Philadelphia 76ers: Charlie Brown Jr. is a long, rebounding shooter

The Philadelphia 76ers have a pretty darn good pipeline of young, ascending players.

They currently have seven players on rookie contracts, including starting point guard Tyrese Maxey and quasi-starting small forward Matisse Thybulle, and have two more bright youngsters in Aaron Henry and Myles Powell on two-way contracts.

While one could quibble with a team that, by their own admission, considered themselves “Championship or bust” the season prior, having that many young players, as true contenders typically fill out their benches with more minimum contract veterans, it’s hard to argue with the drafting of Daryl Morey and his predecessor, Elton Brand, as the duo have delivered onto the City of Brotherly Love 17 players who are all worthy of their roster spots.

And the best part? The team’s G-League affiliate has stockpiled a pretty impressive collection of talent too, as evidenced by just how many of their players were snatched up by player-needy teams deep in the hardship.

Unfortunate? For the Blue Coats, surly but the best part of the 10-day hardship contract is that, well, it ends after 10 days – it’s literally in the name – which, in turn, means that said players can be signed by other teams who find themselves in need of further fortification.

This week, that team is the Philadelphia 76ers, who snatched up two of their affiliate players in shooter Charlie Brown Jr. and 6-foot-8 forward Braxton Key just in time to take on the Orlando Magic on January 5th. Could either player stick long-term? Maybe, maybe not, but Brown specifically checks quite a few boxes that the team has been looking to fill.

Charlie Brown Jr. is a promising utility wing for the Philadelphia 76ers.

If Charlie Brown Jr. never plays another snap of professional basketball for the Philadelphia 76ers or otherwise, he’ll go down forever as a fan favorite in the City of Brotherly Love.

A two-year performer at St. Joe’s, CBJ helped to supercharge the Hawks as a true freshman, missed his entire sophomore season with a broken wrist, and then came back hotter than ever in 2016-17, where he averaged a team-leading 19 points and 6.2 rebounds in Phil Martelli‘s final season with the clipboard. Now granted, that team was still pretty bad, as they finished 14-19 overall and 10th in the Atlantic 10 Conference, but that wasn’t on Brown.

With Martelli out and ex-Philadelphia 76ers assistant Billy Lange named his replacement, Brown opted to test his mettle at the game’s highest level and signed with an agent heading into the 2019 NBA Draft.

*spoiler alert* he wasn’t selected.

Unfortunate? For Brown, surely, but he was able to latch on with the Atlanta Hawks on a two-way contract and put some good play on tape. From there, he signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the end of camp in December of 2020 and ultimately landed with their G-League affiliate, the Iowa Wolves. From there, he played well enough to secure a pair of 10-day contracts with the OKC Thunder and ended the season on a multi-year, non-guaranteed contract.

Brown didn’t stick there either; he was eventually waived by the Thunder in September and ultimately landed with the Delaware Blue Coats, where he played well enough to earn some recognition for the G-League (read about that here).

So, understandably, when the league allowed for teams to sign 10-day hardship contracts to help ease the burden of COVID outbreaks, Brown was quickly scooped up by the Dallas Mavericks, where he played 15 total minutes over three games. While Brown didn’t take the Mavs by storm enough to earn a longer look, as the team instead opted to sign Isaiah Thomas over the utility wing, he didn’t have to wait long for his next opportunity, as the Sixers promptly swooped in and signed him up for 10 days of action.

Is the fourth time the charm for the still-only-24-year-old? Well, I guess that depends on how well he plays when he takes the court and if the team ends up with an open roster spot at any point over the next month.

In Delaware, Brown did two things really well, shooting 3s and rebounding. Despite being used as a wing scorer opposite bigger forwards like his Sixers teammates Braxton Key, Paul Reed, and Charles Bassey, CBJ averaged 16.8 points, 7.8(!) rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game while draining 40 percent of his 6.8 3 point attempts per game. Brown put in the effort to box out after every shot, play the lanes, and just generally did everything in his power to help his team win, even if he was largely tasked with being the team’s either first or second offensive option, depending on whether or not BBall Paul was in our nation’s first or second state.

On a team like the 2021-22 Sixers, who put absolutely no effort into rebounding unless it’s absolutely necessary, giving minutes to a wing like Brown, either at shooting guard or small forward, could help to ease some of the team’s issues, especially if he can bring his shot up I-95.

Is Charlie Brown Jr. better than any of the players on the Philadelphia 76ers’ roster? No. CBJ is a fun, utility wing who could maybe develop into a 3-and-D wing, but he’s a good bit older than the rest of the team’s prospects and not quite as rotation-ready as any of their top-10 players. But is he better than either of their two-way players? Yes, yes, he is. While Brown may not ultimately stick with the Sixers, especially if he doesn’t get any minutes on this run, if the team finds themselves with an open roster spot down the line, don’t be surprised if Brown ultimately fills that spot if Philly fails to attract any quality buyout players.