Bruce Brown’s abysmal plus-minus for Raptors is hurting their ability to win

Toronto's hot streak following the All-Star break came to an end when birthday boy, Luka Doncic, and his Dallas Mavericks defeated the Raptors, with a score of 136-125. The Raptors had a one-point lead at halftime, but Dallas turned it up in the third quarter and ultimately carried the momentum to a win.

Despite the loss, Toronto saw its three young core players have solid games, as Scottie Barnes had 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists, RJ Barrett had 26 points, five rebounds, and six assists, and Immanuel Quickley had 28 points, nine assists, and five rebounds.

However, one Raptor's atrocious performance in the Dallas matchup was quite eye-catching for his mediocre impact on the game, and largely, a net-negative impact for Toronto as a whole. There needs to be discussions about Bruce Brown and his fit with the Toronto Raptors.

Bruce Brown's lousy efforts is becoming a detriment to Toronto's ability to win games.

Bruce Brown came to Toronto in the Pascal Siakam deal back in January, as his $23 million team option largely covered the salary match for a successful trade. As a relatively older player compared to the Raptors' young core and his allure to contending teams (as evident in his role with the 2023 NBA Champions, Denver Nuggets), it seemed inevitable that Brown wasn't going to stick around in Toronto for long. Nevertheless, Toronto opted to keep Brown at the deadline, and he continues to be part of the Raptors' rotation for the time being.

But in these rotational minutes, Brown is proving to be a poor performer for the Toronto Raptors. In 18 games as a Raptor thus far, Brown has an awful plus-minus of -124. Furthermore, the Raptors are 12.9 points per 100 possessions worse when Bruce Brown is on the court as opposed to being on the bench, which is in the sixth percentile across the entire league, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Whether or not Brown has fully adjusted to Toronto's coaching schemes remains in question, as he's still relatively new in his Raptors tenure. But, Darko Rajaković needs to decide where to go next with Bruce Brown soon. Sure, Toronto could afford to lose games to help retain their first-round pick this year, but why continue playing Brown if the plan isn't to keep him past this season? It's more likely he ends up elsewhere, so why not give those minutes to someone like Jordan Nwora or Chris Boucher, as they're more likely to be on the roster next year.

All in all, the Bruce Brown experiment in Toronto is proving to be a dud and his substandard play is only hurting their chances of receiving any valuable assets in a potential trade.