Raptors, possible free agent Bruce Brown had "really good" exit meeting
When the Toronto Raptors traded for Bruce Brown earlier this season, there was an expectation that he could soon be flipped to another team rather quickly.
Coming to Toronto as part of the package that sent Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers, the 27-year-old was less than a year removed from being a key piece of the Denver Nuggets’ rotation as they won the 2023 NBA title.
With Toronto far removed from the playoff picture themselves, there was an expectation that another contending team could use a player fresh off winning a championship.
But the trade deadline came and went, and Brown remained a Raptor for the remainder of the season, things weren’t exactly rosy for the team.
In 24 games after the deadline with Brown in the lineup, the team went just 5-19, finishing 12th in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s been tough. I mean I really couldn’t bend my knee much, I really played on one leg the entire time. I just wasn’t myself since December, but next year I will be fine,” Brown told CityNews’ Lindsay Dunn following the team’s regular-season finale in Miami.
And with Brown having a $23 million team option for next season on the final year of a two-year contract he signed with Indiana, Toronto is currently pondering whether they’ll keep him around for next year. The team has the choice to either pick up the option and keep him, pick up the option and trade him at some point over the next 10 months, or let him walk into free agency.
For Raptors president Masai Ujiri, all options still appear to be on the table.
“I think we’re going to continue to assess that as we go. We’re going to go into a lot of our team meetings now, coaches’ meetings and and try to figure that out,” Ujiri said at his end-of-season media availability earlier this week of Brown’s future in Toronto. “I think we had really good [exit] meetings with Bruce and Gary [Trent Jr].”
Brown averaged 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 34 games for Toronto, while averaging 26 minutes a night.
“For me, the most important thing is what do they bring to the table. You know, like what, what kind of talents do they have? I think they do have special talents that they bring,” Ujri added of what he’s looking to see from Brown and Trent Jr.
The final day for the Raptors to pick up or decline Brown’s option is June 29.
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