NBA free agency 2023: Bruce Brown leaves Nuggets for Pacers on 2-year, $45M deal

Bruce Brown will leave the NBA champion Denver Nuggets and sign a two-year, $45 million contract with the Indiana Pacers, his agents Ty Sullivan and Steven Heumann told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews. The Pacers have a team option on the second year of the deal, as first reported by the Washington Post’s Ben Golliver. 

Brown is coming off a career year and proved extremely valuable to the Nuggets, but the champs were in no position to match that kind of offer. Even though it sounded like he wanted to stick around at the parade, there was always a chance a team with cap space would poach him.

Denver could offer Brown, who turns 27 in August, a starting salary no higher than $7.8 million. Had he decided to stay, he could have hit free agency again in 2024 and re-signed at a starting salary of approximately $13.6 million. Over the next few years, that plan would not have been much different than signing for the non-taxpayer midlevel exception ($12.4 million) this summer, but Indiana’s offer blew that out of the water. 

With the Nuggets in 2022-23, Brown backed up Jamal Murray at point guard and played alongside him as a do-it-all wing. He can still do the short-roll stuff he did as a “point-center” with the Brooklyn Nets, but he can also initiate offense, get downhill and space the floor. In Denver, he made 37.4% of his catch-and-shoot 3s on 2.8 attempts per game. He’ll miss the layups that he got cutting off of Nikola Jokic, but he’ll love playing with Tyrese Haliburton, one of the few passers on the planet who is even close to as creative as the reigning Finals MVP.

Brown is particularly valuable to the Pacers, whose defense ranked 26th in the NBA last season, because of his ability to guard multiple positions. He’s a feisty, physical defender against bigger players, and he’s perfectly comfortable chasing shooters and navigating high ball screens. Yes, $22.5 million annually sounds like an overpay, even if you consider Brown one of the league’s best role players, but A) they weren’t going to get him without “overpaying” and B) it’s only a one-year commitment. It’s not like this contract is going to turn into some kind of albatross.

Even after sending Chris Duarte to Sacramento, Indiana’s roster is loaded with guards and wings. Haliburton, Brown, Bennedict Mathurin, Buddy Hield, Aaron Nesmith and No. 26 pick Ben Sheppard are all between 6-foot-3 and 6-6, which gives Rick Carlisle’s coaching staff plenty of options, provided that the front office does not clear this logjam in the offseason. Brown will presumably start next to Haliburton, and, if Nembhard stays in the starting lineup, the Pacers could be much improved defensively.