{"id":819915,"date":"2026-08-25T02:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/819915\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:18:20","slug":"nuggets-christian-braun-talks-watson-derozan-health-haters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/819915\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets’ Christian Braun talks Watson, DeRozan, health, haters"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAKEWOOD \u2014 Christian Braun<\/a> is channeling some serious Sith Lord vibes these days.<\/a> Your hate only makes him stronger.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly good for you, every once in a while, to get punched in the mouth,\u201d the Nuggets guard told me over the weekend at the Gold Crown Field House in Lakewood<\/a>, home to his summer 2026 youth camp with Flexwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said it a couple of times. So it\u2019s good for me to personally get written off. It\u2019s probably good for the team to get written off.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut like I said, I wouldn\u2019t write a (Nuggets) team off that won that many games and has been there, has won a championship, has done all those things. So we\u2019re excited. And obviously, we don\u2019t really care what other people have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good thing. The Nuggets have been taking it in the shorts <\/a>from pundits far and wide ever since they went over the NBA salary cap\u2019s second apron in order to keep Spencer Jones out of the Thunder\u2019s clutches. Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Jalen Pickett and now Peyton Watson are officially out; Marvin Bagley III, Lonnie Walker IV and now DeMar DeRozan are officially in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally excited to play with another All-Star and learn from him,\u201d Braun said of DeRozan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always very confident in what our front office does and the team they\u2019ll put together every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n

On paper, the Nuggets will go into preseason camp older than a year ago at this time. Maybe wiser. But maybe not, well, better. And in a Western Conference where Oklahoma City\u2019s roster is still loaded and San Antonio\u2019s Victor Wembanyama is only 22 and just getting started, the smart money says the Mile High title window\u2019s about to snap shut on Nikola Jokic\u2019s Hall-of-Fame fingers. That Denver\u2019s become Milwaukee West. No wonder CB can get a little cheesed off when you bring it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we\u2019re going to add enough pieces, obviously. As long as we have Jok (Jokic), as long as we have Mal (Jamal Murray) and AG (Aaron Gordon) and that staff, we\u2019re always in a really good spot,\u201d Braun countered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very confident in us every single year, no matter who we put on the court. \u00a0With those guys, we\u2019ve got a chance to win a championship, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re here for \u2014 to win championships. So we\u2019re excited. We\u2019ve got everything we need, as long as we have those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Core Four is the Core Three now, mind you, and Father Time isn\u2019t doing Nuggets Nation any favors. Gordon turns 31 in September. He played in only 36 games a season ago, as one of the bounciest players in the NBA battled calf and hamstring issues. Murray had a career year (25.4 points per game) and landed a deserved All-Star berth, but shot 35.7% from the floor during that ill-fated first-round playoff loss to Minnesota. Jokic became just the second player in NBA history to average a triple-double over back-to-back campaigns, but shot 44.6% during the postseason. He\u2019s turning 32 in February.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets need to get younger, longer and meaner around that veteran trio, and ASAP. All of which puts a little more hot sauce on Braun, a two-way threat who\u2019s 25, rehabbing an injured ankle, and entering the first season of a five-year, $125-million extension<\/a>. Especially with Watson, CB\u2019s pal, getting traded to the Cavs as part of a five-team swap that landed the Nuggets draft picks in \u201931 and \u201932. P-Swat (pick 30) and Braun (pick 21) were both Hoovered up in the \u201922 draft, and eventually contributed to the franchise\u2019s first NBA title the following spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery excited for Peyton and everything he accomplished,\u201d Braun said of his former running mate, who landed a four-year, $88-million deal from Cleveland as part of a sign-and-trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, every single day that I\u2019ve been in the NBA, I\u2019ve been with Peyton. Every single day we\u2019ve competed, we\u2019ve competed together. We\u2019ve done everything together. We\u2019ve practiced every day together. We\u2019ve done all the rookie stuff together. So Peyton\u2019s my guy. Me and his guys, his family, his friends have gotten close (with me) over the last four years, obviously. And he\u2019s a guy that obviously supported me at every step. So I\u2019ll do the same for him, always.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet as the Nuggets chose to pay CB and not P-Swat at the end of their respective rookie deals, the former has become\u00a0a Rorschach test<\/a> for Nuggets Nation lately; You sort of see what you want to see inside that inkblot. The hot take is that the former Kansas star cashed in \u2014 Braun\u2019s got a $21.55 million cap number for \u201926-27 \u2014 only to promptly fall off his \u201924-25 clip in scoring (12.0 points per game last season, down from 15.4 the year before), shooting (30.1% on treys, down from 39.7% the year prior) and defense (120 points allowed per 100 opponent possessions, up from 118 in \u201924-25).<\/p>\n

