Checking the temperature on the Toronto Raptors’ looming decisions on Bruce Brown & Gary Trent Jr.

Checking the temperature on the Toronto Raptors’ looming decisions on Bruce Brown & Gary Trent Jr.

on your Wednesday episode of lock on Raptors three weeks remained until the NBA draft and we still don’t have much of a clue of what’s going down with Bruce Brown and Gary Trent Jr we’ll get into those big decisions for the Raptors and why those decisions might just get made by a poor free agent class coming up on today’s show thanks for hanging you are locked on Raptors your daily torono Raptors podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] hey what’s going on and welcome to another episode of Locked on Raptors part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day it is Wednesday June the 5th and I’m your host Sean Woodley I’ve been covering the Toronto Raptors now for 10 seasons on various platforms you can find all my work over on the hell website at Woodley Shan you can find the show on Instagram at lockon Raptors and of course you can join us in the lockon Raptor Discord server come be part of our family would you it’s a great place we have people talking about fake trades and drafts and uh all kinds of good stuff uh you know the playoffs the finals the finals that no one’s talking about the let’s hope the asteroid hits finals all of that going down to the Discord we’d love to see you in there it’s a great place to come and hang out among friends who like the podcast who like the Raptors who want to talk about it in a place that doesn’t suck Link in the description of the podcast free to join as always we’d love to see you there as part of our growing listener family over there uh of course you can find the show for free get your podcast follow subscribe rate review on the audio side of things and your app of choosing plus you can go to YouTube and subscribe to the lockdown Raptors YouTube channel when you do that hit the notification Bell would you when you do that you will get a heads up via push notification every single time The Show Goes live or Premiere so you never miss a second of that action you can join the live chat and all that good stuff with the SI go over there too thanks of course for supporting the show as always all right on today’s show taking little break from uh potential free agent targets although we’ll get into that a little bit I’m sure on today’s show uh taking a break from the draft to just kind of do a bit of a reset take some time to take stock of where things sit with the two most important potential pending free agents for the Toronto Raptors of course Bruce Brown Jr who has a $23 million team option that the Raptors have been reportedly sort of leaning towards picking up for Doug Smith of the Toronto Star um that’s the kind of latest we have on there there’s been very little in terms of uh the sort of insiders with any kind of inkling as to what’s going on with Bruce Brown would imagine that once the finals get going and we get closer and closer to the draft some more rumors and slop will make their way out into the ether and then of course Gary Trent Jr who is a pending unrestricted free agent and is someone who I think frankly the Raptors should probably just keep around we’ll get into that over the course of today’s show uh we’ll get into the sort of various options and why why this not very good free agent class might just make the Raptors decisions for them on these guys um there’s just not a ton of other alternative roads to go for the Raptors we’ll get into some of the potential ones and I want to just run through a list of teams to kind of keep an eye on who might be Bruce Brown teams whether it’s on draft night whether it’s after the draft into the offseason as teams try to take stock of the landscape and maybe things change and guys become uh or or you know teams look at a guy a little more favorably than they did maybe on draft night we’ll getting all that coming up too but off the top yeah let’s just kind of reset where things sit the latest reporting from Doug Smith is that the Toronto Raptors are trending towards picking up Bruce Brown’s option and intending to trade him um you you know best late intentions and all that you can want to trade a guy but if you’re not getting something tangible in return obviously the option is still there for the Raptors to just hang on to Bruce Brown into the season so they have some optionality here whether they you know obviously they can decline it and take the cap space route and we’ll get into I don’t think that’s going to happen at this point and why it probably shouldn’t happen um and then you know obviously if they pick up the option there’s the option to trade him at the draft in the summer or the next year’s trade deadline or if you want to take it all the way to the end let him walk for nothing next summer you get some salary relief maybe you bring him back on a cheaper contract if he’s very good next season we’ll see it’s possible it’s not likely necessarily but it’s out there as an option there’s some optionality there with Bruce Brown Gary Trent Junior a little different they just got to decide to pay him or not basically um it it sounds all all the reporting again there’s been very little on the status of Gary Trent Jr it does kind of seem like it’s going to be intertwined as we’ve kind of always known with the fate of Bruce Brown and what the Raptors do with him um and obviously the the question with