Shannon Brown hand injured, may need surgery after season

You can add this line to the scouting report for the Lakers in the playoffs: “Give Shannon Brown room to shoot from the perimeter.”

Back on March 2 Brown tried to block a Dahntay Jones dunk and in the process got a bone bruise and a torn thumb ligament in his right hand, he told the Los Angeles Times. Since then, his shooting percentage is down 10 points to 35.5 percent. (Although, oddly, March was his best shooting month from three, at 36 percent).

And yes, it hurts.

“Every block, every steal, every dunk, it’s painful. I just try to lose myself in a game when I’m out there playing,” he said. “I can’t worry about it. Hopefully, when it does get a chance to heal, it heals up well and I won’t have to have surgery.”

He went Kobe and tried to adjust how he shot the ball. But, well, he is not Kobe so it hasn’t gone as smoothly.

Hand surgery would not be ideal for someone expected to be a free agent this summer. Brown has a $2.1 million player option for next year, but he has long thought he could do better on the open market and was expected to test those waters.