Trade & FA 2024-25:

[Chicagojk]

Thanks, I thought I read where they were below.   My bad.

It was Jake Fischer

: https://open.substack.com/pub/marcstein/p/jake-fischer-latest-lots-more-of?r=nuq3a&utm_medium=ios

If no trade materializes involving Brown, he would surely be in great demand as a buyout candidate.

The Lakers were a leading destination for Brown two summers ago, sources said, before Brown secured his stunning two-year, $45 million balloon contract from the Pacers.

Another team, fittingly, to keep in mind for Brown on the buyout market — if it gets that far — would be Denver. The Nuggets, sources say, would love a reunion with the veteran swingman affectionately known as Brucey B.

Bolstering Nikola Jokić's supporting cast via the buyout market might prove to be the Nuggets' eventual best option, since ownership would prefer not to surrender Michael Porter Jr. in a trade and given Denver's longstanding difficulties in trying to find a trade partner willing to absorb Zeke Nnaji’s four-year, $32 million contract.

Of course, to even have a shot at Brown, Denver would still have to make some cost-cutting moves on the trade front in order to get under the first apron for luxury tax teams.

Apron teams cannot sign any player who is bought out of a contract that pays more than the league average of $12.4 million. So Brown, in the Nuggets' current state, wouldn't be available to Denver even if he made it to free agency and both sides were eager for a reunion. Sources say that the Nuggets are indeed weighing whether trying to trade out of apron territory to create pathways to buyout market candidates would be a worthwhile endeavor.