What can Bruce Brown provide to this version of the Raptors?

Until now, Bruce Brown has just been providing the vibes for the Raptors: cowboy hats, Eddie Bauer gear, and dressed like he’s on a five-day expedition through the mountains in Montana or like the villain in a Spaghetti Western flick.

But Brown used to be more than just a background character. Not too long ago, he was one of the most impactful role players on an excellent Brooklyn Nets team and then the 2023 Denver Nuggets title team. He was closing out a championship by initiating and hitting pull-up 3s in the dying moments. This helped him land a big payday with the Indiana Pacers. He morphed into a unique guard who could screen, roll to the basket, make plays, and eventually shoot and handle the ball.

That hasn’t been the case in Toronto. Brown was downright bad in his 34 games with the Raptors last season. While his run with the team coincided with a moment in time when the Raptors were injured and hunting for lottery positioning, the decimated Raptors were still 10 points per 100 possessions better when Brown was off the floor.

As we’ve learned, his ineffectiveness in finishing the 2023-2024 season was due to injury, as he puts it:

“Last year I didn’t look really engaged or not a lot of energy like I [had] on previous teams. It’s just because I was playing on one leg. So I want that to be addressed because I know a lot of fans didn’t think I played with a lot of energy, and I didn’t want to be here,” Brown said. “That’s what I’ve seen on social media. But I do want to be here. I want to play with these guys… I was literally playing on one leg so it was tough for me mentally – that I couldn’t move the way I wanted to.”

Brown had surgery on his knee in the preseason, forcing him to miss every game so far this year, but he is currently reconditioning and is expected to join the team soon. But when he does return to the lineup, where does he fit in?

The Raptors did well in the offseason, rounding out their guard rotation with young options. Jamison Battle and Ja’Kobe Walter are two rookies who have shown flashes and deserve an opportunity. Gradey Dick has blossomed into a legitimate building block for the Raptors, and when he returns from his calf strain, he should slot right back into the starting lineup.

That said, Brown will get a look. Even if you’re in the ‘he’s going to get traded’ camp (which I assume most people are), Brown will need to get run to show what he has left in the tank and how useful he can be as a utility knife in his role. Contenders will want to see that on display after nearly a calendar year of bad basketball from him if they want to shell out assets in a trade.

So, not only will the Raptors have to provide him with an extended runway for the next couple of months, even despite the younger pieces at his position, but Head Coach Darko Rajakovic will also need to find a way to optimize him.

That’s not only motivated by a potential trade but also by the fact that Brown was a very serviceable player not too long ago. He was a real contributor to a championship — not something any other current Raptor can claim. And a contributor on a high-motion, high-pass offence, which is what the Raptors are trying to implement. Finding that version of him could also help the Raptors out in the short term, should they decide to keep him.

Where will those minutes come from? They will likely come from some of the younger players (Walter and Battle might shift to more Raptors 905 opportunities as the team returns to full strength), at least temporarily, as the Raptors see what they have with Brown.

Offensively, the idealized version of Brown can really thrive stylistically in Rajakovic’s system.

He can be best described as opportunistic, taking advantage of defensive miscues and over-helping stars to find their moments to shine. You can easily see how he’d be used as a guard screener for RJ Barrett or Scottie Barnes, slipping into space, operating in the short roll as a passer, and settling into floaters in that mid-range area. He’s typically been a very good at-rim finisher, finishing on an average of 70 percent of his looks in the last four seasons.

If he can re-discover his 3-point shooting (specifically from the corners where he knocked down 40 percent of his looks in Denver and Brooklyn), he can operate in the same way as Ochai Agbaji does for the Raptors. That doesn’t seem like too far-fetched of an idea, either. Brown shot a woeful 25 percent on corner threes in his time in Toronto, which was by far the worst in his career. Before that, he had never shot worse than 36 percent on that shot. It was a clear aberration, likely caused by the injury.

Another wrinkle Brown could add is offensive rebounding. In Brooklyn, he was one of the best second-chance nabbers at his position, ranking in the 90th percentile according to Cleaning The Glass. That would directly align with the Raptors’ identity, as they are currently the best offensive-rebounding team in the league.

So Brown’s M.O. should be to connect plays together, make corner 3s, and crash the glass from the corners.

However, if he does those things successfully, it would be in the second unit. Paired next to Davion Mitchell, Chris Boucher, two of Jamison Battle, Jonathan Mogbo, or Jamal Shead (depending on the matchup), and typically either one of Barrett or Barnes, the Raptors would have an Agbaji archetype on the floor at all times.

None of that will matter, though, if he can’t hold his end of the defensive bargain like Agbaji does. This is the side of the ball Brown really needs to clean up from his first half-season with the Raptors. The team gave up nearly 7 points per 100 possessions more on defense when he was on the floor, which was by far the worst mark of his career.

His activity and tenacity were part of his selling point as a player in the past. It’s fair to assume that injuries hindered his ability to defend at a high-level last season, but that can’t be the case this year. And with the Raptors slowly improving on that end, with Barnes back in the lineup anchoring the ship, Brown would stick out like a sore thumb if his ball pressure isn’t up to par with the likes of Mitchell, Shead, and Agbaji. Especially if he doesn’t hold his end of the bargain on offense like Agbaji has done this season. It’s a delicate balance, even for a team that’s developing their defensive identity, to find players who can play to their style on that end. Brown can, but will he consistently? That remains to be seen.

Often, when a player has struggled for a considerable amount of time or has fallen outside the realm of conversation among fans, it’s easy to forget what they can contribute when they’re at their best.

At his best, Brown is thriving as an all-around role player and veteran presence for a Raptors team that perfectly suits his style of play. His utility-knife-like qualities at the guard position, where he can thrive as a screener, ballhandler, finisher, and occasional shooter, could be exactly what the doctor ordered for this Raptors team. We didn’t see that last season, and it’s likely that even if we do, it’ll be for a brief period this season. At his worst, well… we’ve already seen that.

But grace should be given to a player who, according to himself, was dealing with a nagging injury that limited his effectiveness and has gone out of his way to make it clear to fans that he understands their indignation.

So, to put a positive bow on this, let’s enjoy a Brown highlight reel from the last time he was truly effective.

Hopefully, this is the version the Raptors will get.

Giddy up, cowboy.

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