The Denver Nuggets want to bring Peyton Watson back. They have the last say on whether that happens for the restricted free agent, and they may have a better chance to make room for him than we may have thought. There are more grumblings of trading Christian Braun, this time from a "West scout." Between the speculation about Braun and Cameron Johnson, there may be more reason to believe that P-Wat's going to be a Nugget than not. And that's the hope.
After the playoffs, it would have seemed reasonable to believe that trading Johnson was the main option to keep Watson without going deep into the NBA's second apron tax.
But Tim Bontemps has thrown fuel on the fire that a Braun trade could still be in the cards despite a poor run before his five-year, $125 million extension kicks in.
"They could easily just pay him and pay the tax, but we know how the Kroenkes operate," a West scout said. "That means sending out either Johnson or Braun, and I don't know where that lands. The injury stuff is a concern, but so is how they struggled without him."
Braun's contract could turn into a burden
Christian Braun has to play quite well for that contract to look decent at all. Last season, he did not. Sure, he was hurt a lot last year, but he's also come out and said he's the "vocal leader" of the team, and if you're going to take on that role, you should probably play better defense and score more than 8.3 points per game in the playoffs.
Nikola Jokic could only do so much in the paint, thanks in part to Braun's shaky-at-best perimeter defense. The Nuggets could get out from under a burden if they're able to get away from Braun now. He could develop, but he hasn't really shown the offensive or defensive upside that Watson has displayed when given prominent time, and given the choice, the Nuggets should choose Watson.
Watson has a higher ceiling
There's a reason Watson is one of the more coveted free agent targets of the summer. He showed the NBA that with some floor time and the need to create shots, he could absolutely do so.
During the month of January, Watson took over primary scoring duties for the Nuggets with Jokic sidelined due to a knee injury. Watson earned an NBA Player of the Week Award and finished the month with 21.9 points per game, showing his ability to be another legitimate big scoring weapon for the Nuggets.
Plus, Watson plays better defense than Braun on the perimeter. He averaged 1.5 blocks and 1.0 steals over the 15 games he played in the month. If Braun is easier to trade than we thought, then bringing Watson back may be closer to reality than fans thought, too.
Add us as a preferred source on Google