Los Angeles Lakers Summer League Review: The Rookies

Anthony Brown … and Summer League don’t mix.

Brown was one of the players I was most interested in watching when the games began to tip-off in Las Vegas. The main reason being that he was selected to become a “3-And-D” player, and the Los Angeles Lakers sorely need one of those.

The last two years he played at Stanford, Brown was a three-point sniper — better than 40 percent from deep each year — and with a dynamic passer (D’Angelo Russell), a budding slasher (Jordan Clarkson), and a basket-attacking big (Julius Randle) all a part of the Lakers core, someone who is automatic on open three-pointers sounds excellent.

The defense I expect to develop over time, and as long as he’s tenacious on that end I presume he will be fine.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see much of either asset from Brown as summer league went on.

Like most of the roster, Brown was the victim of an offense that just didn’t work. Oftentimes the decision-makers were tentative, other times the offense just did not have enough movement to produce results. Role players, which Anthony Brown is, will fail to shine the majority of the time under similar circumstances.

A more free-flowing offense — even a pick-up basketball offensive structure would have been more effective, I think — would have allowed Brown to get a few open three-pointers to show off the shooting touch. Alas, little movement makes open looks harder to get.

Brown nailed a few threes this summer, but I would expect him to look a little better in the preseason, when the offense looks a little bit more cohesive — at least let’s hope it does.

Next: Robert Upshaw