{"id":593765,"date":"2026-02-10T02:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/593765\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T02:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:41:16","slug":"nuggets-christian-braun-on-failed-initial-return-from-ankle-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/593765\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets’ Christian Braun on failed initial return from ankle injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

White men can\u2019t jump if their ankles aren\u2019t fully healed, Christian Braun<\/a> learned recently.\n<\/p>\n

So as he prepared to return from a left ankle sprain for the second time in as many months, he paid more attention this time to his bounce as a barometer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest (factor) was, \u2018Can I jump in the air?’\u201d the Nuggets guard said. \u201cObviously, they do all their tests (on an injury) and they do a really good job, but truthfully, I couldn\u2019t jump. And if everybody has seen me play, I jump off my left leg a ton. So I\u2019m just navigating, like, \u2018Before I come back this next time, I need to make sure I can jump. I can run full speed and I can jump.\u2019 It sounds really elementary and really basic, but that\u2019s the truth. The explosion just wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braun, who has spent this season dealing with a serious injury<\/a> for the first time in his basketball career, has been back in the lineup for four games after Denver\u2019s matchup with Cleveland on Monday. He expects \u201ca long process\u201d as he tries to grow fully comfortable on the court again, but he\u2019s already feeling more like himself than he did in early January, when he initially returned from a seven-week, 23-game absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned the first time I came back, I wasn\u2019t ready,\u201d Braun said. \u201c\u2026 It wasn\u2019t that we rushed or anything like that. I think that I wanted to come back really, really bad and just be part of the team. Be back on the court. But clearly wasn\u2019t ready. I think everybody could see that. Everybody knew that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braun suffered the initial injury last Nov. 13 in a bizarre play<\/a> involving Cavaliers guard James Harden, who was playing for the Clippers at the time. Braun was guarding Harden when the 2017-18 league MVP stepped on Braun\u2019s right foot, causing him to momentarily lose balance and take an awkward step that injured the opposite ankle.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets estimated that Braun would be out for six weeks in a news release. He returned Jan. 4 at Brooklyn. Then after visibly struggling for three games, he went back on the shelf and missed another 12 consecutive contests.<\/p>\n

He believes that his lack of injury history made it more difficult to feel 100% certain he was physically prepared for a return. The ramp-up process was unfamiliar to his body.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big part of it,\u201d he said. \u201cThey kind of put up whatever six- to eight-week label on my injury, which I don\u2019t quite think that\u2019s what it was, and I think everybody knew that. But it was a little more severe than I think initially I anticipated. I really wanted to come back at the six-week mark. Obviously, I have to tell them how I feel. And I\u2019ve never been injured before, so I didn\u2019t really understand that \u2014 I didn\u2019t know when I was there (at six weeks) that it was gonna get better. I just kind of was at a spot where, \u2018OK, well those guys are out there battling. I want to be out there battling with them.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to the point where I could at least move. I could run. I wasn\u2019t explosive enough. I couldn\u2019t jump off the ground. That\u2019s not a good recipe to play in an NBA game. And I learned that. I realized that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braun was a plus-15 across his first three games back. His scoring via off-ball motion hasn\u2019t been as constant an ingredient in Denver\u2019s success this season, but he put together a relatively complete performance last Wednesday against the Knicks, posting six points, seven rebounds and six assists in 43 minutes. He also came through in his first high-stakes situation in months, sinking a pair of free throws with 0.3 seconds left in overtime to tie up New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cRapid improvement (with) I think confidence in his body,\u201d coach David Adelman said. \u201cThe explosion\u2019s slowly coming back. For CB, I think this is a great time to push himself two of these next three nights, and then get a break again. And hopefully that just continues to heal for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNavigating the feeling of coming back, it\u2019s kind of my first real adversity I think on the basketball court,\u201d Braun added, \u201cwhich I think is good for me. And I think I\u2019ll grow from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelman was pleased to see Braun looking comfortable going to his Euro step in transition last Saturday, when the 24-year-old scored another 10 points in a win over the Bulls. It was a momentary reminder that Braun is one of the most athletic players on Denver\u2019s roster, when he feels like himself. Pushing the pace is how he set himself apart offensively last year, earning a $125 million pay day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before that lucrative extension goes into effect, he\u2019s spending the last season of his rookie contract getting a valuable education in how to properly rehab and return from an injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just took me a second to realize that maybe I wasn\u2019t ready, maybe I need to step back and take a little more time,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 So I think now that we\u2019ve got to a spot where I\u2019ve kind of realized, you know, listen to my body, those things \u2014 I need to do a better job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"White men can\u2019t jump if their ankles aren\u2019t fully healed, Christian Braun learned recently. So as he prepared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,561,765,301,187,3943,766,1035,560,165,252,6,1136,302,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-593765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-christian-braun","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-denvernuggets","14":"tag-front-range","15":"tag-injury","16":"tag-james-harden","17":"tag-latest-headlines","18":"tag-more-nuggets-news","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-nuggets","22":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116044031013978351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}