{"id":114637,"date":"2024-12-28T18:07:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T23:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=114637"},"modified":"2024-12-28T18:07:54","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T23:07:54","slug":"raptors-return-bruce-brown-injury-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/28\/raptors-return-bruce-brown-injury-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Defensive Reinforcements On The Way For Rebuilding Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Raptors are set to get an elite defender back in the rotation in the near future \u201cif nothing changes radically<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

TSN.ca\u2019s Josh Lewenberg reports that veteran wing Bruce Brown<\/a> is expected to make his long-awaited season debut on Sunday, when the Raptors face the Atlanta Hawks in Scotiabank Arena. The Miami product hasn\u2019t played since April after opting to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery<\/a> in the offseason. Lewenberg adds that veteran center Jakob Poeltl<\/a> is set to return from a groin strain that\u2019s kept him out since Dec. 16.<\/p>\n

Bruce Brown On The Way For Rebuilding Raptors<\/h2>\n

Addressing his impending return, Brown emphasized his appreciation<\/a> for the Raptors\u2019 approach during his recovery process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accepted the fact that we didn’t know when I was coming back or how long it would take. Toronto’s been great, not trying to rush me or push me, just (letting me) take my time. There was never any rush to get back.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A multifaceted player who thrives in a Swiss Army knife role, 2023-24 was truthfully unkind to him.<\/p>\n

Injuries aside, Brown shot just 32.7 percent from three, missing 75.0 percent of his \u201cwide open<\/a>\u201d attempts. His untimely misses prompted the Indiana Pacers to put him on the trade block and he eventually became<\/a> part of their package for Pascal Siakam<\/a>. Upon arriving in Toronto, the hope was that he would do a 180. Instead, he made 31.7 percent of his threes in 34 games with the Raptors.<\/p>\n

With that being said, Brown shot 41.7 percent from deep in 11 starts for Toronto. That should give both player and team confidence in him rebounding from a challenging season. His defense is good enough to give him leeway; he doesn\u2019t have to be Jessie James beyond the arc. He does have to be much more reliable than last season though.<\/p>\n

No matter how shooting stroke looks, Brown can definitely be counted on defensively. To that point, the Raptors have been unable to stop opponents from having their way against them this season. The team ranks 26th in opponent\u2019s points per game (118.5) and 26th in defensive rating (117.2). This is despite Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic emphasizing the defensive end since being hired in 2023.<\/p>\n

Bruce Brown, Starter?<\/h3>\n

Toronto\u2019s defensive concerns are partially due to personnel. When healthy, the Raptors have several players who are standout perimeter defenders, such as: Brown, Scottie Barnes<\/a>, Davion Mitchell<\/a>, Ochai Agbaji<\/a>, and Immanuel Quickley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, only Mitchell and Agbaji have been consistently healthy this season, each missing fewer than three games. Ironically, Mitchell is such an offensive liability that it can compromise their defense at times. The 26-year-old is shooting just 40.0 percent from the field and 30.7 percent from three. Meanwhile, Agbaji is shooting a sparkling 41.7 percent from deep.<\/p>\n

When Brown returns, the Raptors should see if he can man the starting point guard position in Quickley\u2019s stead. He\u2019s likely going to be more reliable than Mitchell offensively while continuing to play sound defense. That singular change may not transform the team into title-contenders overnight. Nonetheless, it\u2019s a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Raptors are set to get an elite defender back in the rotation in the near future \u201cif nothing changes radically.\u201d TSN.ca\u2019s Josh Lewenberg reports that veteran wing Bruce Brown is expected to make his long-awaited season debut on Sunday, when the Raptors face the Atlanta Hawks in Scotiabank Arena. The Miami product hasn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":114654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1608,11,62,3],"tags":[4533,3178,968,4745],"class_list":["post-114637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raptors","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-nba","category-news","tag-bruce-brown","tag-immanuel-quickley","tag-jakob-poeltl","tag-nba-injuries"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114658,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114637\/revisions\/114658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}