Late on Wednesday night, another big NBA trade went down with mere hours to go until the league’s deadline. The 16-35 Raptors swooped in and traded Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, a 2026 first-round pick (top-4 protected from Indiana), and a second-round pick to New Orleans for Brandon Ingram.
For the Raptors, it’s an interesting gamble on a 27-year-old former all-star who has dealt with injury issues and becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer. But if the Raptors re-sign him and he’s able to fit, the Raps may have a nice little young core with Scottie Barnes, Gradey Dick, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley.
Ingram is currently hurt and even if he comes back soon, he won’t make enough of an impact to turn the Raptors season around dramatically, so they should still be headed for a top 5 pick in the draft to add to their core.
Nuggets champion Bruce Brown acquired by Pelicans
One of the pieces going back the Pelicans in this deal is Bruce Brown who was a key part of the Nuggets’ championship run in 2023. Brown was a do-it-all Swiss Army Knife type of player who came off the bench and gelled perfectly with the Nuggets on both ends, often closing games.
He played so well in Denver that the team couldn’t possibly afford to retain him in free agency and he signed with the Pacers for two years and $46 million. But Brown didn’t fit so well in Indiana and was traded at last year’s deadline to the Raptors in the Pascal Siakam deal.
He’s barely played for a rebuilding Raptors team over the past year and now he’s on the move again, going to New Orleans in the Ingram deal. It’s unclear what the Pels plan to do with Brown; his contract is expiring and the Pels are currently 12-39, good for the second-worst record in the entire league, only ahead of the Wizards.
Could Brown be buyout candidate and target for Nuggets?
The Pels certainly shouldn’t be trying to make this year’s draft pick any worse, but they’re also not your conventional rebuilding team. They’ve had a bit of a season from hell with a preposterous amount of injuries to their young players. They’ll likely want to hit the ground running next season and push for the playoffs.
But since Brown is expiring anyway, there’s certainly a chance the Pelicans choose to buy him out, letting him hit free agency and sign with a contender for the rest of this season. If that’s the case, Brown would immediately become one of the most compelling players on the market.
If Brown does hit the open market, he’ll be a hot target for any contender, but due to his large contract, he can only be signed by teams under the first apron. The problem for the Nuggets is they’re currently about $5.6 million over the first apron, so they’d be unable to sign Brown.
This is where Calvin Booth needs to earn his keep. He has to be working whatever phones and back channels he can to find out what Brown’s availability will be and how strong the interest in a Denver reunion is.
If this is a realistic option, the Nuggets need to do everything they can to get under that apron and make a Brown signing a reality. It won’t be easy, as they’ll have to find a team to take Zeke Nnaji, Dario Saric, or multiple minimum players. It may even end up costing Denver a pick swap or dare I say, DaRon Holmes.
I don’t like it, but the Nuggets have put themselves in a terrible position with their previous asset mismanagement. If there’s a chance to add Brown back to the mix, they need to find a way to do it.