granger05 wrote:Hollinger as an
articleup about the Siakam deal today. I was surprised by this bit:
Everyone knew the Toronto Raptors needed to get something for Pascal Siakam before he hit free agency. Everyone knew the Indiana Pacers needed an upgrade at power forward and were shopping for talent. And it was an open secret in league circles that Bruce Brown was unhappy in Indiana, and his contract was essentially structured this summer to be a salary match for exactly this type of trade. The only thing to haggle over were the details.
There wasn't any more information in the article. Brown was starting and playing more minutes for us than he had at any point in his career. I don't know why he would have been notably unhappy in Indy.
My feeling is Brown was happy about the money offered and couldn’t pass it up. I think that he enjoyed his teammates here. It’s probable that he didn’t have a better monetary offer when joining the Pacers from a team he’d rather have played for. I still sense that he didn’t want to leave the nuggets but knew they couldn’t afford him and he couldn’t take less money at this point in his career.
I feel like he either didn’t like his role here or he didn’t like that he wasn’t considered a long term player in the Pacers quest for a championship run. Hard to say if he wasn’t happy but understandable if he was. Mathurin is the future here. I am just speculating of course.
Currently Bruce Brown is a fiesty competitor that fits in with a strong team and is like a jack of all trades in a complimentary way to stars. Definitely not a centerpiece or dominant player yet better than a role player.
For Toronto I don’t see Bruce as a leader they might need. Feels more like a capital piece obtained to not lose Siakam in free agency with nothing in return. Since the Raptors are now in rebuilding mode I can’t see him there very long more so a vessel to gain more capital for their rebuild.