Gary Trent Jr comes down to money right we know what kind of player Gary Trent Jr is he was not especially fantastic this past season he had his ups and downs he continues to be a very good three-point sh shooter though and a guy who fits quite well with the best players on the Toronto Raptors historically always had really good onoff numbers when paired with Scotty Barnes for example a little bit less in terms of you know his fit with the other guys because there’s just not a whole lot of sample of it but with Scotty Barnes we know Gary Trent Jr checks the box of does this player fit with Scotty Barnes which is the single biggest box every player the Raptors consider bringing into the team needs to check we also know that Gary Trent Jr is not a perfect player by any means and his defense is mostly tied to steals an event creation and it Al often gets them out of position and has the Raptors in rotation on the back end of those gambl when they don’t work out we know that as an on ball Defender he’s not really it and I think at this point how many years into his career now six six six six seven years six years my bad um I just had a bit of a a brain meltdown right there but either way six years into Gary Trent Jr’s career I think it’s safe to say he’s just never going to become any kind of like playmaking threat he has averaged below 1.7 assists every season of his career actually sorry two assists a game in 2021-22 was his career high um in a career high 35 minutes he’s just not someone who’s going to um you know create plays for others he’s a trigger man right he’s a guy who the action swings to and if he has the ball at the end of an action if it swings to him in the corner if it’s late in the clock you don’t feel too badly about Gary Tren Jr launching a shot up for you because he does hit a lot of them especially from three-point range end from that sort of long mid-range where he’s you know at least kind of gotten a little bit closer to the rim as far as where his shots come from he’s still not someone who’s going to give you Rim pressure or anything like that and so what do you pay a player like that it’s a tough one right I I do think in general sort of shoot first non- Defenders are one of the most replaceable player types in the NBA but there’s other stuff to consider with Gary Trent Jr as well um he seems to be a pretty beloved teammate and replacing him you know it’s all well and good to say oh we’ll just go get some shooting to replace Gary Trent Jr but everyone’s always after shooting and when you look at the free agent Market it’s just not a loaded class and so I think things are trending towards Gary Trent Jr is gonna get paid by the Raptors and they’ll just move forward and he’ll be on the team and you know where does that come around 15 million bucks a year 17 million bucks a year the Grayson Allen contract which was around 17 is probably the high end of what Gary Trent Jr will get and I think Grayson Allen in last season was better than Gary Trent Jr that said you know it’s easy to look better playing next to Kevin Durant and Devon Booker um and all of that and obviously team context plays into things here but I do think that like if you were paying Gary Trent Jr 15 to 17 million bucks a year that’s not going to become an albatross contract for you you’re probably playing paying him to be a starter next year if you’re paying a starter under 20 million bucks I think that’s pretty decent and as things go forward and they add to the team and things develop you can have him move into a Ben roll if you want and not feel like 15 to 17 million bucks a year is some gargantuan salary you just simply must move like you can afford a guy like that on your bench who make that makes that much money it becomes valuable for salary matching in trades and things like that as well I I I think things are trending towards the move with Gary Trent Jr being keep him around and the Bruce Brown thing if the plan is to you know pick up the option it goes Con in concert with that right the cap space plan falls apart if you pick up Bruce Brown’s option they can get to about 30 million bucks in in cap space depending on where you look between 28 and 30 um we’ll get into some of the guys they could in theory go throw some money at in those situations but I I I think the options out there in fre agency are pretty slim and so things are trending towards if the reporting is that Bruce Brown’s gonna get picked up that would seem to signal that the intention is probably to sign Gary Trent Jr to something as well you know obviously he’s an unrestricted fre agent he can go walk anywhere and sign with any team but I do think other teams around the league will have higher priorities than signing Gary Trent Jr who for all the reasons the Raptors might have you know a moment of pause about signing him a lot of other teams would have that same moment of pause of hey like can we get this kind of player on the minimum or a bu annual exception and not spend a big chunk of our salary cap space on Gary Trent Jr in a summer where we have cap space to add is that really the best use of our cap space as a resource all very interesting questions I do think things are trending right now though to Ward Gary Trent Jr just making sense for him to come back and play for the Toronto Raptors we’ll get into why that might not be such a bad thing uh both in the case of Gary Trent Jr and Bruce Brown if they can’t find a trade form we’ll talk about the