Report: Timberwolves sign Anthony Brown to two-way contract

A report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has the first of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ two two-way contracts with their new NBA G-League team in Iowa filled with a wing, something the team desperately needs.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Anthony Brown before, the skinny: he was drafted in the second round of the 2015 draft by the Los Angeles Lakers after a four-year college career at Stanford. He played in 29 games (and started 11) for that god-awful Lakers team, and it did not earn him a second year in Los Angeles. Last season he played in both New Orleans and Orlando (appearing in 11 NBA games) but played mostly in the D-League (24 games and almost 38 minutes a game).

Brown’s NBA numbers are thoroughly uninspiring, but his D-now-G-League numbers are pretty solid. Brown was actually named to last season’s D-League All-Star Game, and finished the season averaging 20.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game on 46.6%/46.7%/80.8% shooting (over 46% on 5.1 attempts a game is pretty dang good). Just don’t look at his stats from his minimal minutes for the Clippers’ team in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago.

Long story short, Brown’s in that place where he’s looked awesome in the lower league, but uninspiring in the NBA so far. An article from his 10-day stint with the Magic in January has some positive thoughts. The Wolves certainly need someone to soak up some wing minutes off the bench, so Brown should get his shot with the main team if he earns it, and should be a cornerstone of the Iowa Wolves if nothing else.