As Josh Kroenke said weeks ago, everything is on the table for the Denver Nuggets this offseason, outside of trading Nikola Jokić, who could sign an extension. That reads as just about anything could happen, but Marc Stein of The Stein Line provided some clarity on Sunday evening, writing that the team hopes to find a trade market for Christian Braun (subscription required).
League sources say that the Nuggets preferred course for a roster shakeup is finding a trade market for Christian Braun rather than entertaining deals that involve Gordon or Jamal Murray after Murray's first All-Star season, but those efforts are rife with challenges. Yet it's likewise true that injuries have limited Gordon to 87 games over the past two seasons.
That doesn't mean that they will trade Braun, nor that they won't trade Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon.
Stein noted the challenges (plural, not singular), and the biggest one that comes to mind is finding a trade suitor to take on Braun's contract. The five-year, $125 million extension he signed last offseason will start in 2026-27, and it's ascending, so the most he will make is $28.4 million in 2030-31, the final year of the contract.
Nuggets plan to gauge Christian Braun's trade market
Questions were already swirling about Braun's future after he averaged 12 points (down from 15.4 in 2024-25), 4.8 rebounds (down from 5.2), 2.7 assists (up from 2.6), and 0.7 steals (down from 1.1) this past season, shooting 51.9% from the field (down from 58%) and 30.1% from three (down from 39.7). He played only 44 games, missing a chunk of time with an ankle injury.
In the six games Denver played in the postseason, Braun averaged just 8.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.0 steals per contest, shooting 41.7% from the field and 42.9% from deep. In the Nuggets' Game 6 loss to the Timberwolves, he had only three points in 28 minutes.
His regression after a career-best 2024-25 season was tough enough, but especially after the Nuggets chose to pay him over Peyton Watson, who they want to keep in restricted free agency.
Given the tough decisions that Denver can't avoid this summer, it makes sense to see what kind of trade market Braun has, and not only because it would be a financial relief. Murray shouldn't go anywhere, and you can argue that it's time for Gordon to go because of his availability the past two seasons, but perhaps the front office doesn't want to move on from him just yet.
The thing is, though, if a trade for Braun doesn't happen, his relationship with the organization could be strained because his name was in trade rumors. That might seem minuscule in the big picture, but it's something the Nuggets have to consider if they want to make a run at another title with Jokić (and they should).
In a perfect world, Braun would have a bounce-back season and be part of that, but we live in a reality dominated by the tax aprons. Maybe the 25-year-old has already played his final game with Denver, or maybe not. There is no way of knowing just yet, though that should get a lot clearer in the next few weeks, as the fun (if you can call it that) hasn't started yet.
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