free agent class and sort of the the options as opposed to keeping those two guys coming up in just one second as we continue our reset of the Bruce Brown and Gary Trent Jr situations coming up in just one sec Today’s show was sponsored by better help and look sometimes you just got to have someone to talk to it really is that simple having someone who doesn’t have an agenda who’s unbiased in your life who is a professional who is there to listen and offer feedback is a wonderful thing getting stret show off your chest is an important thing you can’t let stuff build up if you’re letting things in your life build up that’s not going to lead to a happy life that’s not going to make you uh the best person you can be for the people in your life and all of that you’re not going to make decisions in line with your values but having someone who can be someone who you just talk to and they take what you say take what they know about you take your your values and what you want to achieve in life and help you come up with solutions to Life’s problems whether they’re big or small it’s a beautiful thing again you know obviously therapy 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this is just a summer where the options are not as good as they typically might be um maybe that goes on the front office a little bit for kind of misreading things and saying oh cap space we’ve got that that’s going to be our our ticket to more good players this summer I you know I don’t know if that was their thinking or if they’ve ever really intended to go the cap space route but um if it was and they were really hoping to go score a big this summer it seems like maybe a misread of the market which is something the Raptor’s front office has maybe been guilty of in recent years so you could forgive me for being a little worried about maybe that being a thing here but overall like I think the the path forward here it’s not like a disaster if Gary Trent Jr sticks around if there’s not an upgrade to be found on the wings in the off season um you know I I think there’s still a lot to like about this team I think Scotty Barnes Manuel quickley RJ Barrett all very exciting yaka purle Rock Solid Grady dick I’m really excited about year two of him and how he continues to grow considering the uh meteoric rise he had from barely playable in the g-league to oh actually pretty decent NBA player by the end of the season um so yeah back to Bruce and Gary the options out there are just Slim Man we’ve gone over through over through them over the last couple weeks right uh playing our little game pulling names from bulls and so many of these names are uninspiring especially the free agent ones right you’re looking at the wing you’re looking at Caleb Martin you’re looking at Naji Marshall I don’t know not super sexy to me maybe you can talk yourself into Caleb Martin I’m actually kind of worried about that contract for whoever signs it just because of you know the post Miami Heat Eric bolra pixie dust thing that seems to maybe um follow some guys who leave not all you know Max strw totally fine with the Cavs for example but um you know it’s a tough thing like where does the Miami Heat influence end and Caleb Martin’s goodness start it’s a it’s a tough line to find when it comes to Nai Marshall I think he’s probably best as a backup Wing I don’t think you want to be starting him by any means and I don’t think you’re throwing cap space at him you could probably sign him anyway if you keep and Trent and just offer a part of the mid-level that to him and and you know see what he see what he says maybe he takes it who knows but um yeah just because of the lack of options and because the options that I think are the best ones are the highest risk ones that might not pan out I think that kind of leads me again to feeling like it’s actually the right move to just keep Bruce Brown around try to trade him if you can’t trade him keep him on the team and just keep Gary Trent Jr around for a few more seasons on whatever contract he’s going to get um and maybe Gary Trent Jr is looking looking at like maybe a shorter deal right the Cap’s going up maybe in a couple years he sees an opportunity to actually get paid in a way it feels like he thought he might last summer or that he thought he might this summer before the market kind of set him up into this spot where he’s maybe not the most desirable guy in the world um and there’s just not a ton of cap space teams out there at any given time right so there’s only so many guys who can go walk into team’s cap space free agency’s dead baby um but yeah like the the the biggest sort of idealist okay the Raptors go and get those guys and that’s like a really good use of their cap space and they fit the timeline and all that are two guys we talked about yesterday Isaac aoro and Patrick Williams I think are probably the two guys where it’s like okay if they could make that happen and get them on the team that’s a pretty good use of the cap space route and you kind of make your piece with Gary walking and Bruce Brown either being declined or traded well before cap space becomes a thing that said when you trade him you got to bring back salar so that that’s probably a non-starter anyway unless you’re getting some kind of weird non-guaranteed contract in return either way um when it comes to the like Isaac aoro and Patrick Williams like Patrick Williams in particular I would absolutely love on this team again I’m pretty high on there