Bruce Brown signs with Indiana Pacers
Bruce Brown, who played an integral part in securing the first-ever Denver Nuggets NBA Title, has inked a two-year, $45 million deal with the Indiana Pacers, Alex Golden was first to report Friday. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first with the terms of the contract.
Per source, the Pacers are signing Bruce Brown Jr.
— Alex Golden (@AlexGoldenNBA) June 30, 2023
ESPN reporting with @malikaandrews: Free agent Bruce Brown has agreed on a two-year, $45M deal with the Indiana Pacers, his agents Ty Sullivan and Steven Heumann of @CAASports tell ESPN. Denver — limited in what it could pay — loses a key piece to its repeat hopes.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2023
He averaged 11.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists last season, shooting 48.3 percent from the floor, 35.8 percent from deep and 75.8 percent from the charity stripe across 80 games.
In the playoffs, Brown averaged 12.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 20 games, including 11.4 points and 4.4 rebounds on 45.7/36.8/72.7 shooting splits in five NBA Finals contests against the Miami Heat.
The Nuggets did not own bird rights on Brown, limiting him to a $7.8 million starting salary for 2023-24. He declined his $6.8 player option earlier this offseason, but even spoke out about a possible return to Mile High. In the end, money talks–and he rightfully got plenty of it from a team with cap space.
According to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star, Brown’s deal will have a second-year team option, with his new deal beginning at $22 million, becoming the highest-paid Pacer for this upcoming season, per Spotrac.
The Pacers still have nearly $15 million in cap space to work with, though that accounts for 15 players on the roster, including the signings of first-round picks Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, according to HoopsHype’s Yossi Gozlan.
Bruce Brown, every MLE team's top target, gets a massive deal from the Pacers.
— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) June 30, 2023
Indiana is left with $14.7M in cap space with 15 players.
They also have the $7.7M room mid-level.https://t.co/dQkqfAgyzO https://t.co/XttZzIG3QZ
Bruce is a swiss-army knife that can fit into any role in Indiana. He should form a beautiful partnership with Tyrese Haliburton and its other secondary ballhandlers, as well as take pressure off its backline and point-of-attack defenders. He can shoot, screen, create and defend; he’s the jack of trades.
This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
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