Every year, teams thrust their second or third-year prospects onto their Summer League teams. On occasion, the setting is conducive to extra reps and can accelerate development. In other instances, Summer League proves nothing more than the prospect is way too good to be in Las Vegas and would better spend his time on the strip.

Detroit Pistons sophomore Bruce Brown fits in both of these categories. On one hand, he eviscerated his Summer League competition, putting together a campaign worthy of MVP contention. He led the Summer League in assists per game at 8.3 and put up a per-36 line of 17.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, 10.5 assists, 2.8 turnovers, 1.9 blocks and 1.6 steals with menacing defense. As a rookie, Brown was in rotation on a playoff team, so his dominance should be expected; it would have been more concerning if he flopped.

On the other hand, Brown looked like a completely different player in this Summer League, specifically in his playmaking. Brown was an average passer in college and flashed some facilitating chops in his rookie Summer League. As a rookie, Detroit didn’t allow Brown much playmaking freedom: he posted an 8.8 assist percentage and he ranked in the 24th percentile in the pick and roll including passes.

Brown put on a passing clinic in the 2019 NBA Summer League, tearing apart opposing defenses en route to the assist crown. Given Brown’s immense scoring struggles, this new distributing gene would be massive for his future projection and his role on the Pistons going forward.

For this piece, we’ll dissect the film from his game against the Portland Trail Blazers, which was one of, if not the best individual performance of Summer League. His 17 points, 10 assists, three rebounds, three blocks and one steal provides a nice microcosm for his overall Summer League performance and his translation to the NBA game.

Passing feel

Brown’s passing and playmaking feel were one of the most pleasant developments of Summer League. His passing was genuinely incredible, spraying balls all over the floor in a variety of scenarios. Aside from the vision to make passes as well, passing craft, gravity and anticipation and actual decision making are all components of a great playmaker. Against the Blazers and in the Summer League as a whole, Brown checked all of these boxes.

With crisp decision making, Brown remained under control, rarely forced the issue and found the right pass. His obscene 3.67 assist to turnover ratio is indicative of this. The skip pass is one of the most valuable passes in a hyperspaced NBA; the skip cracks open defenses, forces rotations and creates advantages and open shots. Fortunately, Brown is a skip pass virtuoso. Brown whips a pass to the weak wing, puts the defense in shambles and generates an open three:

When two defenders drift toward the roll man, Brown slings a pass to the weak side corner, generating a wide-open shot:

A powerful athlete, Brown lived at the rim in Summer League. The competition had no shot against Brown’s overwhelming speed, first step burst and strength. He sucks in defenders before rifling the pass to the weak corner:

Another skip to the weak side wing for a hockey assist:

Again, Brown slices into the paint, doesn’t rush a bad shot or panic and wraps around to the open corner shooter:

More strong decision making: Brown clears out a side, gets to the middle and kicks to the open shooter:

Aside from the eye-popping passes and advanced decision-making, Brown is adept at simple reads and smart plays. This is where the all-important decision-making aspect of playmaking comes in. If a player makes poor decisions nine times out of 10, it doesn’t matter if the one pass is spectacular.

The Pistons set up double drag screens, with the first screener popping and the second rolling. Brown’s defender and the roll man’s defender gravitate to him and this miscommunication creates a no-win situation for Jaylen Hoard, defending two players. All Brown has to do is pass to where Hoard isn’t and he hits the open wing when Hoard stunts to the roller:

Bringing the ball up in transition, Brown is patient, waits for the right moment to release the ball and finds the trailer for an open three:

Accelerating downhill, Brown reaches full speed galloping down the court. His body control and decision making is fantastic, hanging in midair at full speed and finding the corner, scrambling the defense:

Brown’s strong decision making, vision and passing craft shine in the pick and roll, where he can cut defenses apart. Brown snakes the pick and roll, maneuvering towards the big man, occupying him and creating an opening to toss a lob to the roller:

Here, Brown initially misses a window to thread a pocket pass. He recovers well, taking an extra dribble to put pressure on the big and allowing for the roller to make his way to the cup:

Brown’s passing bag is filled with as much nuance and minutiae as it is flash and flare. On this play, Brown teeters around the screen three times before driving middle. Like a quarterback toying with a safety, Brown manipulates defenses with his eyes as much as any of his body. Watch Brown’s eyes as he loads up to pass: he stares down the wing, forcing the tagging defender to jump to the shooter, leaving space to fit this no-look pass to the roller:

Aside from the subtle goodness of his pick and roll passing, Brown’s repertoire is filled with “holy crap, how on earth did he do that” kind of passes. Brown knifes into two defenders and they end up sandwiching him. Let’s play a game. Find the pass:

With eyes behind his head, Brown whips this ball to the roller with inches of airspace:

Turning the corner, Brown is stuck in the air, suffocated between two Portland defenders. Again, find the pass:

I still have trouble understanding how Brown pulled this one off, with absurd vision, timing and body control to contort and throw an accurate ball in heavy traffic:

Brown’s ability to blow by defenders with his first step opens up the rest of his passing. Rim volume leads to open shots, as putting pressure on the rim forces defenses to rotate and opens lanes to pass. However, Brown may struggle to create when he can’t win athletically, as we segue into breaking down his scoring.