being more for him to give in a non- Chicago Bulls context um and maybe I’m wrong but like dudes who are 6768 who shoot 40% from three and can defend multiple positions they don’t fall off of trees grow off of grow on trees fall both I suppose um like they’re not just like easily found in the NBA and if you thr throw an offer sheet at Patrick Williams with your cap space that makes the Bulls think twice and he’s on your team like I think that’s like pretty good use of your offseason that said like RFA is just so bloody risky and it’s even more risky now that it’s only a 24-h hour period you have to wait to to match it’s not this s-day thing where you totally handcuff a team when you say hey offer sheets out there seven days to match and they have all this time to ruminate and think and their cap space is tied up your cap space is tied up um like it’s just it’s a little easier for to kind of sort through the will will they or won’t they of it and in most cases teams are just going to match right unless the deal is super punitive to them so I I think it’s probably too risky for the plan with the cap space to be go try to sign an RFA and the UFA class just is not very good and so uh and it’s full of guys who you could probably get with the mid level anyway I talked about Caleb Martin and Naji Marshall as the sort of two main examples there um you know if you’re looking for Wing upgrades trading Bruce Brown is one of those options right like that’s another way to go try to find a guy we talked about DeAndre Hunter for example um he’s interesting to me the guys on the Nets I think the Nets are kind of an interesting Bruce Brown team non-c Contender class we’ll talk about contenders with Bruce coming up but when it comes to teams that are in the non-c contender class talked about the Hawks and DeAndre hunter that one feels like it might have to be a team a three teamer because I’m not really sure what use the Hawks would have for Bruce brown maybe they have different designs than I Envision for them but um I don’t quite see the fit there but the Nets are a team that I’m kind of circling the Nets have their books set up so that 2025 is going to be their big cap space summer where they can go and try to not screw that up like they did with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and just go try to sign a guy into their space we’re New York right we’re sort of New York come over here we love you um please sign with us we’re super desperate we have nothing else to to lean on um that that seems to be their pretty obvious intention here and so could you convince them to give you Cam Johnson or Dory and Finny Smith plus like another salary in there to match in ex for Bruce Brown no pick attachment at all they just get Bruce Brown off the books in a year a guy they know a guy who’s been on that team who comes off the books in a year and just helps them have more cap space to work with in a year I think that’s a pretty interesting one um and Dori infiny Smith or Cam Johnson while not perfect would be a nice stop cap at the very least on the wings for the Raptors going forward so um yeah I I think again keeping Bruce Brown and trading him allows you to examine those Wing options as opposed to the free agent ones which just are not very good again the decision seems to be made because the free agent class is but it’s just it’s not a good one unless you’re going to go sign ogan and Obi and again fingers crossed for the long con of this being messiou jiri’s uh full-on magnum opus move where he gets the guys who perfectly assemble a team that ogan and Obi can then lift up Upon returning in for agency what a beautiful thing it would be it’s not happening but one can hope one can be stupid and delusional in the offseason that’s just the way to be um but barring that I I think the way you go address the wing problem is way more via keeping Bruce Brown around and trading him um than it is to hope you can sign someone into cap space it’s just kind of the way it is and so when it comes to the Bruce Brown thing like I I should say like if Bruce is on the team next year it’s not a disaster I I I think there’s this sort of kind of dumb discourse about Bruce Brown and how he played for the Raptors this season I I I I think he’s a niche player he’s a guy who needs to fill a role and the Raptors were in absolute disrepair after they traded for him where they had injuries obviously for the last month and a half of the season and they were uh you know flirting with trading him for the first couple weeks he was on the team that’s got to be hard for a guy to deal with the team never made any sense they never found a role for him and I think there are ways to use Bruce Brown more effectively than the Raptors did just because the Raptors didn’t find a way to weaponize the things Bruce Brown does well within their team doesn’t mean that they can’t do it they didn’t have their team this was a non-representative finish to the year of what the actual team context is and I think there are ways to use Bruce Brown more effectively I think number one what is the thing he’s always been really good at he’s been sort of this like wizard of being a small guy who can screen and dive and make plays on the short rle use him in second units have him screen and dive you have the spacing option now with Kelly oin and and Grady dick if you have a manual quickly in those lineups for example that’s pretty interesting you put some space around Bruce Brown in