We've got less than two weeks until the Los Angeles Clippers' season unofficially begins with the start of training camp. As Clippers fans look ahead to the regular season, they're likely aware of the fact that Kobe Brown has a ways to go before earning way into this team's rotation.
That's not exactly a secret. Brown has averaged just 7.9 minutes per game in Los Angeles through his first two professional seasons. This team was already extremely veteran-laden last year, and that's only increased with all the additions the front office made this summer.
It's pretty obvious that it's going to be a steep uphill climb for Brown to find much of any meaningful court time this coming season. There will still be some opportunity for him, but he's going to have to really capitalize on it.
There are already a few factors that would likely give Tyronn Lue some hesitancy about leaning into more Kobe Brown minutes as of right now. Unfortunately, Brown falls into a somewhat unique category where he doesn't quite have the kind of quickness or shooting power that would make him an elite slasher or floor-spacer on the perimeter, and he lacks the size to do consistent work on the interior.
Kobe Brown must prove he can be in Tyronn Lue's rotation
That places him into a bit of a strange category. To add on to that, his reliability on defense has been inconsistent as well. Brown has some versatility on the defensive side of things, but he hasn't been known to switch super effectively, and he has frequently been burned when he's guarding a much quicker player.
All this could possibly be negated if his scoring and playmaking numbers were above average or at least on par with what coaches want from a reliable rotation player. But the fact of the matter is that Kobe's lack of a strong three-point shot has severely limited his spacing potential.
Given that he's now 25 years old, it's basically "put up or shut up" time for the third-year wing. The unfortunate reality is that to this point, Brown has simply been all too easy to replace in a lot of lineups due the fact that he lacks one high-level skill to really differentiate him from the other players on the Clippers' bench.
With all that in mind, there's still a chance for him. Sometimes all it takes to get a guy to reach a new level is just by putting his back against the wall, and that's basically the situation Kobe Brown finds himself in now.