Philadelphia 76ers: Charlie Brown Jr. is good at causing grief

Continuity has been at an all-time low for the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021-22.

Now granted, that isn’t just a problem in our fair City of Brotherly Love; the NBA has been hit by the Omicron variant to an incredible degree, with what feels like 50 players earning extended looks on 10-day contract call ups.

These weird runs have allowed healthy teams to take advantage of their downtrend foes, good teams from 2020-21 catch strings of unfortunate luck, and most importantly of all, opportunities for fringe guys to prove their worth and land longer looks at the game’s highest level.

Sitting decently well-positioned at 25-17, the Philadelphia 76ers have largely weathered their issues thanks to the MVP caliber play of Joel Embiid (more on that here) and have even found a nice player of their own in Charlie Brown Jr., who continues to impress whether signed to a 10-day contract, a two-way contract, or something bigger down the line. Why? Because CBJ knows how to make things harder for opposing players.

Charlie Brown Jr. is doing all the little things for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Charlie Brown Jr. is in the NBA right now because of effort.

A three-star recruit born in Philadelphia and educated at the St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Connecticut, Brown only received one Division 1 scholarship coming out of high school and quickly took the Atlantic 10 Conference by storm as a freshman with Phil Martelli‘s St. Joe’s Hawks.

And then Brown got hurt.

That’s right, after averaging 12.8 points and five rebounds as a complementary player for a very good Hawks team, Brown missed his true sophomore season with a broken wrist and had to wait until 2018-19 to prove his worth yet again.

Finally healthy, though on a team with far less pure talent, Brown led the A-10 in scoring at 19 points and looked like a legit candidate to hear his name called in the 2019 NBA Draft. He didn’t; despite hiring an agent and working out across the association, Brown was ultimately overlooked on 60-straight selections but again, Brown put his head down and worked his way into the NBA via a two-way contract with the Hawks.

And then? Well, Brown wasn’t ultimately offered another contract in Atlanta, was signed and then waived by the Minnesota Timberwolves, then signed and waived by the OKC Thunder after earning a long-term term deal, and was finally signed and then waived by the Dallas Mavericks from a 10-day contract after starting out the season with the Delaware Blue Coats.

Dizzying? Imagine how Brown must have felt, but now? Now those setbacks were mere stops along his journey to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he’s found a home on a two-way contract.

Why? Say it with me: Effort.

On the court, Brown is a disruptor. In only 53 minutes split over five games in a red, white, and blue uniform, Brown has picked up four steals, a block, and six points while playing good defense on-ball and off as a switchable athletic perimeter presence. Despite playing 61 percent of his minutes at the shooting guard spot, Brown has picked up nine total rebounds and has proven himself a willing board crasher anytime he’s on the court, which is good, because the Sixers are literally the worst rebounding team in the NBA.

Is Brown a finished product? No. He’s yet to hit a 3 with his hometown team on six attempts after draining 40 percent of comparable shots in Delaware, but on a team lacking in athleticism and bigger wings who can match up on taller small forwards, Brown is playing far better than his two-way contract would suggest; at an AAV of $2.61 million mark according to FiveThirtyEight to be exact.

As long as he continues to earn on-court opportunities, there’s little reason to believe Brown won’t continue to flash promise and give maximum effort regardless of minutes played.

Objectively speaking, Charlie Brown Jr. is never going to become a starter for the Philadelphia 76ers. His offense is too inconsistent, and at 24, he isn’t exactly a spring chicken, but in the NBA, every player doesn’t need to be a star. Good teams need big-time scorers, sharpshooters, and dime-dropping playmakers to win games, sure, but they also need effort guys who come to work every day, crash the boards, and leave it all on the court. Charlie Brown Jr. has firmly worked his way into the latter category and deserves a massive amount of credit for doing so.