The Champagnie brothers — Justin and Julian — took the backroads to the NBA. Both went undrafted and then bounced between various NBA and G League rosters before finding their current homes, where they have both become some of their respective teams’ most important players.
Justin was the first of the twins to take a crack at the NBA. After two years at the University of Pittsburgh, Justin went undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft before ultimately signing a two-way contract with the Toronto Raptors. Over the course of the 2021-22 season, Justin played sparingly, averaging under eight minutes per game in 36 contests.
During the next two seasons, Justin played just 20 total games for three different teams — three more games with the Raptors, two with the Boston Celtics, and 15 with the Washington Wizards.
It was in Washington that Justin finally found solid footing in the NBA; he is now one of the Wizards’ three players on two-way contracts, but he’s almost certain to be converted to a standard contract and added to the 15-man roster once the roster is inevitably shaken up at the trade deadline.
The other twin, Julian, spent an extra year in college at St. John’s University before also going undrafted in 2022. The Philadelphia 76ers signed him to a two-way contract and then waived him after just two games. Julian wound up on the San Antonio Spurs for the remainder of that season, where he played his way into a standard NBA contract.
In his first year on a standard contract, Julian served as a solid, if not attention-grabbing, wingman to rookie Victor Wembanyama, starting in 59 of his 74 games played. Now, with the Spurs playing much more compelling basketball than they did last year, Champagnie has blossomed into one of the team’s most important pieces.
The Champagnie brothers are hooping, but who is the superior player?
As of January 12th, Justin is averaging 9.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game on 53.5% shooting from the field and 41.2% from downtown. That 3-point percentage is first among qualified Wizards, and that field goal percentage is second behind only Jonas Valanciunas.
Julian, meanwhile, has started in over 120 games in his career with San Antonio and is scoring 12 points per game. Julian is a 3-point specialist meant to space the floor for the Victor Wembanyama-Chris Paul two-man game, but his 37.7% from deep on seven attempts per game (compared to just 1.5 twos per game) does not do his shooting justice.
Julian is a sniper from the left corner — 23 of his 35 made corner threes have come from the left corner, and only OG Anunoby has made more shots from that spot across the league this season. As a pressure release valve, Julian’s 46.9% from the left corner is incredibly effective in bailing out Wembanyama in the rare instances he’s not able to pull off a play we’ve never seen before.
Both Champagnies have the benefit of playing alongside a stud of a Frenchman. Julian’s Frenchman, however, happens to be an MVP candidate, while Justin’s is merely a young star on the rise who’s still figuring out the game.
As it stands, Julian is the superior player, as he’s an important part of a potential playoff team. Justin, however, projects as the more complete all-around player, and I’m intrigued to see how he can evolve once he is finally converted to a standard NBA contract and isn’t hampered by the 50-game limit placed on two-way players.