Grade the Trade pitch: Raptors begin teardown by sending Bruce Brown to Queen City

The Toronto Raptors are being replaced.

Heading into the season, it was easy to get excited about the potential of the Raptors' young players. Scottie Barnes was an All-Star last season, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett were playing their best basketball to close last year, and players like Gradey Dick seemed ready to take a step forward. The Raptors looked like a fun team many neutral fans were ready to root for as a surprise postseason participant.

Instead, that title should be handed to another team. The Chicago Bulls are playing better than expected, as are the shockingly competent Brooklyn Nets; the Nets are 2-3 and the Bulls 3-2 with some notable wins thus far. The Portland Trail Blazers and Washington Wizards each have a pair of wins as well. If you want to watch young talent performing at a high level, watch one of those teams.

You certainly cannot watch the Raptors, because their talent - young and old - can't seem to stay healthy and on the court. The coup de grace came on Wednesday night, when the short-handed Raptors, playing without four rotation players including Barnes and Quickley, lost to the Charlotte Hornets.

It is now time for a teardown, a "tank job", a focus on the future that involves losing in the present. That doesn't mean the Raptors' front office is ready to admit that the season is lost, but the writing is on the wall and it is in permanent ink.

Part of that process will mean trading away the veteran players on the roster who would both propel the team toward meaningless victories and who are unlikely to factor on the next good Toronto team in a couple of seasons. Bruce Brown is the most obvious trade candidate of them all, a veteran wing who doesn't exactly fit with the other stars and is on an expiring contract.

Could the Raptors' teardown come full circle, with the team that pushed them over the edge with a dispiriting loss being the one to win the auction of the estate sale? Could the Charlotte Hornets have a need for Bruce Brown?

Let's take a look at a trade that was proposed on the popular NBA trade site Fanspo and discuss whether it makes sense for both sides.

Laying out the details of the trade

The Charlotte Hornets are building a team around LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller and need role players who can support and fill around them. They also have a couple of high-octane guards in LaMelo and Tre Mann who can thrive off the ball. Having a veteran support player comfortable handling the ball and is a strong defender and rebounder would almost certainly make them better.

If Charlotte is ready to make a win-now trade, one possibility is trading for Bruce Brown to step in as a high-minute role player and do for them what he has done for many other teams, most famously of course the champion Denver Nuggets in 2023. Here is the deal proposed by Fanspo:

This deal would see the Hornets bet on their own future, essentially concluding that they expect to be a playoff team in 2027 and 2028. This deal also moves off of the contracts of Cody Martin and Vasilije Micic for next season, so the Hornets have the optionality to pivot off of Brown and have the cap space to chase a more signficant player.

Yet this is also a shocking amount to give up for an injured role player like Bruce Brown. Two unprotected first-round picks from a team that lives in the lottery? Charlotte has looked better-than-expected to start the season, has a pair of blue-chippers in LaMelo and Miller and a solid young coach in Charles Lee. Yet this deal is both risky and almost certainly an overpay for a player like Brown.

Still, the theory of the deal is there, even if the cost seems high. So let's assume for a moment that the Hornets would make this trade (it would hardly be the first time a team overpaid in a trade). Would and should the Raptors make this trade?

Should the Raptors make this trade?

The beauty of the Toronto Raptors making a trade with Bruce Brown is that it doesn't necessarily commit them to an all-out tank for this season. They have been shopping Brown ever since they (perhaps foolishly) picked up his $23 million team option this past summer. To ask them to trade Jakob Poeltl takes a larger organizational decision; moving on from Brown much less so.

In terms of the players involved, Cody Martin is a solid forward who could fit into the Raptors' rotation from the jump. Vasilije Micic has much less of a spot on this team with its three point guards already in place, but perhaps the Raptors retain him and move on from Davion Mitchell. DaQuan Jeffries is merely salary filler.

The true centerpiece of this trade are the draft picks. The Raptors would be moving on from their 2028 first, a likely Top-5 pick in the second round this year, and another future second for the Hornets' unprotected first-round picks in 2027 and 2028.

Essentially, are the Raptors willing to take a bet that the Hornets will not be dominant in a couple of years? Do they think they will be on the upswing of their rebuild by 2028 themselves? It's an interesting challenge trade, but the value is almost certainly on their side of the ledger given that the Hornets haven't actually accomplished anything at all and that the Raptors do have a good young core in place to quickly reset and move forward. It's very possible the Raptors are better than the Hornets in 2028 and then would have the 2027 first in pocket.

Trading Bruce Brown should absolutely happen, and this deal is excellent value. If the Hornets were to make this call, the Raptors should be very willing to listen.

Grade: A-