One of the most encouraging storylines of the Denver Nuggets run to a championship in 2023 was the play of rookie Christian Braun. Over his initial season in the NBA he continued to earn more and more responsibility, culminating in a superb performance in game three of the NBA finals (in front of Shakira) as the X-factor that helped turned the tide of the championship round in the Nuggets favor. Entering his sophomore season expectations were high for Braun, perhaps a bit too high. He started off slowly and even got yours truly to write an article questioning whether the Nuggets young two guard had entered a sophomore slump. As the season went on Christian found his groove and settled back in to his role as a competent backup to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. He also found himself taking on some playmaking duties as Denver’s point guard depth was tested with injuries to Jamal Murray but fell short of becoming the Bruce Brown replacement some had hoped for. By the time the Nuggets were facing the Minnesota Timberwolves in the playoffs, Braun was drawing Anthony Edwards as a defensive assignment and bringing the ball up the court more and more often. He didn’t reach the heights some had hoped for but it was still a solid second year in the NBA.
‘23/‘24 Season Stats
| MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | STL | FG% | 3PT% | VORP | BPM |
| 20.2 | 7.3 | 3.7 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 46.0% | 38.4% | 0 | -1.9 |
Season Story
Coming off his rookie year, and with the exit of Brown, many had hope that CB could continue to elevate his game into the sixth man role, not only increasing his scoring volume but also taking on more playmaking duties. However, GM Calvin Booth made it very clear from the jump that Christian would not be playing any point guard (which was an odd thing to hear on media day right after Christian himself talked about how much he’d worked on his playmaking and ballhandling in the offseason). Braun more or less slid into the same role he ended the previous year with: defensive two-guard off the bench. It was rocky to start the season. Now with a year of tape in the NBA, opposing defenses weren’t caught off guard by Braun and his scoring suffered, particularly with his finishing around the rim and shooting from the corners which was sometimes hard to watch in the Fall and early Winter. His defense was also not worse, but not really any better either. A lot of this was chalked up to a sophomore slump which no player had more reason for one than Christian. He ran all the way to the national title in his final season in college, then went the distance in his rookie season to the NBA finals. In all likelihood it was the most high level basketball he had played over a twenty-four month period in his life. He wasn’t without his moments though. There was a fantastic game against the New Orleans Pelicans during the NBA Cup and a stretch of five straight games in double figures scoring.
As the season progressed Christian somewhat made a liar out of Booth. With Jamal Murray injured, Michael Malone turned to Colin Gillespie, then Jalen Pickett for backup PG minutes before ultimately abandoning the traditional point guard approach and allowing Christian to take the ball up the court when Reggie Jackson was on the bench. That would be the case again towards the end of the season when Murray was sidelined once more. CB started really rounding into form post all-star break, he regained his finishing touch, and he shot well enough above the break from three point land that his corner shooting woes were fairly mitigated. In the end he shot a very respectable 38.4% from three on the season which was three percent higher than his rookie year on 50% more attempts per game. Come playoffs, Braun was a staple in the rotation throughout. Against Minnesota, with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope playing on one ankle, Malone often turned to Braun to help stifle Edwards as much as he could. He struggled to contribute on offense though, hitting double figures just three times in the postseason.
’24/’25 outlook with the Nuggets
KCP moved onto greener ($$$) pastures in Orlando, which has opened up the starting job at the two guard for the Nuggets. Most expect Braun to be the one to fill that role with Booth even stating that he believes Christian is ahead of schedule in terms of becoming a starter in the NBA. It’s by no means a guarantee though. Julian Strawther was hurt for large portions of his rookie season but the organization is very high on him and he backed up their faith with a superb performance in Summer League. Peyton Watson is also an option if Malone wants to go stiflingly long with his starting group. Braun at the very least should be considered the front runner for the starting role though and I imagine this was always the succession plan for him from the moment he was drafted.
Playing with the starters can bring great benefit to Christian. Unlike in his sophomore season where he was expected to take on a larger scoring load which brought mixed results at best because defenses could key on him, as a starter he will without a doubt be the player the opposition will live with scoring. His role becomes much simpler and carries much less pressure. Shoot when open, play stout defense, cut and get out and run the floor to be the beneficiary of Nikola Jokic dimes, that’s what he’ll be asked to do. I don’t expect him to struggle offensively in the starting unit because he won’t be asked to carry that group in any way on that end of the floor. Where Christian will need to continue to improve and be one of the best on the floor will be defensively. KCP was a superb defender and allowed the Nuggets to have an answer to every opponent’s best scorer on the perimeter. That job now likely falls to CB. If he can continue to elevate defensively and get a level of a player who gets All Defense consideration then it will make Booth look like a genius for drafting him and letting Caldwell-Pope walk. If he can’t then Christian may never be more than a bench role player.
