Veteran swingman Bruce Brown underwent arthroscopic right knee surgery on Thursday and will be reevaluated in three weeks, the Raptors announced in a press release.
Brown will miss most — if not all — of training camp and preseason. Three weeks from today would be Oct. 11, and that’s when he’ll be checked out again, not when he’ll be ready to play. The Raptors will head to Montreal for camp from Oct. 1-5, then will stay in Montreal for their preseason opener vs. Washington on Oct. 6. The preseason schedule concludes Oct. 18.
As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca tweets, Brown has been dealing with a right knee injury for the better part of a year, and had hoped that resting and rehabbing over the summer would be a suitable solution. Obviously, that didn’t go as planned. Brown told Lindsay Dunn of CityNews Toronto (Twitter link) after the season ended in April that the injury was “very frustrating.”
“It’s been tough,” Brown said. “I mean I really couldn’t bend my knee much I really played on one leg the entire time. I just wasn’t myself since December, but next year I will be fine.”
After playing a crucial role off the bench for the Nuggets during their 2022/23 championship season, Brown drew significant interest as a free agent last summer and eventually signed a two-year, $45MM contract with the Pacers. Indiana sent him to Toronto in January as part of a trade package for Pascal Siakam.
In 67 total appearances (44 starts) for the Pacers and Raptors, Brown averaged 10.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 27.9 minutes per game, posting a shooting line of .478/.323/.824. Brown is considered a solid, versatile perimeter defender who is a good fit next to more ball-dominant players on offense.
The Raptors picked up their $23MM team option on Brown’s contract at the end of June. The 28-year-old, who has been the subject of several trade rumors since Toronto acquired him, will be a free agent again next summer.
Well this complicates trading him, just be healthy for the trade deadline double B.
I’m almost always in favor of injured athletes giving themselves every chance to avoid surgery (even if it ends up increasing their time away from the court when they do have it). But its hard to see the timing here as anything other than Brown preferring to give up training camp/ preseason than a part of his off-season. TOR might not care since he’s not in their plans, or so it’s been said.
When they had a chance to trade him they hesitated. Man why has this front office duo become so incompetent!
That’s also 25 other teams too