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The Toronto Raptors are "very motivated" to trade Bruce Brown Jr. before the trade deadline, sources tell Jake Fischer. Brown is on a $23 million expiring salary, but hasn't played as well as when he was a critical part of the Denver Nuggets' title run in 2023. Brown also missed the first 31 games of the season with a right knee injury.

When the Raptors traded Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers last season, Brown was the biggest matching salary component of the trade.

In nine games this season, Brown is averaging 7.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in 18.2 minutes. 

Via Jake Fischer/The Stein Line

Yeah, leave out the part where the Raptor's GM did NOT have to pick up his over priced option. Total waste of $23M by the Raptors.

deeps6x wrote:Yeah, leave out the part where the Raptor's GM did NOT have to pick up his over priced option. Total waste of $23M by the Raptors.

But the plan was always to flip him for more assets.

Brown + a pick for Gafford + filler would be a fair trade for both sides.

Reeko wrote:

deeps6x wrote:Yeah, leave out the part where the Raptor's GM did NOT have to pick up his over priced option. Total waste of $23M by the Raptors.

But the plan was always to flip him for more assets.

It was a bad decision to accept him as the main returning player asset in the Siakam trade unless they simply preferred the expiring contract. Picking up his option under the presumption there would be a market for him at his inflated salary only confirmed the bad decision and is costing them millions in the process.

Brown is just the latest player to be overpaid coming off of an outlier streak of higher production under specific circumstances (See Gabe Vincent). This means Rob Pelinka will probably trade for him.

kenwood3333 wrote:Brown + a pick for Gafford + filler would be a fair trade for both sides.

WTF lol. The Raptors would never do this. Do you understand that they are tanking and want draft capital and not trade it away?Gafford ... lol come on guy. Maybe for Lively.

Reeko wrote:

deeps6x wrote:Yeah, leave out the part where the Raptor's GM did NOT have to pick up his over priced option. Total waste of $23M by the Raptors.

But the plan was always to flip him for more assets.

More assets being a couple of seconds at best

Rek wrote:

Reeko wrote:

deeps6x wrote:Yeah, leave out the part where the Raptor's GM did NOT have to pick up his over priced option. Total waste of $23M by the Raptors.

But the plan was always to flip him for more assets.

It was a bad decision to accept him as the main returning player asset in the Siakam trade unless they simply preferred the expiring contract. Picking up his option under the presumption there would be a market for him at his inflated salary only confirmed the bad decision and is costing them millions in the process.

Brown is just the latest player to be overpaid coming off of an outlier streak of higher production under specific circumstances (See Gabe Vincent). This means Rob Pelinka will probably trade for him.

You won't get any argument from me there, I never liked the deal. I don't know if we've ever seen a player better at making his teammates better than Jokic, and so Brown benefitted immensely. He still has some value as a utility player and his contract inherently carries value as an expiring. Remember that he was injured last season, got surgery this season and is rounding back into form.

Karate Diop wrote:

Reeko wrote:

deeps6x wrote:Yeah, leave out the part where the Raptor's GM did NOT have to pick up his over priced option. Total waste of $23M by the Raptors.

But the plan was always to flip him for more assets.

More assets being a couple of seconds at best

Sure, still beats letting him walk for nothing. And this FO does a great job of finding value in the 2nd round.

Reeko wrote:

deeps6x wrote:Yeah, leave out the part where the Raptor's GM did NOT have to pick up his over priced option. Total waste of $23M by the Raptors.

But the plan was always to flip him for more assets.

Might already acquired the assets with cap space if he was expired last year.

Reeko wrote:

Rek wrote:

Reeko wrote:But the plan was always to flip him for more assets.

It was a bad decision to accept him as the main returning player asset in the Siakam trade unless they simply preferred the expiring contract. Picking up his option under the presumption there would be a market for him at his inflated salary only confirmed the bad decision and is costing them millions in the process.

Brown is just the latest player to be overpaid coming off of an outlier streak of higher production under specific circumstances (See Gabe Vincent). This means Rob Pelinka will probably trade for him.

You won't get any argument from me there, I never liked the deal. I don't know if we've ever seen a player better at making his teammates better than Jokic, and so Brown benefitted immensely. He still has some value as a utility player and his contract inherently carries value as an expiring. Remember that he was injured last season, got surgery this season and is rounding back into form.

My assumption was to understand if Barnes can be a Jokic type of playmaker and allow Brown to play better. Perhaps Barnes isn't the same type of playmaker, neither Brown played well. Good as an expiring at this point.

Indeed wrote:

Reeko wrote:

Rek wrote:It was a bad decision to accept him as the main returning player asset in the Siakam trade unless they simply preferred the expiring contract. Picking up his option under the presumption there would be a market for him at his inflated salary only confirmed the bad decision and is costing them millions in the process.

Brown is just the latest player to be overpaid coming off of an outlier streak of higher production under specific circumstances (See Gabe Vincent). This means Rob Pelinka will probably trade for him.

You won't get any argument from me there, I never liked the deal. I don't know if we've ever seen a player better at making his teammates better than Jokic, and so Brown benefitted immensely. He still has some value as a utility player and his contract inherently carries value as an expiring. Remember that he was injured last season, got surgery this season and is rounding back into form.