the short rle and he can make things happen for you that is a place he’s been super successful playing with good players in recent Seasons both with the Nuggets when they won the championship and he was a core piece and with the Brooklyn Nets playing with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and James Harden like he can be a connector for good players the Raptors don’t have players of Nicole joic or Kevin Durant’s ilk on this team right now but they sure hope they do in Scotty Barnes and going forward like if Bruce Brown is just on the team next season he can be a helpful agent for development for getting this thing to where they want to go even if he’s not a long-term piece on this team if you can’t go and get an upgrade for him via trade and the you know declining him and going for the free agent route doesn’t really work for you which I don’t think it is there’s are worse things than having Bruce Brown a very competent NBA player on the team next year on top of keeping Gary Trent Jr in concert with that using your two draft picks and going and using your mid-level exception maybe you split it between two guys or sign one guy and all of a sudden you have like 12 rotation players in the NBA or what you hope becomes 12 by the end of the season with the rookies you have coming in like there are worse ways to go into a season than to have a bunch of pretty okay players and I think Bruce Brown certainly is a pretty okay player um and I think there are ways to use him better just with a team context that makes more sense which they hopefully can procure over the summer and I I just think it will be a better context than they had because they’re not going to be all injured and missing time for personal tragedies like they were for much of the time Bruce Brown was on the team and by the way Bruce Brown was like pretty solid down the stretch numbers wise 114 and four on 36 or seven per from Deep like there there’s a player there and I think if he’s on the team if they can’t find a trade for him this Summer it’s totally fine we’ll come back and decide get into what teams to watch when it comes to who could use Bruce Brown I think a lot of teams could and it might be that like they can fetch more than you think for Bruce Brown it maybe it’s less than you think I think anyone who pretends to know what Bruce Brown actual Market is is lying and talking out of their butt we’re going to get into that coming up in just one sec Today’s show was brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel the single best sports book in all the land it’s winter take all time in the NBA and the NHL and FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player props and more with just a single winning $ five bet and you can use that on the very easy to ous FanDuel app to go and bet on whatever you want to bet on and look I often advocate for the happiness hedge hard to do in this NBA Finals because uh both teams winning would make me personally sad but I would slightly prefer the Mavericks to win I feel like 95% of 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course is now the uh co-host of the new hello and welcome podcast we’re very excited to have that to be back part of the Raptors podcasting uh sphere or whatever and look they are the sphere they’re the big boys but whatever we love will he’s going to be on the podcast very very excited about that teams that could use Bruce Brown look I think we saw firsthand this year and the Denver Nuggets losing in the second round might actually help indirectly kind of inform this we saw that the Nugget strategy of drafting late in the first round rookies and hoping they can contribute in year one and be players it’s just a tough road to walk if you’re a contender it’s really hard for rookies to be good in year one you maybe get one or two a year who pop and are providing valuable winning minutes for good teams Derek Lively obviously the the main example here we cannot start assuming that every Derek Lively like everyone is Derek Lively right like this just not how it works it’s very often rookies are bad for the first couple seasons and so if you’re counting on late first round picks to be the guys who fill it your rotation and and make it so you can go Inn a championship I think it’s a pretty tough bet to make unless you have like nine 10 guys and in the modern NBA like not a lot of teams have nine 10 guys they can lean on because it’s just too bloody expensive to have that um so when it comes to Bruce Brown like he is g to be more helpful to a contender next season than 95 to 100% of the rookies who will be drafted in this sort of range of the draft back half of the first round let’s say um that that’s just the fact he is someone who just 12 months ago was playing closing minutes in NBA finals games for the literal NBA champions he is a good player he is a player who contenders covet um and you know they may not show it with big sexy offers but if You’ pulled any Contender would you like Bruce Brown on your team they’d say yeah he’d be great on the team what does it cost obviously that’s the consideration here but uh yeah Bruce Brown will be awesome on this team he fits a lot of teams even though he’s an imperfect three-point shooter etc etc he’s a good connector he adds a little bit of supplemental ball handling we know what Bruce Brown’s all about um and so yeah I I I think the margin for getting cute with okay we can just take this guy and he’s going to help