[Singer] There’s a real chance Christian Braun plays in Summer League this year. Think some of Denver’s brass wants to see him hunt for his shot and dominate in a way he wasn’t asked to during the regular season last year.
There's a real chance Christian Braun plays in Summer League this year. Think some of Denver's brass wants to see him hunt for his shot and dominate in a way he wasn't asked to during the regular season last year.
— Mike Singer (@msinger) June 26, 2023
22 comments
Who’s brass
Cool.
W
o/u 1.5 games played?
Braun is a tremendous athlete but if he wants to remain in the league for a while, he’ll need to work on his ball handling as well as creating his own shost. Two things that summer league ball would be good for.
One side to this is that he 100% proved his spot on the team. I hate to send players out in the summer league like that, it feels disrespectful.
On the other hand, he does need to work on some skills that won’t be possible in the season. Summer league can be a place where he expands his bag and work on; handles, passing and shooting.
That’s awesome, because it shows they think he can be more than a 3 & D wing.
I think he can have a trajectory like Jaylen Brown. He’s a better shooter than Jaylen was early on (which admittedly isn’t saying much), similarly athletic, and needs to develop his handle and playmaking.
Their idea is similar to european players go to international tournaments, being their star player making 20+ points per game and leading a team instead of being a role player in an NBA squad i guess.
Also Braun played 15 minutes per game and just travelling with the team all season long.
He could need some more playtime on the court.
Good idea but don’t wanna over work him and cause injuries
Rotational piece with huge moments in the NBA Finals going to the summer league. I hope he’s ego can handle that. He’s young and super successful, hopefully he’s mature enough to navigate those feelings. I wouldn’t be.
I’ll keep a close eye
Here’s how I’m reading into this:
This is basically preparing Braun for a future role on this team. In a scenario that Bruce does not re-sign, or something happens where he is inured, Malone will want Braun to step up and take his role. That means being a great ball handler and playmaker, still hustling and providing great defense, and as Singer said, create his own shot and take over.
Basically, kind of promoting him to a 6th man role and being the guy to run our bench. I like the move overall. I wouldn’t take this in a bad way. Basically prepare you for what your role could be as early as next season.
By that logic, MPJ should also attend. Braun was more impactful than MPJ in that last series.
Like it. Could you imagine how deadly he could be if he shot 10,000 threes this summer and got to practice this at game speed? If he can threaten to catch and shoot 3s at a 40%+ clip then be a knock down defender against 1-4s.
I see the Nuggets winning 74 games next year no exaggeration
Kinda like the Knicks did Quentin Grimes
*I can’t believe they would make CB do this. It’s so disrespectful. First the backpack and now this. Watching him on the bench in the finals and during the parade made me so sad he just looked so abused.*
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I bet he pushed for this actually, maybe they brought it up to gauge his interest but I really doubt they would just say “you have to do this” after the postseason he had. I think he is excited to play with the other young guys, and to see if they can find anything between them playing together against other guys who will likely play minutes this year in the NBA.
That is the kind of thing that could pay off for him more than just him working on his own game, if our bench unit starts to get more consistency from guys having played together more I think he comes out looking really good next season.
The man won Denver a game in the finals. Whatever he needs to work on he can work on in practice right? His real weakness that’s obvious is his pull up shooting. If I’m Braun, I feel insulted. But then again, I know nothing about basketball development
Last Summer League Braun shot 30% from the Floor, 12% from three and 55% from the line. It will be fun to see how he plays without Jokic getting him wide open layups/shots. The stats say I’m right about him being a bust even if the eye test tells a completely different story because of his impactful on-Ball Defense. If you think Braun has already made it in the NBA you are wrong. It’s a make or miss league and Braun misses a lot of shots when he doesn’t play with the best offensive weapon in NBA history. A Sophomore slump is a big possibility for him because of his limited skill set with the ball
That’s great. When u look at the roster if Bruce walks,
U will need 1 of Braun, Watson, KCP or Porter to step into more of an initiator role
If history is an indicator, they will win the summer league title (if there is one)
Sounds like they wanna see if he can develop into a Reeves (ik ik the comparing two white plasters to eachother gets old) type. Ability to draw fouls and create his own shot a bit.
No better way to test the new guys than to let CB clamp them up at practice