Kobe Brown: 2023 NBA Draft Scouting Report
A physical, do-it-all forward, Brown checks a lot of boxes with his feel and scoring. Can he push himself into the first round conversation?
I’m starting to think that there are two different and distinct seasons in the NBA. The regular season tends to be about having better players, escaping healthy, managing the schedule, and getting the right rotations/ schemes to take advantage of those players. By the playoffs, when the talent level is a little more equal, it becomes a make-or-miss league. The team that shoots better from deep tends to win, as backed up by Steph Noh for Sporting News earlier this week.
During Game 5 of the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics series, a moment happened that showed the homogeneity of modern basketball. Stylistically, teams can attack in different ways and use varying players, sets, or tactics to generate a paint touch. But so much of modern basketball is about sustaining that advantage, spacing the floor properly, and letting the ball dictate who the open player is.
These 30 seconds illustrated pristine defensive rotations, the impact of ball movement, and why spacing around the 3-point line isn’t going away any time soon.
It was beautiful and so, so perfect. I feel like, as a scout, I’m just looking at a possession like this and saying “give me that. Give me guys who can do that”.
And so, my draft litmus test for role players for the rest of this 2023 cycle was born. Can players, who are likely not projecting as one of the focal points of an offense who create those initial rotations, sustain those advantages by shooting, attacking closeouts, or making quick decisions as a passer?
On defense, are they smart and quick enough to rotate around to cover up those advantages? Do they have positional versatility so it doesn’t matter who they end up on and a mismatch in isolation doesn’t result from the play?
As fate would have it, I was spending the 48 hours after this play and moment watching film on Missouri swing forward Kobe Brown. Brown turned 23 during the season and is one of the older, more accomplished players in this draft class. He experienced one of the most rare single-season shooting spikes in recent memory; a career 23% 3-point shooter turned into a 45% shooter this season.
Brown played with a ton of confidence and, under new head coach Dennis Gates with his collection of misfit toys from the transfer portal, jettisoned Missouri toward the top of the SEC and back into the NCAA Tournament. Kobe is an unbelievably polished young man, a great leader and a high-character teammate. He’s got size at 6’8” with a strong frame and over a seven-foot wingspan. He’s gotten better every year in college and can handle the ball a little bit.
With all the boxes that Brown checks, age seems to be the main area holding him back from being perceived as a first-round pick. But buying Kobe as being good enough for that level also means buying the jump shot, which is a risky take after examining the track record of guys who have experienced a similar one-year sudden spike pre-draft.
Nonetheless, I’m ready to stamp my name to it and have seen enough to call it. Kobe Brown is worthy of a first-round grade. I hope to illustrate how his versatility, quick processing feel, and fit into those Celtics-Heat style possessions gives me that confidence, why the defense isn’t a major area of concern due to fit, and how one specific portion of his jump shot has me buying into it long-term.