Bruce Brown says he always planned to return to the Denver Nuggets. After spending two seasons away from the team, the veteran guard revealed that he never stopped thinking about Denver and turned down offers from the Lakers and Suns to make his comeback a reality.
“[Bruce] Brown spent those two years playing for Indiana, Toronto, and New Orleans, but often thinking about Denver, envisioning a chance to return. He stayed active in a group chat with teammates,” wrote Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “He kept a compilation of his 2022-23 highlights saved on his phone. He sat court-side at a playoff game between the Nuggets and Clippers to prove a point that I wanted to be back,’ he said recently at a local private event hosted by Jackson Family Wines. He followed through on that point by taking the Nuggets’ offer amid interest from other teams, including the Lakers and Suns.”
Brown, 29, began his career with the Pistons after going 12th overall in the 2018 draft. He played a modest role in his first two seasons before joining the Nets in 2020, where he began to take his game to another level. Finally, after two more seasons in Brooklyn, Brown found his spot with the Denver Nuggets. Alongside Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, he reached his peak with averages of 11.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game on 48.3% shooting.
As a premium NBA swingman, he played a crucial role for the Nuggets and deserves credit for helping power their historic title run. Still, despite his impact, the franchise was unwilling to pay to retain him. That summer, just weeks after winning the championship, they let Brown walk after receiving a lucrative contract from the Pacers.
Of course, after just 33 games, Bruce Brown was traded by the Pacers in a deadline agreement with the Toronto Raptors. By all accounts, Brown was on the fast track to irrelevancy in the NBA but now he’s back on the Nuggets with a chance to help them return to NBA title contention.
Apparently, he chose the Nuggets over joining the Lakers and Suns, two teams loaded with talent and star power. He chose Jokic over LeBron or Booker and it’s a testament to how successful the Denver Nuggets have been in recent years. Led by the best player in the game, while already having a championship in the book, makes for an alluring destination and it was an opportunity that Brown couldn’t pass up.
Going into this season, everything is lining up for the Nuggets to be the favorites in the West and reclaim the NBA championship. The return of Bruce Brown is just one of the many reasons to believe, but his impact cannot be ignored as a seven-year veteran and NBA champion who can play both ends of the court.
For Brown, coming back to Denver is a full-circle moment. He’s back with the team that believed in him first and gave him a championship ring, and he’s ready to prove he still belongs. Surrounded by familiar faces like Jokic and Murray, Brown is back in a system that fits him perfectly, and that might be exactly what both he and the Nuggets need to make another title run.
