Tag: Bruce Brown

Bruce Brown discusses Raptors debut against Bulls after trade

After the Chicago Bulls’ win over the Toronto Raptors, Bruce Brown discussed his debut for his new team.

The Chicago Bulls were up north to take on the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night, and they walked away with a 116-110 victory over the Dinosaurs. Led by Nikola Vucevic, the Bulls absolutely dominated the paint, outscoring the Raptors on the interior 74-50. Toronto held on until the final few moments, but that’s when Chicago pulled away.

It was a solid win for the Bulls, but the Raptors are in a state if disarray right now. They traded OG Anunoby to the New York Knicks earlier this year, and just the other day, they moved Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora, Kira Lewis Jr., and three first-round picks.

After the game, Brown spoke about his Raptors debut, explaining his thought process while he was on the floor for his new team for the first time.

“I didn’t know the plays,” Brown said via ESPN. “I was just trying to be in the right spots.”

Brown finished the game with 15 points, seven rebounds, one assist, and one steal while shooting 7-of-10 from the field and 1-of-3 from behind the three-point line.

There’s still a chance that Brown gets flipped to a new team ahead of this year’s trade deadline, but for now, he’s in Toronto and will help their new-look core.

As for the Bulls, they could have some moves to make ahead of the trade deadline, too. Recent reports have indicated that the team would like to trade Zach LaVine, and past that, there’s still a chance more players could be on the move.

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D’Angelo Russell responds to Bruce Brown’s shot from 2023 WCF

After Bruce Brown threw shade at him during the 2023 NBA Playoffs, D’Angelo Russell responded after the Lakers won the NBA Cup on Saturday.

It’s no secret the Los Angeles Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell struggled mightily in last season’s Western Conference finals against the Denver Nuggets. He averaged a meager 6.3 points a game while shooting 32.3% from the field and 13.3% from 3-point range as the Lakers were swept by the eventual NBA champions.

Russell played so poorly that head coach Darvin Ham benched him for Game 4. Not only was his offense awful, but he also was lit up defensively by Denver’s guards, in particular Jamal Murray.

Bruce Brown, a key contributor off the bench for that Denver team, threw shade at Russell following Game 1 of the series.

This season, Brown is a member of the Indiana Pacers, and Russell’s Lakers defeated Brown’s Pacers on Saturday to win the league’s first in-season tournament.

While Russell didn’t play particularly well, as he shot 6-of-15, he had seven assists against two turnovers. Meanwhile, Brown, who is now a starter, was just 2-of-9 and scored four points while Russell managed 13 points.

Afterward, Russell fired back at the former Nuggets reserve (h/t Lakers Daily).

Via Los Angeles Times:

“He was talking (expletive) all year,” Russell said. “Yeah. Talking (expletive) all year. For me, it was just showing it with my play. I don’t have nothing to say to him. I’m a fan of him to be honest. This was just all on the court. Got something to say? Show me on the court. (Nikola) Jokic ain’t there next to you today. It’s different.”

On the season (Saturday’s game doesn’t count toward regular season standings or stats), Russell is averaging 16.6 points and 6.3 assists per game while shooting 48.3% overall and 40.5% from downtown. While Austin Reaves may have surpassed him as the team’s third-most valuable player, he is still a big key to its championship hopes this season.

Bruce Brown explains how Pacers slowed down Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey

Guard Bruce Brown explains how the Indiana Pacers slowed down Philadelphia 76ers star Tyrese Maxey.

PHILADELPHIA — The Indiana Pacers had a tough night on Sunday when they first took on the Philadelphia 76ers. The Pacers were unable to stop Tyrese Maxey, who dropped a career-high 50 points in a win.

On Tuesday, the Pacers buckled down. While Maxey still scored 27 points, he shot only 9-for-23. He also had four turnovers with five assists as Indiana prevailed, 132-126.

“It was just a team effort,” said Pacers guard Bruce Brown. “Tyrese is a great player, and he’s shown that this year. Especially, last game, but we just had bodies in front of him.”

Indiana was certainly more physical with Maxey than on Sunday. They made sure he saw bodies and he didn’t get as many clean looks.

“Last game, the paint was wide open,” Brown added. “So he was getting to his spots that he definitely works out in, the shots he works on all summer, and all year in his routine. Step back 3s, but we had somebody at the nail so he had to get off it a little bit or think twice about driving or just making the shots more tough.”

