During the 2008 NBA Finals against the Celtics, Vujacic was a key contributor in a series the Lakers lost in six games. This earned him a three year, fifteen million dollar contract extension. Since then he has struggled to remain consistent. His playing time has become sporadic at best, as head coach Phil Jackson is apparently tired of his inconsistent play.
There is no doubt that both players exhibit completely different styles of play. Vujacic is an outside shooter that can get under the skin of opponents on the defensive end of the floor. Brown is a slasher with the ability to jump over his opponents if he can’t get around them. Recently Brown has also improved his outside shooting, and the argument can be made that he is as effective as Vujacic from behind the arc.
If you just look at the numbers it would seem that Brown is a more important part to the Lakers as a whole. Brown played in all 82 regular season games in 2009-2010 as opposed to Vujacic’s 67. Brown averaged nearly 21 minutes per game while Vujacic played barely eight.
And as for the area of the floor that is supposedly Vujacic’s specialty? Brown shot 33% from downtown while Vujacic shot only 31%.
If this was strictly a numbers game the clear-cut winner would appear to be Shannon Brown. This outcome is no different than the financial decision as well, so it would make sense for Los Angeles to trade Vujacic in favor of Brown.
