Getty Bruce Brown #1 of the Brooklyn Nets reacts during the game against the New York Knicks at Barclays Center
Bruce Brown emerged as a key piece of last season’s Brooklyn Nets squad, especially late in the season and in their playoff matchup against the Boston Celtics. Ultimately the Nets were swept by Boston, and Brown became a free agent and accepted a contract offer to join the Denver Nuggets for a 2-year and $13,281,950 deal. Most surprising about Brown leaving to Denver was that the Nets didn’t even offer the forward a contract. Brown averaged 9 points, 4.8 rebounds, and over 2 assists per game over the course of the season in Brooklyn, but in the last two months of the season took a bigger role and averaged 14.9 points, over 6 rebounds, and over 4 assists per game.
Despite becoming a contributor both offensively and defensively for the Nets, Brown was able to leave the team for nothing in return and looks to be an excellent pick up for the Nuggets. Brown confirmed that the Nets didn’t even offer a contract for him to stay on an Instagram Live he did this summer. Part of the reason may have been their eventual addition of Royce O’Neale via a trade with the Utah Jazz, and both play a similar style, however, O’Neale isn’t likely to bring the scoring potential that Brown has based on his career thus far in Utah, Maybe playing with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant help open things up, but it is too soon to tell. Brown added more on his departure from Brooklyn at the September 26, Denver Nuggets Media Day event.
Bruce Brown Sounds Off on Nets and Nets Drama
On Monday September 26, Bruce Brown made his first appearance as the member of the Nuggets at their annual media day. In his session with the media he spoke about this upcoming year with the Nuggets, signing with Denver, how the Nets player development coach helped him grow in his time there, and more including how he felt about being on the ‘drama-less’ Nuggets squad in comparison to his last few seasons in Brooklyn, to which Brown replied, “I love that.”
Bruce Brown on playing for the drama-less #Nuggets vs. the Nets: “I love that.”
That wasn’t the only time Brown expressed joy in being out of Brooklyn and the city and state of New York. He also added another dig saying that, “New York was kind of crazy. I’m happy to be here.”
Brown is expected to be a key player in the Nuggets’ second unit coming into the game behind players like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Michael Porter Jr. Brown and Bones Hyland will likely be a pretty dynamic duo for the Nuggets’ backup roles.
Brooklyn Nets Media Day
Brown’s former team, the Brooklyn Nets, also had their media day on Monday, September 26. One of the takeaways was Kyrie Irving’s comments about the Kevin Durant trade rumors and about moving forward in Brooklyn.
Kevin Durant also expressed his confidence in moving forward with the organization as well as why he requested to be traded from the team. The Nets and Seth Curry also gave an injury status update on Curry and revealed that he has not yet been cleared for the upcoming season.
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Bruce Brown Takes Shot at Nets Drama at Media Day With New Team