{"id":839548,"date":"2026-09-20T07:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/839548\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T07:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T07:24:14","slug":"atlantic-notes-brown-hukporti-raptors-lopez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/839548\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Notes: Brown, Hukporti, Raptors, Lopez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruce Brown<\/a> should be a fan favorite entering training camp as he battles for a roster spot with the Knicks, Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post<\/a> writes in a subscriber-only story. Brown, Ochai Agbaji<\/a>\u00a0and James Wiseman<\/a> all signed<\/a> non-guaranteed Exhibit 9<\/a> contracts this week, and it appears there will only be room for one of them on the opening night roster.<\/p>\n

Vaccaro recalls that New York had interest in acquiring Brown from Toronto at the 2024 trade deadline. Brown, who spent two seasons with Brooklyn earlier in his career, welcomed a return to the city,\u00a0but a deal couldn\u2019t be worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love New York,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cI hated New York before I lived here, but as soon as I moved here, I loved it. Anytime you want to do something, you can go do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vaccaro notes that a similar contest for a roster spot took place last year, with Landry Shamet<\/a> winning and playing an important role in the Knicks\u2019 title run. Brown could follow the same path, as he brings versatility on both ends of the court with a game that Vaccaro describes as \u201c85% Josh Hart<\/a>.\u201d Vaccaro also states that Brown would provide additional depth in case a wing player such as Miles McBride<\/a> has to be traded at some point in the season for another backup center.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from the Atlantic Division:<\/p>\n

At 7\u20190\u2033 and 246 pounds, former Knicks center Ariel Hukporti<\/a> will bring plenty of size to the Sixers, but it\u2019s not clear if he\u2019s ready to handle expanded playing time, observes Adam Aaronson of The Philly Voice<\/a>. Hukporti has averaged 8.7 and 9.2 minutes per game during his two NBA seasons, but he\u2019s expected to have a much larger role in Philadelphia, especially if injuries limit Joel Embiid<\/a>\u2019s availability again. Aaronson notes that Hukporti\u2019s rebounding rate is good at 14.6 per 100 possessions, but his turnovers are a big concern at 3.7 in that same span.
\nThe Raptors landed a star in the Kawhi Leonard<\/a> trade and helped themselves even more by sending Brandon Ingram<\/a>\u2019s contract to the Clippers, Ben Golliver of ESPN states in an offseason recap\/early season preview<\/a> of the team. Golliver believes it was beneficial to move on from Ingram, who is owed $40MM this season and $41.9MM in 2027\/28. In the same piece, Zach Kram identifies Collin Murray-Boyles<\/a> as the team\u2019s X factor, saying he can combine with Leonard and Scottie Barnes<\/a> to form an elite defensive trio.
\nA reunion with center Brook Lopez<\/a> could make sense for the Nets, contends Ivan White of SI<\/a>. Lopez has a $9.2MM expiring contract, and White suggests that he might become available either through a trade or buyout if the Clippers\u2019 season turns out badly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Brown should be a fan favorite entering training camp as he battles for a roster spot with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[4990,7,4441,369,6850,964,1021,529,2715,10513,1261],"class_list":["post-839548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-ariel-hukporti","tag-basketball","tag-brandon-ingram","tag-brook-lopez","tag-bruce-brown","tag-collin-murray-boyles","tag-james-wiseman","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-miles-mcbride","tag-ochai-agbaji","tag-scottie-barnes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}