Milwaukee Bucks: Sterling Brown looks ready to step up a level

With a strong start to December and an ever-increasing role, Sterling Brown looks ready to step up a level with the Milwaukee Bucks.

In just his second season in the NBA, Sterling Brown is still finding his footing as a pro, and fighting for minutes with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Since the moment he was drafted, Brown has always held a certain level of intrigue, in large part due to how his physical attributes and play style appear to be a seamless fit for the modern NBA.

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Brown demonstrated promise in his rookie season, yet suffered from an inconsistent role under both Jason Kidd and Joe Prunty. Dreadful shooting to start this season under Mike Budenholzer didn’t do anything to help Brown’s initial crusade for more minutes in 2018-19, but with signs of major improvement over his last 10-15 games that may well have now changed.

Prior to resting in the Bucks’ most recent game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, as part of Budenholzer’s wider strategy of rotating opportunity for his bench wings, Brown had played in six straight games for Milwaukee.

Not only was Brown playing, but he was also getting significant minutes, both in terms of volume and overall importance. During that span, Brown logged between 16 and 31 minutes in every game, meaning he had the chance to really show what he could do in extended minutes on a nightly basis.

What he showed in that span offers real cause for excitement too. Brown made at least one triple in five of those six games, continuing a larger trend of positive shooting that has seen him come in at 39.4 percent from distance on 2.2 attempts per game over his last 15 contests.

For a player who shot just 35.2 percent from deep in his rookie season after shooting 45.1 percent from that same range across four years at SMU, this is a glimpse of an adjustment that is incredibly welcome, but also seemed somewhat inevitable. Brown started the season on a 1-of-14 run from three-point range, but has gone 12-of-24 ever since.

All in all, the Illinois native looks more confident now, which is something the coaching staff deserve credit for, and something Brown should be given a lot of praise for in his own right.

Brown’s defense and rebounding were positives for the Bucks last season, and that has continued this season. Brown’s comfort in switching on to smaller players is particularly valuable, and something that could become an even bigger part of how Milwaukee defends as his role continues to grow and stabilize.

In addition to that, having been tasked with handling, initiating and creating for teammates during the Bucks’ Summer League campaign in Las Vegas last summer, Brown’s comfort with the ball in his hands is notably still improving.

Considering the players around him, Brown is rarely, if ever, going to be tasked with doing too much in that department in an NBA setting. But it is essential that he can make the right passes and decisions within the flow of the game. In that regard, Brown’s 2.6 assist/turnover ratio in his last 15 games and 3.67 in his last 10 games is certainly encouraging.

In his three games on assignment with the Wisconsin Herd this season, Brown has also embraced his emerging playmaking streak. Brown is averaging 4.0 assists per game in the G League, and in his most recent game at that level, the 23-year-old dished out eight assists against the Windy City Bulls.

The Bucks have a wide variety of options when it comes to backup guards and wings, yet Brown has a real opportunity to cement a spot as the alpha among that group in the coming months. For as impactful as Tony Snell and Pat Connaughton can be, both have proven to be prone to bouts of inconsistency.

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The challenge for Brown is taking his play from the last 15 games, and making it his new normal. He certainly has the tools to achieve that feat, and if he does, it could be a game-changer for the Bucks in the grander scheme of things.

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