But there were caveats, too. For one, CB played hurt last season, and everybody knew it. One of Braun\u2019s strengths is an almost sneaky explosiveness combined with reckless abandon \u2014 whether sprinting on run-outs, squirting free on back-door cuts, throwing his body into the paint, or rising high to finish open looks from beyond the arc. Braun tore ligaments in his left ankle last November and wasn\u2019t quite the same after that. He missed 38 games. He spent three weeks wearing a boot. Then he dinged his calf in Game 1 of the Minnesota series. He managed three points in Game 6, as one of the most anticipated seasons in recent Nuggets memory ended with a stunning thud in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

From a 2026 lens, extending Braun while kicking Watson\u2019s can down the road looks like an epic blunder that could cost the Nuggets another title in the Joker\u2019s prime.<\/p>\n

But hindsight makes Jerry Wests of us all. If someone told you a year ago that you\u2019d only be able to pay either Watson or Braun the $20-ish million it would take to keep them, eight out of 10 Nuggets fans \u2014 probably more \u2014 would\u2019ve given the money to the latter. Without hesitation.<\/p>\n

Basketball-Reference.com tracks a stat called \u201cBox score Plus\/Minus,\u201d or BPM \u2014 which, in simplest terms, measures points per 100 possessions a player accounts for in a game above that of an average player. Braun put up a +0.1 BPM score or better in 41 of 78 appearances (53%) during the \u201924-25 season, and posted a BPM net-positive score in 19 of 51 (37%) career postseason appearances. Watson, by contrast, registered an +0.1 BPM in 23 of 68 appearances (33.8%) in \u201924-25 and posted nine net-positive BPM games out of 29 playoff tilts (31%).<\/p>\n

\"ChristianChristian Braun (0) of the Denver Nuggets beats Julius Randle (30) of the Minnesota Timberwolves to the ball during the fourth quarter of the Timberwolves\u2019 112-96 win in game four of their NBA Playoffs series at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fine to fault the Nuggets front office for not seeing 2026 Watson coming. But while it\u2019s OK to talk about ancient history, it\u2019s a weak look to keep revising that history to fit the narratives of the present.<\/p>\n

Your buddy with the season tickets might not have given Braun $20 million a year ago, but he would\u2019ve laughed you out of the bar if you\u2019d suggested doing the same for P-Swat last August. And if he says otherwise, he\u2019s lying.<\/p>\n

That said, it also behooves Braun to get back on track, fair or not. If Watson becomes an All-Star in the East, Nuggets Nation won\u2019t let No. 0 in blue hear the end of it.<\/p>\n

And they need him. Now more than ever. Since the spring of \u201924, the Nuggets are 10-4 in the postseason when Braun scores in double digits and 6-12 when he doesn\u2019t. That\u2019s an awful lot of pressure on one left ankle.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think we\u2019re going to put it in the past, and it\u2019s not something I want to talk about anymore,\u201d Braun said of last year\u2019s injuries. \u201cI\u2019ve worked extremely hard to get past it and will continue to work on it, and (it\u2019s) something that will continue to develop, continue to get better. So I\u2019m not too worried about what other people have to say about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know who I am and the player I am. I know I\u2019ll bounce back and be right where I need to be next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver\u2019s teams.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKEWOOD \u2014 Christian Braun is channeling some serious Sith Lord vibes these days. Your hate only makes him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[877,7,561,305,765,3213,301,187,1361,762,6890,2469,165,6338,307,152,3954,252,6,253,302,4097,310,1146,4098,26517,66,198,759,308,409,693,574],"class_list":["post-819915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-basketball","tag-christian-braun","tag-cleveland","tag-colorado","tag-demar-derozan","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-jalen-pickett","tag-jamal-murray","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-kansas","tag-latest-headlines","tag-marvin-bagley-iii","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-minnesotatimberwolves","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-nuggets","tag-nuggets-takes","tag-oklahoma","tag-peyton-watson","tag-sean-keeler","tag-spencer-jones","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-tim-hardaway","tag-timberwolves","tag-trade","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819915","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=819915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}