Denver Nuggets Rookie Christian Braun Is Proving He’s Playoff-Ready

Denver Nuggets rookie Christian Braun fearlessly drives straight at Minnesota Timberwolves center … [+] and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, missing the layup, but pulling Gobert off Nikola Jokic to open him up for the easy putback.

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In the third quarter of the Denver Nuggets’ Game 1 playoff win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, rookie Christian Braun slapped down opposing wing Kyle Anderson’s attempt to shoot during a dead ball following a Nuggets miss. This led to an elbow swing from Anderson that was ruled a flagrant foul on later review, and a brief scrum on the court that was quickly dispersed before it escalated.

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone was asked at Denver’s following practice if he liked what Braun had done, and the idea that “basically Christian was saying, ‘You’re not shooting the ball after we miss in our house.’”

And in his characteristically colorful way, Malone made no bones about his reply:

“I don’t like it. I love it.”

“I mean, we talked about that going into the game. The playoffs are a different mindset, you know, physical, mental.”

“You gotta remember, man, my father [Brendan Malone] was on Chuck Daly’s staff with the Bad Boys. So all that kind of stuff, I miss that era of basketball,” Malone added.

Based on what Braun has shown so far through his first three NBA playoff games, comparing not only his provocative move on that play, but more broadly his approach to the game in general, to the spirit of those classic Detroit Pistons Bad Boys teams seems fitting.

While Braun’s game on the court is of course still developing as a first-year player, some of the qualities he already possesses in abundance, and were surely bolstered by his NCAA championship experience with Kansas last year – his fight and grit, his mental and physical toughness, his outright fearlessness – would have fit right in with that Bad Boys ethos.

To be sure, his on-court production is just as important, but his mentality which is steely, feisty and at the same time mature and controlled (he immediately backed off Anderson to de-escalate the dust-up) is a huge part of what has earned him Malone’s trust to the extent that he’s in Denver’s playoff rotation ahead of teammates with far more NBA experience.

But that’s just a starting point and foundational throughline for Braun that would only carry him so far if he hadn’t also been backing it up with solid, and in some moments exceptional play in critical moments through his first three playoff games.

And has he ever.

While Braun’s counting numbers don’t exactly leap out of the box score – he’s averaging 4.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and an assist in 13.7 minutes – his impact is readily apparent to anyone who has watched him play. And this is reflected in the fact that, per NBA.com, among the 124 NBA postseason players who have averaged at least 12 minutes and three games, Braun is fifth in net rating with a plus-19.8, and sixth in defensive rating at 93.9, meaning that while he was on the court, the Nuggets have outscored the Wolves by a whopping 19.8 points per 100 possessions (an approximation of one game), and held them to a paltry 93.9 points.

As Denver presumably proceeds to the next round, now holding a series lead of three games to none which no NBA team has ever come back from, those net and defensive ratings will certainly come down to earth some, and they should be taken with all the usual small sample size caveats.

But at least two meaningful conclusions might be drawn. One, the Nuggets have been downright dominant so far with Braun on the court, albeit not exclusively because of him, as he has the lowest usage rate among all eight Nuggets rotation players, and he has spent many of his minutes sharing the court with Denver’s top starters, including two-time MVP Nikola Jokic.

But that gets to the second point, which is basically the inverse, that Braun has not been a liability. In fact, he’s proven himself to be a low-mistake player through the entire season, which is relatively rare among rookies, and exceedingly important in the playoffs where the margins of error tend to shrink dramatically. Again it’s worth noting that Malone, who fairly or not has a reputation for a reluctance to play rookies, has placed a great amount of trust in Braun.

But beyond all the statistics, what has really mattered the most in Braun’s performance so far is the viscerally powerful imprint he’s stamped on games in his limited minutes.

And nothing highlighted this more than his early fourth quarter sequence in Game 4, in which he scored six points in the paint in under three minutes, and in the process also cut baseline to deliver an assist to Michael Porter Jr. for a corner three-pointer.

In that span, Denver extended their lead from three points to ten, silencing the Minnesota crowd and beginning the push that would seal their three-zero series lead.

Braun is more commonly highly regarded for his defense, and there too he has been making a difference for Denver.

Earlier in his first Game 3 stint he was assigned to Anderson, and did a great job containing and staying glued in front of him, successfully contesting him for misses the Again, two examples below.

Braun has also had some big moments as a defensive playmaker as well, here blocking Mike Conley on a fast break layup attempt.

It will be revelatory to see how sustainable this high level of performance is for Braun, especially as the Nuggets will most likely face a far more dangerous Phoenix Suns team in the second round. But when they last played the Suns in their third-to-last regular season game, Braun spent several defensive possessions guarding superstars Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, and he clearly has no fear in stepping up to the challenge of a bigger stage.

And that gutsy confidence is no doubt buoyed by Malone’s belief that he’s ready for the moment.

When asked about his trust in Braun following Game 3, Malone stressed that playing him in the postseason is also critical for his growth. “Yeah, I mean it’s trust,” Malone said, “and it’s also huge for his development… The only way you truly develop in this league is by playing.”

“This is invaluable for Christian Braun, and I thought he responded, you know, nine points, attacking the basket, finishing, and it’s great to see him out there doing what he’s doing for us.”

The way things have looked so far, it appears that his development has kept pace as Braun plays through increasingly formidable challenges on bigger stages. And if he can continue performing at a level that rises to those demands, he will undoubtedly play a critical role in the Nuggets’ playoff success on a deep run they hope will ultimately lead to the franchise’s first NBA championship.