Scoring/Self Creation

Brown’s offensive arsenal begins with his athletic tools. At 6’5 with a powerful frame, elite first step and functional strength, Brown is a high-level athlete and can win with his tools alone. With gunpowder in his legs, Brown bursts past defenders on his way to open layups:

He’s a blur off of the catch, leaving Anfernee Simons in the dust:

While Brown isn’t an advanced handler, he has enough wiggle to dispatch slower bigs on an island. All Brown needs is one power dribble to get to the rim:

He muscles defenders around, using his strength to dislodge opponents and get to the rim:

Brown struggled mightily in his rookie season creating his own shot and scoring as a whole. He posted anemic shooting percentages, including a 46.9 true shooting percentage, 45.7 percent on twos and 25.8 percent on 2.3 threes per-36. His synergy profile is a ghastly sight:

Brown’s two major problems seem to be a lack of shooting touch and a lack of an in-between game. In four Summer League games, Brown went 2-10 from three and finished with an uninspiring (but improved!) 49.6 true shooting percentage.

When Brown can’t create advantages exclusively with his athleticism, he struggles to score at all. Without an advanced handle, mid-range pull-up (in his rookie season, Brown went 0-6 on off dribble shots) or floater game, he resorts to backing his man down and doesn’t have the touch to convert this hook:

Without any self-creation ability inside the arc, Brown has to go to the rim and burp up a heavily contested shot. Even with his physical tools, Brown struggled to finish at the rim last season, ranking in the 10th percentile around the rim and taking 3.3 shots at the rim per 36 minutes. These issues arose in Summer League:

Beyond leaving points on the table, Brown’s lack of scoring threat neuters his passing ability. Look at Lonzo Ball and Trae Young: two players similar in terms of pure passing goodness, but Young has the scoring gravity to further unlock his passing. If Brown is a non-factor scoring on offense, defenses will play his passes and make him ineffective off of the ball. Still, his intersection of passing and athletic tools might be good enough to mitigate his scoring woes.

Defense

At the point of attack, Brown is an elite-level defender. At 6’5, thick as a Redwood tree and quick laterally, he hounds ballhandlers and vaporizes ball screens. As a rookie, Brown placed fourth in the NBA in defensive PIPM among shooting guards at 1.4. A shutdown point of attack defender, Brown swallows up Simons with a block:

Brown slides with Simons and contests the floater well, despite the contested make:

His effort is fantastic, sprinting back on defense and collecting a block in transition:

Again, Brown sprints back for a transition rejection, plus another beautiful skip pass:

With his strength, quick feet and hip fluidity, Brown annihilates ball screens. Brown sticks to Simons’ hip around the pick, contesting his pull-up:

To begin the possession, Brown neutralizes the flare screen. Then, he gets skinny around the ball screen to stall the offense:

Even though Simons rejects the screen, Brown remains attached to his hip and blocks the floater:

Off the ball, Brown is often a step slow and doesn’t have a knack for creating events. Normally, this would be a major knock for me, as I place great value in team defense and feel for the game.

For a few reasons, Brown is an exception: his elite physical tools and passable team defense should be good enough to keep him firmly positive and passing feel and team defense are typically correlated. Brown’s passing feel is elite so it is reasonable to expect improvement defending off of the ball. For now, he often drifts into the paint and his a step or two slow reacting to off-ball movement:

Brown’s Summer League performance was wildly impressive. For a Detroit team starved for creation, Brown’s improved playmaking could be incredibly valuable with increased minutes. Unlike Summer League where he dominated the ball, the Pistons can take advantage of Brown’s athleticism and playmaking off of the ball, having him attack off of the catch and finding open big men:

Brown’s shooting track record is dark and there’s little indication he can improve in the future. However, all Brown needs is a passable spot three-pointer to be an obscenely valuable role player. If he can get to around 36 percent on solid volume, his point of attack defense, playmaking and rim gravity all add value to a good offense.

Shooting increases scalability and the Pistons could weaponize Brown’s skillset in an off-ball creator role, attacking and passing in advantage situations. For the Pistons, this Summer League reinforced their confidence in Brown, which is more valuable than anything they could have asked for.