Bruce Brown’s latest look might be a little more Harley-Davidson than Home on the Range.
It’s certainly not out of place for the Nuggets’ resident cowboy, though. It debuted in Oklahoma City early this month, and on Brown’s stiff upper lip it has remained since then. He’s been given no reason to shave it and start over.
“I actually like it,” he said. “I might keep it for a little bit. I’ve been hitting 3s, so it’s working.”
“You’re playing well,” teammate Christian Braun chipped in after interjecting with an insult at first.
Technically, Brown’s been rocking a horseshoe or biker mustache. Colloquially, it’s best described as a “Bru Manchu.” Whatever you want to call it, it’s one of the most individualistic facial hair looks going in the NBA right now.
“One of my friends who comes to every home game, his girlfriend wants him to get a mustache,” Brown explained. Being a good friend, he offered to go along for the journey “I was like, ‘If you get the mustache, I’ll do the handlebars (on mine).’ So that’s how it happened.”
He was already playing his best basketball of the season before the unconventional grooming decision, but his mustache makes for a convenient good luck charm. Brown scored 12 or more points in four of his last six games entering Wednesday’s matchup with the Mavericks. He contributed a pair of timely driving layups during the fourth quarter of Denver’s 125-123 win Tuesday in Phoenix, continuing an efficient stretch that’s been characterized by his heightened willingness to shoot.
“I just think I’ve been aggressive,” Brown said, citing a conversation with assistant coach Jared Dudley around the end of December. “I was just like, ‘How can I play more?’ I didn’t feel like myself out there. I guess I was just passing up open shots, which I didn’t even see because I wasn’t even looking at the rim, which is my fault. But now I’m just being aggressive. If I get an open three, I get an open three. If it’s my first shot, it’s my first shot — which I hate, but they’ve been going in recently.”
Brown is not known as a 3-point shooter and doesn’t care to take them. “I know it’s coming,” he joked recently. “Ever since I’ve been in the league, my first shot (of a game) is a butt-naked three.” He prefers to explore the paint and play bigger than his size. But he’s making 41.6% of his outside attempts since Jan. 1, around the time he confided in Dudley.
Before then, everything about his game felt a little off, not just the jump shot. He was navigating a smaller role than he had for his first stint with the Nuggets three years earlier. He was off the ball more often. He struggled to finish around the rim in transition.
“I was being too passive, trying to, I guess, fit into the scheme of the offense and just move the ball, I guess,” he said. “But it wasn’t working for me too much.”
Brown was the sixth man and primary ball-handler for the Nuggets’ bench the year they won the championship. He parlayed that season into a two-year, $45 million contract, then spent those two years floating from team to team and injury to injury. His one-year reunion deal with Denver was the feel-good signing of last offseason. Only this time, he wouldn’t be the sixth man — an adjustment that Brown has been candid about struggling with at first.
With time, he’s carved out a steady 24 minutes per game, sharing the second unit with other veteran reserves like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas. Brown remains the only player on the entire roster who’s appeared in every game this season.
“I’m in just a whole different role than I was last year,” he said. “I was kind of more offensively involved, I guess, as in plays being called for me and stuff. But I mean, now we have a deeper team. We have Tim coming off the bench. We have Cam (Johnson). We have Val. Somebody needs to get them the ball and get them in the right spots, and I’ve been trying to do that. But the second unit, I think we’re still working on it.”
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