Bruce Brown gets surprisingly big contract from Eastern Conference team

Apr 20, 2021; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Brooklyn Nets forward Bruce Brown (1) during warms ups before the game against New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

A number of NBA teams were interested in using their mid-level exception to bring in forward Bruce Brown in free agency. The deal Brown actually got, however, blew any of those efforts out of the water.

Brown agreed to a two-year, $45 million deal with the Indiana Pacers at the start of free agency, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews of ESPN. That is significantly more than most expected him to get, and much more than his former team, the Denver Nuggets, could afford to pay him.

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

As an idea of what teams thought Brown’s market would be, the Los Angeles Lakers were confident of landing him with their $12.3 million mid-level exception. The Pacers were willing to dwarf that, as their $22.5 million annual average is nearly twice as much as what teams hoped to get Brown for.

Brown averaged 11.5 points and 4.1 rebounds a game for the Nuggets last year as one of the team’s top reserves. One figures the Pacers will be expecting him to take on a much bigger role with the money they will be paying him.