Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun didn’t enter this season trying to fill anyone’s shoes, but naturally comparisons happen when a two-time champion exits the team and everyone is looking at you to step up. The departure of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope this past summer left a vacancy in Denver’s backcourt, one that many expected Braun to fill.
“I think a lot of people probably look at it like that, but for me it was more what I bring to this roster is also complementary of what they want and what they need,” Braun said. “There’s a lot of similarities between [Caldwell-Pope] and me already. So I didn’t even change my game. I didn’t need to try to be Pope, but I tried to take things from him, learn things from him that he did when he was here, which is what I bring to this lineup.”
It wasn’t a guaranteed promotion for Braun, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone made sure of that. Malone is big on earning your minutes. “I never believe in just giving things away,” Malone said before the season. “I want guys to earn it and fight for it… Competition is healthy. Lucky for me, we have two young players who are going to make it a very tough decision.”
The two players Malone envisioned of battling for that starting spot were Braun and Julian Strawther, and to a lesser degree Peyton Watson. Braun showed enough during training camp and preseason to earn that starting spot on opening night, but says its “earned every day and every game.”
In his first season as a full-time starter, Braun’s doubled his scoring production from a year ago. He’s also averaging career highs in rebounds and assists, while improving his efficiency. Life tends to be easier when you’re playing next to Nikola Jokić, an all-time great who commands so much defensive attention that virtually every shot you’re going to take is open. But Braun still has to knock them down and finish at the rim, and he’s been doing it extremely efficiently this season.
Christian Braun’s year-to-year stats
|
2024-25 |
33.5 |
15.3 |
5.1 |
2.4 |
56.9% |
38.7% |
|
2023-24 |
20.2 |
7.3 |
3.7 |
1.6 |
46.0% |
38.4% |
|
2022-23 |
15.5 |
4.7 |
2.4 |
0.8 |
49.5% |
35.4% |
The leap in his raw stats is a natural thing to see when a player goes from averaging just a hair over 20 minutes a game to 30+, but you typically see some sort of decline in efficiency. That hasn’t been the case for the Kansas product, especially at the rim.
Most of Braun’s shots come at the basket, often off transition finishes quarterbacked by the likes of Jokić, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook:
… Or backdoor cuts to the rim:
…Or inverted pick-and-rolls with Jokić as the ballhandler:
On all of those shots Braun’s shooting 70% at the rim, a 10% bump from a season ago, and he’s doing it on nearly double the attempts. He also owns a true-shooting percentage of 65.6%, which ranks fifth in the league for players averaging at least 30 minutes a game. True-shooting percentage accounts for 3s, 2s and free throws, making it a more holistic way to measure how efficient a player is. Guys near the top of that list are usually traditional centers and power forwards who get most of their buckets around the basket like Rudy Gobert or on close-range jumpers, like Jokić, as well as players who are incredibly efficient scorers and get to the line frequently, like Stephen Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Well, besides Gobert, Braun has a higher TS% than all of those guys mentioned.
Braun is obviously not the focal point of the offense like many of those guys named, so his usage rate is significantly lower. But it’s the perfect example of starring in your role. And the fact that he’s been so efficient while having the heaviest workload of his career is nothing to scoff at.
“Anytime you see an improvement in any phase of a player’s game, it starts in the gym, being there getting reps in,” Malone said ahead of Braun posted a career-high 28 points in a loss to the Bulls in late January. “It’s not going to happen by accident. So [Braun] obviously understands that, ‘Hey, I got to be a more efficient finisher in traffic, getting to the foul line, running in transition.’ And so all those things that you’re seeing, any improvements, you know [Braun] deserves credit, because he’s definitely put the time in and become better in all areas across the board.”
The leap Braun’s taken came at a time when the Nuggets needed it most. Caldwell-Pope left in the offseason, leaving Denver without its 3-and-D mercenary who was relied on heavily during the team’s championship run in 2023. That, coupled with Aaron Gordon missing 20 games this season due to calf and ankle injuries, meant that the Nuggets were going to need one of their young guys to pop.
Braun’s taken on that challenge, and has played in all but one game this season, an impressive feat when availability has been a constant talking point across the league for years. Over Braun’s three-year career, he ranks eighth in the NBA in games played, and is tied with Mikal Bridges and Toumani Camara for third-most games played this season (min. 30 minutes/game).
“A big part of being valuable is being available, being reliable when the team needs you and being out there every single game,” Braun said. “[Not missing games] is a goal of mine. It’s really important because you get paid to play and you get paid to be available, so I want to be out there as much as possible.”
Over the last six weeks, Braun’s only elevated his game to another level, highlighted by a 25-point outing against the Phoenix Suns on March 7, where he hit what would’ve been the game-winning 3-pointer had Kevin Durant not spoiled the moment by sending the game to overtime on the next possession. He finished with 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor, including a 4-of-5 showing from 3-point range, in a near-perfect performance from the third-year guard.
Braun has been the ideal complementary player next to Jokić and Jamal Murray. He knows where to move on the floor to get himself open, when to cut if Jokić or Murray are getting swarmed, and always has his hands ready out on the perimeter to catch a no-look pass from Jokić or a kick-out from Murray for a 3-pointer.
“Since Day 1 he was that guy who was going to run hard in transition, play good defense and take the open looks,” Jokić said after a late February game where Braun finished with 26 points on 12-of-14 shooting from the floor. “Some nights he’s going to score 26 points, some nights he’ll score 14 or 10, but I like the mindset and how he’s playing. We don’t have another player like him on our team.”
It’s not just the offense where Braun has taken strides, he’s been tasked with more responsibility on the defensive side of the ball, too. He’s not a lockdown defender by any means, but he has great instincts that can sometimes result in a turnover, kickstarting Denver’s transition offense, which ranks fifth in scoring. His size allows him to guard multiple positions, and the energy he plays with usually leads to deflections or steals.
There will be some tough competition for Most Improved Player, but Braun (who has the third-shortest odds at +3000 behind Cade Cunningham and Dyson Daniels) has more than done enough to at least be in the conversation. There’s been times where he’s been the third-best player for the Nuggets, and he’s come up clutch on a number of occasions already. The next big test will be to see if this production carries over into the playoffs, where the Nuggets will need him to sustain that efficiency if they want to go on a deep run in the gauntlet that is the Western Conference.
But Braun’s already passed each test the Nuggets give him, so the chances of him extending this breakout year into the postseason is high.
“I’m just trying to continue to be good at what I was good at before,” Braun said. “Don’t change anything. Don’t try and be somebody else. Don’t try to fill another person’s shoes. Just kind of be me. Do what I do as best as possible.”
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