Losing to the Timberwolves in round one felt a lot worse than a normal playoff loss for the Nuggets; it felt like the end of an era. The team looked old, slow, and unathletic; unable to hold up on offense or defense. They clearly need an injection of youth, and disappointingly, that was supposed to come in the form of Christian Braun.
CB was in the running for the Most Improved Player Award last season, bursting into the starting lineup to replace Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. He was awesome, and looked like a budding star who was a 15-point per game scorer on solid efficiency, while being one of the top transition scorers in the league, and an ace perimeter defender.
He seemed like a perfect young Swiss Army Knife type of player to complement and elevate an aging big three of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon. The Nuggets eagerly extended Braun when he became eligible in the fall, rewarding him with a 5-year, $125 million deal that kicks in next season.
Christian Braun contract extension already looks disastrous
Unfortunately, this season was a disaster for Braun, as he struggled on the court and was hampered by an ankle injury. His scoring dropped, his shooting fell off a cliff, and he didn’t seem to add anything to his game, even taking a step back on defense, while only playing in 44 games.
He was available in the playoffs, but his play got even worse. Over the six games, Braun put up just 8.3 points, 3.5 points, and 1.7 assists per game. When his team needed him most, in Game 6, with Jamal Murray struggling and Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson missing due to injury, CB offered just 3 points and 1 rebound in 29 minutes as Denver’s season fell apart and came to a sad end.
And now, the Nuggets are staring at his extension kicking in, which will push the team’s payroll right up against the second apron, that they’re surely not going to surpass. They aren’t going to be able to add any meaningful talent this summer without freeing up some money, and that includes bringing back Watson, whom Denver chose to extend Braun instead of.
Nuggets will struggle to trade Braun due to his contract
The Nuggets need to make some major moves; it’s that simple. They’re on the hook for $59+ million for Jokic, $50m+ for Murray, $33m+ for Gordon, $23m+ for Cam Johnson, and $21m+ for Braun.
At least one of those absolutely has to go. The obvious answer would be Braun, but he also has the worst trade value. He’s on the hook all the way through the end of 2031, a season in which he’ll make over $28 million. That’s a lot to pay for a player who offered so little this season and completely disappeared in the playoffs.
He’s still young and should at least bounce back to be a solid role player, but this is the kind of deal that’s an absolute killer in this CBA. Teams aren’t going to want to take on that deal without some sweetener, and the Nuggets don’t have much to offer in the way of draft picks or young players.
Braun's lack of trade value will force Nuggets to move better players
Surely, they’ll try to convince some rebuilding teams to take a flier on CB, but they’re likely to find a cold market. It felt like the Nuggets have been struggling to overcome the burden of their big contracts to non-star players for years, and with money finally freeing up, they’ve immediately repeated past mistakes with Braun, it appears.
They’ll probably be forced to trade other players like Johnson, or perhaps even Gordon or Murray. It’s a scary thought, but they need to keep Watson at all costs and make upgrades to the roster elsewhere if they hope to compete around the Joker.
Sadly, the best bet is probably Braun sticking around, and the Nuggets hoping he can regain his old form and have a huge bounce-back season next year. If not, his cap hit is going to be weighing down this roster like an anchor for the rest of the Jokic era.
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