us next year is pretty slim for these contenders and when you’re a contender like Windows don’t last forever the Boston Celtics being good for as long as they have is the exception not the rule Windows do not stay open forever in the NBA guys age you know interpersonal Dynamics take over weird things happen guys get hurt etc etc etc guys leave because their contract is up short contracts in the NBA it’s a lot of flux a lot of cha and you can’t just like Bank on oh our window’s going to be open for the next five years we don’t have to worry about getting good players on our team we’ll just get rookies and they’ll be good right away you might squander away your remaining years of your window if you don’t go and get players who can help now and so I do think there’s an argument to be made that any team that has designs on winning a championship in the back part of the first round who is looking around and sort of thinking about how they can you know improve their team they should be looking at Bruce Brown they really should and in this draft where it seems like there’s all sorts of reports about the Sixers and the Knicks and the Lakers and all these teams maybe not wanting their picks in the first round because of the quote unquote quality of this draft although I do think it’s been pretty clear that the sort of back part of this draft is the place you want to be picking up at the high end with the high salary slots for non-star guys yeah I understand not wanting to pick there I sure as hell didn’t want to pick there when the Raptors had the chance to or the possibility of doing that um and so you know but the back part of the draft I do think there’s a real case that if you’re a contender you should be looking to trade your picks to go and land players who can help you right now to amplify your window to bolster your chances of winning next season and Bruce Brown might be one of the best sort of Championship addition guys available on the market this summer so again like I mentioned it before the break I think there’s this been this sort of assumption that Bruce Brown’s going to net the Raptors nothing in trade I don’t think that’s true just because he didn’t get a first round pick at the deadline doesn’t mean that he can’t do that at some point teams needs change and situations change the landscape changes all the time and maybe it doesn’t come this summer maybe it’s something towards next year’s deadline where a first round pick is in play because he’s closer to free agency he’s going to be a rental and maybe he’s that last piece to put a team over the top there’s more contracts that are available to be traded and stuff like that um you know that have been signed through another transaction window yada ya y but long way of saying there are some teams I think are worth keeping an eye on when it comes to the Bruce Brown thing and this is just me kind of putting two and two together this is not any sort of source reporting this is not even using any reporting that’s out because there’s not a whole lot of reporting right now out on Bruce brown but if you look at the draft order you look where teams sit you look at you the potential salary matching that could be had there are a few teams I think make sense the Sixers would be one and there’s like a I guess a way this can happen but these Sixers are one because it’s like um like they don’t have like the salaries to send back they had like two players signed for next year it’s like Joel Iden like three humps and then they’ll sign Tyrese Maxi one they do all the order of operations stuff um but they don’t have guys to trade so that’s not going to be like you get salaries back for Bruce brown but it could be something where maybe they absorb him into cap space that’s a possibility the Sixers pick uh at number 16 in this draft so maybe that’s a little Rich for their blood um you know they that’s possible they have the 41st pick as well I I don’t know if there’s something there late second round probably not where you want to trade for Bruce Brown either I’d rather just have Bruce Brown on the team than a second round pick but um yeah Philly is a team sort of on the fringes I don’t if it totally makes sense but if they align their offseason in a way that makes sense there’s a world in which they could absorb him if they don’t go get Paul George things like that if they go sort of smaller additions around Maxi and embiid that could be one um I I think the Lakers are interesting I I think Bruce Brown I think he was linked towards him in a lot of rumors and stuff last year I think that’s something you keep keep an eye on and the Lakers pick uh at number what is it 17 in this year’s draft and they have two contracts that I’m not sure how Keen they’re on on like having on their books frankly um they’ve got Jared Vanderbilt and they’ve got Gabe Vincent who’s got two more years at around 11 million bucks after signing last year barely playing this past season could you get Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent I don’t think that’s like a perfect return for the Raptors by any means but if you’re getting the pick attached to to kind of take back that Vincent contract maybe that is enough right I mean that seems Rich you know two guys end a pick for Bruce brown but Bruce Brown fits that team and he again would sort of give them some more flexibility in a year when he’s off the the books you don’t have the the Vincent contract the Lakers obviously value flexibility