Philadelphia 76ers: If Charlie Brown Jr. finds his shot, it’s over

Joel Embiid‘s on-court mastery.

Tyrese Maxey‘s elevation.

Georges Niang‘s signing.

The hardship signing of Charlie Brown Jr.

Those are arguably the four brightest developments of the Philadelphia 76ers‘ 2021-22 season, with only a few more positives – Seth Curry‘s shooting, Point Furkan – for the fans to hang their collective hats on.

Unfortunate? Maybe so, but as the team stays stuck in a $33 million holding pattern that may just drag into the postseason, it’s the little things that make your run-of-the-mill Sixers game worth watching, especially in a post-Omicron world where rosters vary considerably from game to game.

But hey, until that BS trade actually goes down and the 76ers finally stake their claim on a roster built around JoJo’s greatness, the team can at least commit valuable on-court minutes to young players- though apparently not Jaden Springer – to see how they look in bigger roles.

For Charlie Brown Jr. to take his current opportunity and run with it, going from a hardship signee to a two-way player and then a legit rotational building block, he needs to bring his shot up I-95 from the Delaware Blue Coats to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Charlie Brown Jr. is a shot away from the Philadelphia 76ers’ regular season rotation.

In Delaware, Charlie Brown Jr. was a good shooter. He hit 40 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc on 6.8 attempts per game, and was even efficient from the field, where he drained 45.7 percent of his 12.7 attempts.

But in the NBA? For whatever reason, his shots just aren’t dropping.

Since entering the NBA as a UDFA out of St. Joe’s, CBJ had only made 27.5 of his shots from the field and 22 percent from 3, including a not-so-good 1-11 from deep in 2021-22.

Sidebar: 1-11 is 9.1 percent, or as we like to call it in Philadelphia, Ben Simmons level production from beyond the arc.

While shooting alone isn’t the make or break ability of an NBA player, as Brown has held up fairly well on defense, has crashed the boards like a much bigger player, and plays lanes like a slightly taller, two-tone mohawk’d Matisse Thybulle, one-way players aren’t as useful in the playoffs as two-way players, which is a commodity the Sixers are sorely lacking in at the moment.

Simply put: The better Brown shoots, the more he’ll play.

I know, I know; sounds simple, right? But it’s true.

Take, for example, the Sixers win over the San Antonio Spurs. CBJ earned the start in place of both Thybulle and Danny Green and was on the court for a whopping 27 minutes, the longest single-game run of his career in Philadelphia. Brown was able to put up seven points, which also accounts for a career-high for his hometown team, but he did so on only six shots from the field and zero from 3.

Now granted, Brown was still able to help his team win, as he rounded out his stats with four rebounds and two steals, but in a tighter game versus a tougher foe, leaving those open looks from deep on the table could have bit the team on the behind.

If Brown wants to be able to take the court alongside a variety of different lineups, playing alongside everyone from Furkan Korkmaz to Greens and even Thybulle, he’ll need to be able to provide enough spacing to keep opposing teams honest.

Simply put: If CBJ can find his outside shot, any debate over his future with the team is over.

Right now, Charlie Brown Jr. is a solid replacement for Danny Green and Matisse Thybulle while the duo are on the mend. He can play defense, match up against varying players of different shapes and sizes, and do the little things needed to help his team win. If that’s all he brings to the table then fans should be more than happy with having 16 on the roster. But if CBJ can do more and round out his D with an above-average 3 ball? Well, then the Philadelphia 76ers might just have themsevles a fun young player to build around.