Suns Draft Watch: First Impressions — Jaylen Brown

Stop three in our “First Impressions” series takes us to Northern California.  We’ll take a look at California freshman wing Jaylen Brown.

A reminder, this is the first time I’ve watched the prospect closely, and this is an initial reaction that will evolve over time.

The Golden Bears picked up a dominating 20-point win over Oregon in Berkeley on Feb. 11. Brown scored 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including knocking down 2-of-3 from behind the arc, but he was 0-for-3 at the foul line. He added four rebounds, three assists, one steal, one block and one turnover.

Explosive and raw are the terms I would use to describe Brown as this stage of his development.

I’d say this fits the description of explosive pretty well. Brown crosses over from right (strong hand) to left (weak hand) and smashes it with his left.

He shows the potential to be a skilled ball handler. Brown drives right, left and is able to use counter moves. He’s relentless going to the rim as you can tell by the 6.7 free throws he’s averaging in just 28 minutes per game.

At times he forces and is out of control, but there’s more good than bad when it comes to his aggressiveness off the dribble.

The ball handling does get loose and sloppy at times. Brown had the ball knocked away from him on at least two occasions against Oregon, which needs to be cleaned up.

The other two flaws in his offensive game are his passing and shooting. The passing was better than I expected and he easily could have had more than three assists. Brown had a couple nice looks in transition, once hitting a cutter from the wing, plus a drive and kick to an open three-point shooter. In half-court sets he even had a drive ending with a dump off to a big.

On the season, Brown’s turnover rate is 2.1 percent higher than his assist rate, but he’s not a lost cause in this department by any means.

There’s not much to his in-between game. Brown is either going all the way to the rim or shooting a three. His three-point shooting has improved in conference play as the 19-year-old has made 35 percent of 51 attempts. Brown is also making 53 percent of two-point looks.

Even James Harden takes a mid-range jumper at times. Threes and layups can be what your offensive game is built around, but there needs to be a little bit of diversity. Against Oregon, the only mid-range jumper Brown took off the bounce was forced as the shot clock was expiring. If he can make his opponent respect him from all areas, it can create an even more dangerous offensive player.

This was an uncharacteristically poor rebounding performance in terms of raw numbers, but evidence throughout the season says he’s solid in that area for a small forward. He got beat for an offensive rebound once that stood out, but it didn’t seem like he was demonstrably hurting Cal.

Brown has the tools to be a good defender — his lateral quickness is terrific and he’s got a sturdy build. Brown has a 7’0″ wingspan. He was impressive staying in front of the ball handler on the perimeter with a solid defensive stance, along with being attentive away from the ball. Brown didn’t stiffen up and kept good bend in his knees allowing him to be ready on quick reversals or help defense.

Brown’s a terrific consolation prize if the Suns aren’t lucky enough to get Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram. His upside is similar to Justise Winslow and Stanley Johnson, who were lottery picks in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Other First Impressions

• LSU forward Ben Simmons

• Duke forward Brandon Ingram