My assumption was to understand if Barnes can be a Jokic type of playmaker and allow Brown to play better. Perhaps Barnes isn't the same type of playmaker, neither Brown played well. Good as an expiring at this point.

Brown's either been injured or coming off of surgery, so we haven't seen what he looks like healthy and fully able. To expect Scottie to be as good of a playmaker as one of the best 5-10 players to ever do it in Jokic would be an enormous overestimation of his skills as a playmaker. Barnes is very good, maybe even great, but he's not all time great in that respect.

kenwood3333 wrote:Brown + a pick for Gafford + filler would be a fair trade for both sides.

Both sides meaning...Dallas, and Brown?
Raptors are not giving up any picks to get off Brown, they'd sooner let him expire.

I think it's pretty clear than there's a significant bump in playing with Jokic, and teams need to be very wary of taking guys off of that team in FA/trade. Brown and KCP both had significant drop offs immediately after leaving Jokic. Westbrook got a significant bump up this year. Gordon shot 43% in ORL, he's shooting 54% in DEN from all the easy Jokic creation. Gordon might've been close to out of the league by this point if not for Jokic. I suspect the same will be said about MPJ if he's traded (in some Butler deal or otherwise), Braun, as well as Murray if he's ever moved.

Nobody makes their teammates better quite like Jokic, in the same way Nash did for Amar'e in the 2000s. He was an all-star and 2nd team all-nba every year until his PG was no longer Nash or Billups.

ontnut wrote:I think it's pretty clear than there's a significant bump in playing with Jokic, and teams need to be very wary of taking guys off of that team in FA/trade. Brown and KCP both had significant drop offs immediately after leaving Jokic. Westbrook got a significant bump up this year. Gordon shot 43% in ORL, he's shooting 54% in DEN from all the easy Jokic creation. Gordon might've been close to out of the league by this point if not for Jokic. I suspect the same will be said about MPJ if he's traded (in some Butler deal or otherwise), Braun, as well as Murray if he's ever moved.

Nobody makes their teammates better quite like Jokic, in the same way Nash did for Amar'e in the 2000s. He was an all-star and 2nd team all-nba every year until his PG was no longer Nash or Billups.

I said the same think when DEN didn't want to pay Brown what he got from IND or KCP what he got from ORL. Everybody was up in arms about DEN not wanting to win. I said it then and I'll say it again... DEN knew exactly what these players were worth. They miss both Brown and KCP on their old contracts, but could only wish them well when they saw the new price tag.

Pickled Prunes wrote:

ontnut wrote:I think it's pretty clear than there's a significant bump in playing with Jokic, and teams need to be very wary of taking guys off of that team in FA/trade. Brown and KCP both had significant drop offs immediately after leaving Jokic. Westbrook got a significant bump up this year. Gordon shot 43% in ORL, he's shooting 54% in DEN from all the easy Jokic creation. Gordon might've been close to out of the league by this point if not for Jokic. I suspect the same will be said about MPJ if he's traded (in some Butler deal or otherwise), Braun, as well as Murray if he's ever moved.

Nobody makes their teammates better quite like Jokic, in the same way Nash did for Amar'e in the 2000s. He was an all-star and 2nd team all-nba every year until his PG was no longer Nash or Billups.

I said the same think when DEN didn't want to pay Brown what he got from IND or KCP what he got from ORL. Everybody was up in arms about DEN not wanting to win. I said it then and I'll say it again... DEN knew exactly what these players were worth. They miss both Brown and KCP on their old contracts, but could only wish them well when they saw the new price tag.

Well said.

Ssj16 wrote:

Pickled Prunes wrote:

ontnut wrote:I think it's pretty clear than there's a significant bump in playing with Jokic, and teams need to be very wary of taking guys off of that team in FA/trade. Brown and KCP both had significant drop offs immediately after leaving Jokic. Westbrook got a significant bump up this year. Gordon shot 43% in ORL, he's shooting 54% in DEN from all the easy Jokic creation. Gordon might've been close to out of the league by this point if not for Jokic. I suspect the same will be said about MPJ if he's traded (in some Butler deal or otherwise), Braun, as well as Murray if he's ever moved.

Nobody makes their teammates better quite like Jokic, in the same way Nash did for Amar'e in the 2000s. He was an all-star and 2nd team all-nba every year until his PG was no longer Nash or Billups.

I said the same think when DEN didn't want to pay Brown what he got from IND or KCP what he got from ORL. Everybody was up in arms about DEN not wanting to win. I said it then and I'll say it again... DEN knew exactly what these players were worth. They miss both Brown and KCP on their old contracts, but could only wish them well when they saw the new price tag.

Well said.

Yep spot on

He was good in Brooklyn too, though - in fact his PER (for whatever PER is worth) was significantly higher in BKN back in the bad old days than it was in DEN with Jokic (though Harden and Kyrie could also be good distributors of the ball when motivated to do so). I think it's likely health and other factors as much or more than the lack of Jokic, and he will be a good pickup for some established team. He can be a winning do-everything player, especially at the right price.

I'm just shocked there are this many comments for Bruce Brown

Bruce is still good, he just doesn't want to play for the Raptors.