After weeks of dominance, Moses Brown has officially been signed by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
News broke of the big man’s recent inking Sunday evening, becoming official hours later.
In the case for Moses Brown, the 21-year-old has had to work for every opportunity given in his paltry two-seasons in the NBA. The McDonalds All-American was a consensus five-star coming out of high school, but a foggy one-and-done campaign at UCLA (9.7 PPG, 8.3 RPG), highlighted by a meme, left his names out of the commissioners note cards come draft day.
Moses Brown signed on with the Houston Rockets for the Summer League, but a paltry two-minutes of play in Vegas left the NBA hopeful no shot of cracking into Houston’s depth chart. Luckily for Brown, the Portland Trail Blazers had been desperate for a big man after Jusuf Nurkic suffered an at the time season-ending injury in March of 2019. After a month and counting, the then 19 year-old upped his exhibit-10 contract into a two-way deal for the season.
Despite Portland bigs Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins missing almost the entirety of the season (19 games combined,) Terry Stotts opted to spread center minutes across four different players — Moses Brown was not one of them.
Instead, Brown’s rookie season consisted of a mere 9 NBA appearances posting averages of 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in 3.7 minutes per game. The 7-foot-2 center spent the majority of his season with the Texas Legends, placing 30 appearances (no starts) for 14.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks.
After months of missing basketball, Sam Presti took a shot with Moses Brown, signing him December 9, on a two-way contract.
Prior to the G-League bubble, Moses Brown had little-to-no name recognition amongst fans as Brown hardly touched the floor with 7 appearances on 4.6 minutes per game.
Orlando spelled Moses Brown’s first glimpse of taking over games. The big man played the star role with the Oklahoma City Blue for the entirety of the season, being green-lit from coach Grant Gibbs to wreak havoc onto opposing bigs with his 7-foot-2 frame. Brown notched Player of the Week honors in week two of the season, and led the Blue to a league-best 7-1 start. Teams started concentrating solely on stopping the paint from Moses Brown, leading to an eventual drop off in numbers, and record (8-7), but his statline of 18.9 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks led him to the G-League first team, and All-Defensive team honors.
In Brown’s return to Oklahoma City, he has played at the same level — if not even better. The former Bruin has racked averages of 12.4 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in his 9 games in the month of March. Brown has made history in the past month, flaring off the Thunder’s second 20 point, 15 rebound, 5 block game in history, docking two of the franchises five fastest double-doubles in the past week, and tied a franchises record of rebounds in a game with 23 last game.
With the report Al Horford would sit the remainder of the season, and a report earlier Sunday that Austin Rivers was released by the franchise — Brown’s contract comes to zero surprise. The 21-year-old will have the keys to the five possession for the remainder of the season, and with a multiyear contract, he will finally have some security headed into the future.
Brown joins a decorated list of two-way standouts coming out of Oklahoma City including Lu Dort, Deonte Burton, and P.J. Dozier.