they’re kind of in this sort of weird year-to-year situation like they’re like on a lease with LeBron James as to when things are going to end there and and what their future looks like maybe they want to clear the decks a little bit I don’t know I’m just kind of inferring from their situation that could be one Jared Vanderbilt doesn’t play high leverage minutes for them um you can’t really play him in the playoffs because you can’t shoot at all and you know he’d be fine on the Raptors not like a core piece or anything like that he’d maybe just be like a Chris buet replacement if you find a move for Chris buet but the Lakers stand out as a team that could be kind of in the mix here the kings are fascinating to me because they have Harrison Barnes and Kevin herder 18 million bucks for Barnes 16 or so for herder um I think the math could work or you throw another little salary in there and can make it work where there’s a Willers away with trades it’s I don’t worry about the exact dollar to-dollar matching you can figure it out but Harrison Barnes just straight up for Bruce brown maybe I’m crazy I know Harrison Barnes is like kind of over the hill little bit he’s like the Kings have been seeking a replacement for him for what it seems like forever but he’s like a useful player and he fits a need for the Raptors he shoots threes he’s like a good dude he’s only under contract for two more seasons at 18 then 19 um you could do worse than Harrison Barnes as kind of a stop Gap Wing who eventually maybe use his salary down the line to go and trade before he becomes a free agent as well in a bigger deal to upgrade on the wing like I I would not be upset with that you’re not getting maybe the pick the Kings pick 13th in the draft I doubt you’re getting that pick out of them but hey the crazier things have happened MC Rod is like ready to not extend Mike Brown who knows that front office is whack that ownership is whack uh I would give the the Kings a call I think I’d prefer Barnes to herder just because of the positional need and all of that but you could talk me into herder as well um and I think those are the teams that kind of Stand Out Denver would be great I think you know there were rumors that they wanted to try to find a way to get him last year at the deadline but it just didn’t work salary-wise and they have similar salary conundrum this summer on top of also needing to try to keep kavus Caldwell Pope um so you know it’ have to be like zek Nagi plus like a bunch of little contracts thrown in I don’t think that’s all that realistic um but and you know they pick in the back part of the draft as well at number 28 um you know it’s not like there’s a a total wealth of options of course the Knicks were rumored heavily with with Bruce brown maybe they revisit that they’ve picked 24 and 25 so maybe there’s something there with the salary they want to offload although they have fewer of those with Evan forier coming off the books but those are the teams I think to keep an eye on with Bruce Brown like there’s going to be a team out there that says that guy is a piece for us to kind of put us over the top maybe it doesn’t happen this summer but if you pick up the option like I think they should do it could happen next year the deadline and you know it’s a delayed return on what you could get for Bruce brown but you also get Bruce Brown actually playing for your basketball team for the first few months of next season which again I think can be a valuable thing too that’ll do it for this feel like I’ve waxed and waned along enough about out Bruce Brown and Gary Trent Jr but we will come back tomorrow and uh we’ll revisit some other stuff I’m not exactly sure we’ll talk about what Jamar yet we’ll have some fun though because I like to play little games with Jamar and get his head head get get get him get him Fir and quick and stuff like that with little games I throw at him so we’ll continue on with that obviously we’ll do on Friday very much looking forward to that until then thank you so much for subscribing following rating reviewing supporting the show however you support the show very much appreciate anyone who rocks with it and uh you know does any kind of support whether on the apps or on YouTube and uh thank you as always for tuning in find me at woodlean on the hell website find the Discord Link in the description free to join and we’ll talk to you again on Thursday from the episode lockdown Raptors thanks for hanging byebye I’m way off

In Episode 1651, Sean Woodley goes solo to take a temperature check on where the Toronto Raptors intend to go with Bruce Brown Jr. and Gary Trent Jr. as Brown’s 2024-25 option decision looms, and Trent gets closer to unrestricted free agency. Off the top, Sean resets the stage and takes stock of the latest reporting on Brown and Trent, and digs into why it seems more likely than not that the Raptors will forego having cap space and pick up Bruce Brown’s option with the intent to trade him at some point, while also bringing Trent back on a new deal to stay in Toronto. Next, Sean runs through why the weak free agent class might make this decision for the Raptors, and some of the less than stellar options that make the status quo the preferred route. Lastly, Sean tries to identify teams with the matching contracts, draft picks and positional need that could see them enter their names into the Brown sweepstakes, if there even is one.

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