Maxey looked a bit hesitant to go get the ball and take shots at times. Maybe it was the physicality from the Pacers bothering him. Maybe Brown, Bennedict Mathurin and Aaron Nesmith got into his airspace.

Whatever the case, Maxey acknowledged the physical play from the Pacers.

“They were extremely physical, but you gotta fight through those,” he said. “You gotta fight through them and be able to fight for your spot. Coach (Nick) Nurse got on me a couple times because he felt like I was going to get the ball as much because of their physicality. I kinda got frustrated, forced a couple shots that I didn’t have to because of the physicality, so I gotta be better with that.”

Maxey shot 7-for-7 from the foul line, but Nurse believes he should have gotten more free-throw attempts.

“I don’t know how many free throws he shot, but it should’ve been three times what he shot,” Nurse said. “They bumped on him on a ton of those shots. They started it early and continued to do that the whole game, but you gotta adjust to the officiating on each and every night. You gotta play through those hits and score them anyway. Not get you frustrated.”

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D’Angelo Russell: Losing Bruce Brown will be bad for the Nuggets

Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell talked about how the Nuggets will miss Bruce Brown while on “The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone.”

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The Denver Nuggets are the reigning NBA champs, and they reached the mountaintop thanks chiefly to the talents of superstar center Nikola Jokic and hot-shot guard Jamal Murray.

Most of the credit has gone to those two players, and deservedly so. But the Nuggets had a very balanced team that included forwards Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon, as well as former Los Angeles Laker Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Off the bench, another key member was wing Bruce Brown, who was a valuable Swiss Army knife for them. He left the team a few weeks ago, signing a lucrative contract with the Indiana Pacers.

Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell, who struggled in the Western Conference finals versus Denver, told Patrick Beverley on “The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone” that the world champs will miss Brown.

Via Lakers Nation:

“Losing Bruce Brown hurt them, losing Bruce Brown hurt them though. Nah, he (Christian Braun) solid, but Bruce Brown is like unpredictable bro. He could go 3-of-5 from the 3, play point guard, get you in the bonus, shoot 10-12 free throws. He’s just a problem, I think. I think any team that wants and appreciates him, he’s only going to get better, respect.”

Many are still picking the Nuggets to win another Larry O’Brien Trophy this season even though their bench looks rather weak without Brown.

Bruce Brown tells Theo Pinson it was UNC who did not want him

NBA champion Bruce Brown tells Theo Pinson on the “Run Your Race” podcast that he wanted to come to UNC, but they wanted Seventh Woods.

Before Bruce Brown was celebrating in a parade to win an NBA championship, he hoped to rock Carolina Blue at UNC, but according to him, the Tar Heels had other plans.

Brown was a five-star 6-4 guard out of Vermont Academy, ranking 5th in ESPN’s 2016 shooting guard class. He picked up offers from many top schools, including Texas, Indiana, Michigan, Auburn, and his eventual designation Miami.

Despite being highly sought after, Brown decided to focus on his senior year before committing. That decision appeared to have significant implications, as he discussed on Theo Pinson’s “Run Your Race” podcast.

Brown explained below how his offer to play for the Tar Heels was declined.

Seventh Woods was ranked 14th in the same class as Brown, so no one expected the South Carolina native to average 1.8 points during his three-year tenure at UNC. Conversely, Brown averaged 11.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in two seasons at Miami.

What do you think would have happened if UNC went with Brown over Woods?

Follow us @TarHeelsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of North Carolina Tar Heels news, notes and opinions.

Bruce Brown: Minnesota was tougher than the Lakers in 2023 NBA playoffs

Former Nuggets player Bruce Brown seemed to throw shade at the Lakers when talking about which team was their toughest matchup in 2023.

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The Denver Nuggets won it all this past season by getting past the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games, outlasting the Phoenix Suns in six games and then sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers to reach the NBA Finals. There, they had an easy time with the Miami Heat, defeating them in five games.

Some feel the Nuggets had too easy a time in winning the world championship, especially since the Lakers weren’t able to put up much of a fight.

Bruce Brown, who was a key contributor for Denver, even said that their toughest opponent in the postseason was the Timberwolves, a team that won just 42 regular-season games. He even seemed to say L.A. posed no challenge.

