“I’m proud of you guys,” Lorenzo Brown told his teammates, tongue-in-cheek, following each of the Toronto Raptors’ first few games this season.
The 28 year-old point guard is genuinely proud and impressed by what he’s seen from the Raptors, he is quick to point out, but the joke was that having barely left his spot on the bench — except to stand up and cheer like a good teammate — all he could do was acknowledge the work of others.
With injuries in the Raps backcourt, however, some playing time has opened up for Brown, who averaged over 15 minutes per game and figures to be a bigger part of the team’s rotations than expected until Fred VanVleet returns to action and Delon Wright regains his form.
This time last year Brown was in training camp for the G League’s Raptors 905, putting the early touches on what would eventually be an MVP season. The year before, he was in China playing for the Zhejiang Chouzhou Golden Bulls, and in the years before that a string of appearances split between the G League and the NBA.
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His basketball life has come a long way. On Friday, when the Toronto Raptors tip off against the Phoenix Suns in Arizona, he’ll be playing backup point guard minutes for one of the top contenders in the NBA.
That wasn’t the plan. The Raptors’ point guard depth is one of the team’s many strengths, and Brown was expected to see reserve minutes — if that — during the regular season while playing behind the likes of VanVleet, Wright, and Kyle Lowry. Brown understood that he would be relegated to watching games from the sideline, waiting for an opportunity.
“I’ve been in that situation before,” Brown says during an off-day at the Raptors’ practice facility near Toronto’s lakeshore. “It’s definitely challenging because of the depth that we have on our team. My job is to be a great teammate, it’s the only thing I can do. I just come in here, be patient, and do my work.”
The opportunity for playing time has come earlier than expected courtesy of injuries to both Wright and VanVleet — the former suffering a thigh injury in the pre-season, and the latter dealing with a big toe injury that’s cost him the last four games and could see him continue to miss time during the Raptors’ upcoming four-game road trip.
It’s given Brown a taste of consistent court time that he hasn’t seen in the NBA for years.
Drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves out of North Carolina State in the second round in 2013, Brown was released by the team after training camp and spent time with the Philadelphia 76ers during the 2013-14 season.
The next season the Timberwolves brought him back for training camp once more, and by the end of the ’14-15 campaign he was getting his first taste of consistent playing time. The following training camp another Timberwolf was making his return to Minnesota: Kevin Garnett.
The future Hall of Famer was playing out his final NBA days and took Brown under his wing.
“He asked me to live with him during training camp,” Brown says. “You couldn’t ask for anything else. It was honour to be there with him, hear all of his stories, hear what he had to say about basketball. It was cool, shout out to KG, that’s the big homie. He’s a good dude. He speaks highly of me whenever I’m brought up so, man, you can’t ask for anything else.”
For the next three years, Brown lived the life of an NBA journeyman, which was still an apt description of his career by the time he joined Raptors 905.
As both a scorer and playmaker, he was a catalyst to the team’s success last season and helped the 905 reach their second consecutive G League Finals. In 32 games he averaged 18.8 points, 8.8 assists, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 33 minutes per game — and took his game to another level in the playoffs.
A hot streak following the all-star break and his consistent performance helped earn him the league’s MVP award. He keeps the trophy in his locker stall at Scotiabank Arena.
Brown also made the most of appearances with the Raptors’ NBA club in 14 appearances, helping to earn him a contract with the big club this past summer.
In six appearances this season, Brown hasn’t exactly turned heads in the same way. He’s struggling from the floor, shooting just under 35 per cent, and has nearly as many turnovers (0.8) per game as assists (1.3). He’s probably trying to do a little too much on the court, which is a pretty natural outcome for players who aren’t sure when they’ll be sent back to the bench for good and are looking to prove themselves when their number is called.
The Raptors could use Brown, particularly given that Wright has been something of a shell of himself early on this season — shooting 28.6 per cent in just over 10 minutes per game during the three games he’s appeared in — as he works his way back from injury.
But for now Brown is enjoying his opportunity. “It’s a pleasure,” he says of his current role. “I’m happy to be in this situation.”
Whatever happens when the team gets back to full strength, Brown vows to remain grateful for the position he’s in. “I’m in the NBA. I’ve dreamed about this since I was young,” he says. “It’s pretty cool.”
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