Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun has taken a lot of flak from critics ever since the Nuggets handed him a five-year, $125 million contract. He didn't come close to living up to those terms last season. But in fairness, he was injured for a good chunk of the year and never fully recovered, including in the playoffs. But he's got his "explosiveness" back this season, and he showed in the Nuggets' 104-91 win over the Pelicans that he's ready to take his role with the team to the next level.
Braun's been off to a good start defensively to begin the year, applying pressure on the perimeter, and he's averaging 2.3 steals through the first four games. Part of what earned Braun that large extension was his stellar defensive play in his third year as a pro. But the other part of what got him the extension was his offense. Braun averaged 15.4 points while shooting 39.7% from three.
Is that Braun making his return along with his "explosiveness"? I think he could be, but in a slightly different form.
Braun is expanding his offensive arsenal
We all know that Braun is a fantastic cutter who Nikola Jokic often finds behind the defense on a back-door cut, which results in a nice finish in the lane. He does that at an elite level. But what we haven't seen Braun do much of, but perhaps we're starting to see more, is hit a nice mid-range jumper when the spacing in the driving lane collapses.
He's had a couple of nice mid-range jumpers fall over the past few games, and it would go a long way toward giving him a better chance to score more if he keeps it up. Perhaps he took some lessons from DeMar DeRozan? Whatever it is, please shoot more of them, Braun, because it's a good-looking shot that teams aren't expecting you to take!
Another encouraging sign was the drive-and-kick assists Braun had against the Pelicans. He finished with 4 assists, and when you combine those positive developments with the 3 three-pointers Braun nailed in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach, you can see he's well on his way to becoming an elite role player in the Nuggets rotation.
Braun may not exceed any high expectations for that contract, but he certainly is on the right track to coming close to hitting value. All he needed to do was return to the form of the 2024-25 season. He's close now, and he could be even better with that mid-range jumper and the assists peaking up.
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