Milwaukee Bucks: 2017-18 player grades for Sterling Brown
Weaknesses
Sterling Brown’s biggest weakness is his inconsistency when attacking the basket. Brown is a straight line driver, ramming to the rack without a spin or Euro-step to throw off waiting help defenders. They simply stand at the charge circle to contest, waiting for Brown’s impending arrival.
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Brown ends up forcing the issue in those situations, trying to power through or throw something up over his opponent. This is a boom or bust proposition, as he only converted 42.9 percent of his 77 attempts within eight feet of the basket in 2017-18, 14.9 percent below league average. Brown had 19 of those attempts blocked and drew 11 shooting fouls.
Perhaps he will get more calls as he gets older. For now, however, Brown comes up short at the rack more often than not.
Brown also falls short as a shot creator. He averaged only 10.1 points on 9.5 attempts per 36 minutes in 2017-18. He also finished the season with a 14.0 percent usage rate, with 72.0 percent of his shots coming off of assists.
To belabor the point, Brown ended his rookie year with a 9.1 Player Efficiency Rating, a 102.8 offensive rating and zero offensive win shares. He is certainly shaping up to be a useful 3-and-D player. However, you will be disappointed if you expected Sterling Brown to instantly become a two-way contributor.