Winning reputation could lift KU Jayhawks’ Christian Braun into 1st round of NBA Draft
Christian Braun’s Blue Valley Northwest basketball teams won three Kansas Class 6A state championships during his four years in high school.
His University of Kansas squads clipped the nets in one of his three seasons in college.
The 6-foot-7, 218-pound, 21-year-old Burlington, Kansas native can’t guarantee he’ll be part of another title team with the franchise that takes him in Thursday night’s NBA Draft. The athletic shooting guard can, however, assure his future employer 100% effort toward that goal.
“Winning at every level is a plus obviously,” Braun said, asked to reveal his strong points during a recent appearance on the March Madness 365 podcast. “Winners are rewarded. If you win games the pie is big enough for everybody, coach (Bill Self) says.
“It’s all a process. This next step in my career, I’m going to chase the same thing I did in college and in high school,” Braun added of doing all he can to win NBA championships during what he hopes is a long pro career.
KU coach Self, who will be in New York to support Braun and Ochai Agbaji, who both will attend the draft proceedings, says he’s confident Braun, who averaged 14.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists this past season for KU’s 2022 national championship team, will hear his name called in the first round.
The draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York starts at 7 p.m. Central. The first round will air on ABC and ESPN, the second round on ESPN.
Appreciative of his coach’s support and aware various mock drafts have also included him in their first round projections, Braun insisted in a recent interview he’s “not too worried about that.”
“I’ve been trying to get better, make sure I’m ready to play at that level,” said Braun, who after declaring for the draft on April 24, attended the NBA Combine and has worked out for several NBA teams, including Indiana and the Los Angeles Clippers, the past several weeks.
“Obviously you want to make sure your skills are at that level and make sure you are as prepared as possible. Hopefully you land in the right fit, to make your career as long as possible,” Braun added.
Braun has a good idea what he’ll bring to an NBA team after playing three seasons at KU.
“I think intangible things. I think I bring a lot of things that impact winning at a lot of different levels — scoring the ball; diving on the ground getting a lot of loose balls, playing defense. I think I can bring a little bit of everything my first year in the league,” Braun said.
“I think I bring personality, doing things that other people don’t want to do,” he added. “That’s something I’ve been good at throughout my career. Just being me, doing the things that kind of got me to Kansas. That’s what I am proud of … doing little things that’s not always pretty. I’m most proud of the stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet,. (also) knocking down open shots.”
Self acknowledges that Braun “was our best loose ball guy. He’ll definitely give up his body to try to get a possession. He does that a lot. That makes any coach happy when their players do that. C.B. has gone from being a guy who was a stationary shooter to impacting the game in many more ways than that.”
Braun figures to fit right in with the more athletic players in the NBA.
He was third of all players at the NBA Combine in maximum vertical leap (40 inches) while tied for third in standing vertical leap (33.5 inches). He has a 6-foot-6 1/2 wingspan and 8-3 1/2 standing reach.
“I think we’ve talked a lot about being a sneaky athlete. I think people have called me that in my career,” Braun said. “I think I showed I was a true athlete, an elite athlete (at Combine) with my vertical especially. Obviously I am confident in my jumping abilities, probably overconfident sometimes.”
Various analysts have differing opinion on the teams most interested in acquiring Braun. San Antonio, Orlando, Oklahoma City, Denver and Indiana have been mentioned as possible landing spots in various mock drafts.
Sporting News wrote recently that Braun would be the final pick of Round One by Denver.
“The Nuggets acquired this pick from the Thunder and I could see them targeting wing depth — particularly with shooters and cutters — to complement Nikola Jokic,” wrote TSN’s Kyle Irving.
“Braun is the type of 3-and-D player who could excel playing off of a playmaker of Jokic’s caliber. He has great instincts as a cutter and rebounds at a high level. He knocked down 38% of his threes during his three seasons at Kansas and was a key cog in their national championship run this past year. Braun does all the little things to help a team and the Nuggets could use a player who plays winning basketball the way he does as they look to compete immediately when they return to full strength next season.”
Self believes the team that takes Braun will wind up pleased.
“I think he’s a first round talent. He’s just got to fit the right team,” Self said.
