Bruce Brown’s time with the Toronto Raptors might be coming to an end soon.
There was a lot of speculation that the Raptors were going to trade Brown at the 2023 NBA Trade Deadline, but a deal never panned out.
Now the belief is the Raptors are expected to trade the 27-year-old around the 2024 NBA Draft, per the Toronto Star’s Doug Smith:
“The Raptors have until June 29 (two days after the draft) to exercise an option on the $23 million (U.S.) he’s owed next season — a valuable expiring contract to put on the market. The sense from a handful of league sources is that the Raptors are likely to pick up the option, then turn around and deal Brown quickly rather than wait until the 2025 trade deadline.”
Brown was traded to Toronto on Jan. 17 in the Pascal Siakam trade. Brown’s production with the Raptors was average at best. He said after the season that a knee injury was troubling him.
However, according to Smith the talk around this week’s draft combine is that Brown is still seen as a valuable and serviceable rotation player on a good team. He was a useful piece on the Denver Nuggets when they won their championship in 2023.
Smith also says the feeling is that the Raptors won’t start the season with both Brown and Gary Trent Jr. on the roster. Trent Jr. is an unrestricted free agent this summer, but at 25-years-old he would be the more attractive piece to keep during this Raptors rebuild.
Potential Brown trade
Now the question becomes what can the Raptors get in return for him?
His salary makes it tricky to deal him because any team trading for Brown that doesn’t have enough cap space to take on his contract must find matching salary to send the Raptors way.
Also, the Raptors reportedly wanted a first-round pick for Brown at the trade deadline so that’s something they’d probably be looking for here as well.
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