Sterling

Brown

Brown suffered the injury during Wednesday’s win over the Heat and did not play despite initially being deemed questionable for Friday’s game against the Hawks. With Lonnie Walker (knee) and Austin Reaves (hamstring) out for at least two weeks, the last thing the Lakers can afford is to lose another wing for an extended period. If Brown can’t play Saturday night, Max Christie would take on a few more minutes, and the Lakers signed Sterling Brown to a 10-day contract ahead of Friday’s victory.

With Lonnie Walker (knee) and Austin Reaves (hamstring) sidelined for at least two weeks, the Lakers were in need of additional depth on the wing. Hence the signing of Brown, who most recently appeared in four games for Raptors 905 in the G League. Since being selected by the 76ers with the 46th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, he has appeared in 265 games, most of which were played with the Bucks. Brown played three minutes in Friday’s win over the Hawks and is not worth rostering in fantasy leagues.

He came to OKC in an eight-player trade last week after struggling for Dallas last season. He’ll now look for a new team but regardless of where he lands, there’s no fantasy value here.

Brown struggled in 49 appearances for Dallas last season, averaging a mere 3.3 points on 38.1% shooting. His 2020-21 campaign with Houston resulted in a slew of career-highs, including points (8.2), rebounds (4.4), assists (1.4) and blocks (0.7), but he needed 24 minutes to hit those numbers. That amount of playing time will be nearly impossible for Brown to find on a roster replete with young, talented wings.

This may be the furthest thing from a blockbuster deal, but it helps get OKC $10 million under the luxury tax while acquiring two trade exceptions, and Houston got a second-round pick for only taking on $1 million in cap space. This move was simply about moving money around for these teams. Nwaba was solid for Houston two years ago, but his role dwindled last season. Now, he’ll get a fresh start in OKC, but it probably won’t result in a huge role. Leave him off your draft board, though he could make an impact later in the season if OKC benches all of their starters again.

Brown was traded along with three others with Christian Wood headed the other way. Brown actually had a successful stint with the Rockets before flopping in Dallas, so maybe he can find that form again. He’ll still have a ton of work to do to get on the fantasy radar with so much young firepower ahead of him on the depth chart.

The Mavericks will send the 26th pick to Houston in addition to Boban Marjanovic, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke and Marquese Chriss. This trade can only be viewed as a good thing for Wood, as he gets a fresh start in Dallas without the threat of Alperen Sengun behind him. Playing alongside Luka Doncic has its perks too obviously, and those two should form a deadly partnership on offense. Wood will be playing in the final year of his contract so the Rockets were wise to get something back in return before they turned their frontcourt over to Sengun.

Brown is not a prominent rotation player on this team.

Brown will be available Friday night, but that doesn’t mean he’ll automatically be in the rotation. No need to use him in a fantasy league or DFS tournament.

Brown isn’t with the team and will miss tonight’s game, but that’s about all we know. This won’t affect your fantasy team though.