Illmatic12 wrote:
4) Troy Brown Jr is a first round pick from the heralded 2018 class, and is certainly very prideful. He clearly believes he is a better player than Bonga and worthy of the starter's label like many of his draftmates , and I'd imagine most of his teammates agree with him. It's one thing to come off the bench behind an established vet like Otto, but Bonga? If Isaac continues to start over TB Jr, it's naive to think this won't cause simmering chemistry issues.
5) Winning cures all, but this team will most likely be doing a lot of losing so it won't be that easy to paper over internal friction if Brooks doesn't iron out defined roles now. Beal & Brown (even coming off the bench) should be your two most versatile, high IQ, consistent, non-negotiable 30+ mpg players who will always close out games. Rui, Bryant should be at least ~25-30mpg most of the time. Everyone else needs to be okay with their minutes fluctuating, depending on matchups and what skillset is needed at the time. Bertans/Miles for floor-spacing, IT/McRae for shot creation, Bonga for wing defense + hustle etc.. making these decisions is the hardest part of coaching
6) Since the organization wasted a year of Troy Brown Jrs development (thanks Ernie!) we have very little data on him at the NBA level. Imo this season should be centered around forcefeeding him minutes and observing what he can/can't do. He should lead our team in total minutes over Beal, we need to give him all opportunities to expand the limits of his game. TBJ is 1.5 years younger than Hachimura, at this point I'm not sure he won't end up our best longterm prospect. He has the potential to be a nightly triple-double threat in his prime, and if we see him starting to hit his threes and off-dribble Js then no telling what his ceiling could be.
I don't think it will be long before Brown becomes the starter. Wouldn't be surprised if he starts the next game. It's not simply that Brown believes he's better than Bonga, the fact is that he IS better than Bonga and everyone from the FO to the coaching staff to the players know that. More importantly though, Troy will be on the court at crunch time and get more minutes than Bonga (like he did against Detroit) whether he starts or not. I actually think you're making too much of the possibility of "internal friction." Most of these guys are young and have yet to earn any defined role.
Totally agree that Brown should have played many more minutes with the Zards last season. It was something I was screaming for since around the middle of last season. He certainly would have been further along in his develop. However, I wouldn't say that it was a "wasted" year of development. Troy did get a lot of playing time in the G League and there's a real value to that.
Like you, I'm excited about Brown's long-term prospects. His smarts, poise and diverse skillset is very, very impressive, especially for a 20 year old. We're all hyped about the potential and upside of Rui and Bryant, and rightfully so. But we shouldn't sleep on Troy.
