1 to Game 2.
I thought he struggled a little bit the first game, but he hadn’t played substantial minutes in a long time. I just knew tonight he was going to be better...It’s just him getting comfortable, getting his legs under him a little bit and just understanding the little pockets of opportunity where he can assert himself a little bit more.
Finding new ways to take advantage of opportunities is a constant challenge in basketball, but based on how well and how quickly Brown adjusted this weekend, he should be ready to tackle whatever gets thrown his way next on development track.