re: Chad Ford: “Jaylen Brown had an incredible workout” for the Pelicans.

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The challenge for Brown as a freshman was parlaying those tools into consistent on-court production. Asked to fill a substantial role in Cal's space-starved offense, Brown did most of his damage playing off the ball spotting up or filling lanes in transition, but was also granted significant opportunities to create for himself off the bounce in the half court. Given considerable freedom, the freshman scored just .853 points per possession over 17.2 possessions per game to rank 149th in scoring efficiency among the 173 players using over 17 opportunities per game according to Synergy Sports Technology.

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Shooting 48% inside the arc, 29% from three, and 65% from the line for the Golden Bears, Brown didn't have the easiest time translating his game to the college ranks. With 51% of his shot attempts in the half court coming from the perimeter, the mechanical issues with Brown's jump shot became clear. Timing his release differently shot-to-shot whether he's pulling up off the bounce under pressure or shooting catch and shoot jumpers in space, Brown's mechanics are not particularly reliable at this stage. He casually fades away on some attempts unnecessarily, sometimes holding the ball longer than others at the top of his shot. His combination of mechanical issues resulted in the unimpressive 31% he shot from the perimeter overall.

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As a slasher, Brown battled through bouts of inefficiency as well. Possessing a strong first step and impressive leaping ability off of one and two feet, Brown's fairly loose handle, lack of craftiness around the basket, and tendency to get tunnel vision and force shots into traffic led to his 45% shooting around the rim in the half court and top-100 leading per-40 minute pace adjusted turnover rate. While Cal's insistence on surrounding him with two to four non-shooters at all times didn't do him any favors, there's no doubt that his feel for the game is underdeveloped at this stage in his career, as evidenced by his poor -6.48 PPR, which is by far the worst passing metric among any non-big man in this draft.

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Largely the same things about Brown's offense can be said about him defensively. He has all the tools to be successful and potentially even defend multiple positions down the road, but struggled at times with his focus off the ball and discipline defending one-on-one. He had some flashes using his strength and lateral quickness to apply ball pressure impressively around the arc and make his presence felt in the passing lanes, and is a strong rebounder, but has plenty of things to clean up on this end as well.

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