Via Lakers Daily:

“I would say our toughest series was … Minnesota,” Brown said.

“It never felt like we were gonna lose any game,” he said of the Lakers series. “Even when they went on they little run, like Austin Reaves was hitting 3s, it never felt like, ‘Oh, we about to lose.’”

Even though L.A. got swept by the Nuggets, at least a few of the games in that series were competitive and could’ve gone either way. In the end, the Nuggets had been together longer, and that was likely what pushed them over the top against LeBron James and crew.

NBA champ Bruce Brown calls Shai Gilgeous-Alexander one of the ‘toughest players’ to defend

“I would say this year, the toughest players to guard was ANT and Shai.”

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After breaking out last season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has entered the conversation of the best players in the league.

The 25-year-old enjoyed the best season of his career last year, where he scored a career-high 31.4 points on 51% shooting and earned All-NBA honors for the first time. He led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 40-win campaign.

The remarkable season led Gilgeous-Alexander to finish No. 5 in MVP voting.

Graduating as one of the best players, Gilgeous-Alexander has received high praise from his peers around the league. The latest example involved an NBA champion, as Bruce Brown spoke highly of him.

“I would say this year, the toughest players to guard was ANT and Shai,” Brown said on his appearance on the “Run Your Race” podcast.

The 26-year-old has had plenty of battles with Gilgeous-Alexander over the years, especially last season when he played for the Denver Nuggets, another Northwest Division team.

Brown played a vital role in the Nuggets’ 2023 championship run. His contributions helped him receive a two-year, $45 million deal from the Indiana Pacers this offseason.

Brown previously played for the Detroit Pistons and Brooklyn Nets in the first four seasons of his career. He was drafted 42nd overall in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft.

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Bruce Brown loved playing against the Brooklyn Nets before being traded there

In a recent interview, Indiana Pacers guard Bruce Brown said that he hated New York before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

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Bruce Brown, fresh off signing a two-year, $45 million deal with the Indiana Pacers, has had quite the ascension in his career. Going from being the 42nd overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft out of the University of Miami to becoming an NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets to signing a huge deal with the Pacers is incredible to see.

With that being said, it’s interesting to know that Brown wasn’t a fan of everything that happened in his career. Brown recently said in an appearance on the “Run Your Race” podcast that he did not want to be traded to the Brooklyn Nets because he loved playing against them.

Brown, with the Detroit Pistons at the time, was traded to the Nets in November of 2020 and from there, proceeded to play a versatile role with the team by playing point guard at times and small-ball at other times. Brown played two seasons in Brooklyn before signing with the Nuggets as a free-agent. He goes into more detail with how he felt about being traded to Brooklyn:

“At the time (of the trade), I hated New York. I didn’t want to go to New York. And, the one team I didn’t want to go to, because I love playing against y’all, was the Nets. Because y’all were disrespectful.”

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Bruce Brown celebrated his new Pacers deal with a very funny country music dance video

Bruce Brown used his love of country music to celebrate signing with the Pacers.

New Indiana Pacers forward Bruce Brown couldn’t help but post about the “rumor going around” about him signing a new contract.

Brown agreed to a two-year, $45 million deal with the Pacers after his playoff heroics with the NBA title-winning Denver Nuggets this past season.

To celebrate, Brown posted a very funny video on his Instagram of someone dancing to the Lee Brice song “Rumor.” It fits right in line with the new Pacers forward’s love of country music for him to celebrate with a Lee Brice song.

Plus, Indiana is a lot closer to Tennessee than Denver was if Brice ever wants to fly down to Nashville to see one of his favorite country music artists in concert.

Brown certainly has plenty to be excited about with his new contract and his new team, so perhaps he’ll have plenty more funny country music-inspired dance video to share in the days to come.

When you get a contract like that, there’s plenty to be happy about.

NBA Twitter reacted to Bruce Brown signing with Indiana: ‘Highest-paid Pacer’

Here’s how NBA Twitter reacted to Bruce Brown signing a deal with the Pacers.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Bruce Brown has agreed on a two-year, $45 million deal with the Indiana Pacers. Denver – limited in what it could pay – loses a key piece to its repeat hopes.

Here’s how NBA Twitter reacted to the Nuggets losing out an important piece of their 2023 championship puzzle.