Milwaukee Bucks: 2017-18 player grades for Sterling Brown

Strengths

Sterling Brown fits the template of a typical 3-and-D player. His biggest strength is his athletic body. Brown stands 6’6″, weighs 230 pounds and has a 6’9.5″ wingspan. Such a sizable frame allows him to pester opponents and disrupt passing lanes on defense while being able to body defenders on offense. His size puts him in line with the type of wing players Milwaukee likes to employ.

Brown’s usefulness on defense shows up in the numbers. NBA.com indicates that he finished 2017-18 with a 103.7 defensive rating, best among those that played at least half the season in Milwaukee. Basketball-Reference also shows that all of Brown’s 0.7 total win shares were accumulated on the defensive end.

His biggest defensive accomplishments happened in February. Brown swiped three steals in a Feb. 2 win over the New York Knicks. That was followed up at the end of the month by a two-steal, two-block game in a Feb. 25 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Offensively, Brown shot 35.2 percent from 3-point range in 2017-18, just one percent below league average. This is a reasonable percentage for a second round rookie. It’s high enough to still be considered reliable, but low enough to warrant improvement.