The Denver Nuggets have slowly regressed since they won their championship in 2023. As a majority of their starting lineup has remained intact, their depth has slowly decreased. Key losses have included Reggie Jackson, Jeff Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jeff Green and Bruce Brown Jr.
Bruce Brown Jr. averaged 12 points per game during the 2023 postseason and played great defense. In the ensuing offseason, he signed a two-year, $45 million contract with the Indiana Pacers. It was an overpay, but his contract allowed the Pacers to use him in a deal that got them Pascal Siakam, and then the Toronto Raptors traded Brown to the New Orleans Pelicans for Brandon Ingram.
Brown has entered free agency as an unrestricted free agent with seemingly no teams connected to him at the moment. He found success next to Nikola Joki in Denver, and would be a huge help for the Nuggets, who are trying to get back to making deep postseason runs.
Nuggets should bring Brown back in free agency
There are two things that Denver needs if they don't want to waste the prime of one of the most dominant players in NBA history. First is depth. In the postseason, the Nuggets were stuck running a seven-man lineup, which caused Jokic to carry a massive load. Even with his great conditioning, he looked gassed by the end of the OKC series.
Bruce Brown Jr. is perfect because of the chemistry he's built with the Nugget players. Whenever he's been a role player on great teams, he's found a lot of success. Brown was great at scoring off the ball handlers, plus he can rebound, pass and defend at a high level, all things Denver needs from role players.
Brown will help ease the burden of Denver's stars
Another thing the Nuggets should strongly consider is trading for a more reliable second option. As great as Jamal Murray has shown he can be, he has not been at peak form throughout the regular season and over the last two postseasons. Through Denver's championship year, he averaged 25 points, five rebounds, and 6.3 assists on .473/.404/.910 shooting splits in the postseason. But since then, those numbers have dropped to 21.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists on .423/.337/.890 shooting splits.
Throughout Jokic's career, Denver has been the best team in the league when he's on the court and one of the worst teams when he's off the court. The lack of depth around him and the lack of consistently great play from his co-stars needs to change. Bruce Brown would be a step in the right direction, and he'd help the supporting cast mightily, but something big should also happen for Denver this offseason.