Perhaps the biggest bright spot of the playoffs for the Denver Nuggets was the play of Christian Braun. Braun backed up his excellent regular season, which saw him contend for the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award, by proving to be one of the most reliable players in the biggest games, consistently bringing it on a nightly basis.
He continued to show that he’s a playoff riser, which dates all the way back to his rookie year. Braun is the main success story of this Nuggets youth movement, a group of recently drafted players that was supposed to help usher in the late-prime Jokic era in Denver.
Christian is the only one to truly break through, establishing himself as a starter this season and averaging over 15 points per game. He was also the team’s most reliable perimeter defender and really stepped it up on that end of the floor in the postseason, even doing an admirable job on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
He also broke through as one of the best transition scorers in the whole league and brought a necessary pace and energy to a Nuggets team that was sorely lacking in that department. Braun was a revelation this season, a face of consistency in a season that was anything but.
Bobby Marks pegs Braun as a $30m/year extension candidate
When Bobby Marks of ESPN did his Nuggets offseason preview after the team fell to the Thunder in Game 7, he pointed out that Braun is an obvious extension candidate, coming to the end of his rookie deal.
Marks compared Braun to Jalen Suggs of the Magic, who signed a 5-year, $150 million rookie extension, but said, given the nature of the cap, that should be the floor for Braun’s next deal. That means Braun will be making at least $30 million a year going forward, a well-deserved number for sure, but perhaps an untenable one for the Nuggets.
Nuggets can’t afford another $30m/year player
The Nuggets are already up against a financial crunch with a roster that’s far too thin. The problem is that the team is front-loaded, with almost all of the salary devoted to four players: Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon.
Two years from now, all four of those players are due $30+ million, with all but Gordon slated to make over $40 million in the 2026-27 season. That would have the team right around the luxury tax line with just paying four players.
This is all to say that the current situation is an issue, and the Nuggets need to clear some larger salaries to diversify the roster and add depth. Unfortunately, that’s counterintuitive to extending Braun for another big-money deal.
Nuggets must unload salary or lose Braun
The sad reality is that the Nuggets must unload at least one, and probably two of the core four players, if they realistically want to be able to keep Braun and also field a competitive roster around Jokic. That’s not going to be an easy task, and it’s likely none of Murray, Gordon, or MPJ will hold as much trade value as the much younger Braun does.
It’s bittersweet in the sense that Braun has played so well that the team may not be able to keep him. The youth movement has been a failure overall, but the one promising piece may have to get moved to make up for the sins of the others.
Hopefully, Denver can find a way to make this work because Braun is vital to this team, and his departure would create another gaping hole on the roster. But the team can ill-afford to have four guys making big money, and five is downright unthinkable. Something’s got to give.