Former KU guard Christian Braun blames himself for Denver’s loss in NBA Playoffs
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Christian Braun said the team wasn’t resilient and put some responsibility on himself.
- Braun’s playoff scoring dropped to 8.3 PPG while dealing with ankle/calf issues.
- Braun agreed to a five-year, $125 million deal that starts in 2026-27.
Riding a 12-game winning streak to conclude the regular season and 54-28 overall record, the No. 3 seed Denver Nuggets entered the NBA Western Conference playoffs as serious contenders to win their second championship in four seasons.
Instead of disposing of No. 6 seed Minnesota and advancing to Round Two against the No. 2 seeded San Antonio Spurs, the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets were ousted by the Timberwolves in six games.
It begged the still-unanswered question of “what happened” to a Nuggets team that finished the season with the second-best offensive rating (122.6) in league history.
“I think this team wasn’t resilient enough. You can kind of put it on my shoulders,” 25-year-old former University of Kansas and Blue Valley Northwest guard Christian Braun said in an interview with the Denver Post.
Braun explained the reasoning behind blaming himself after a series in which the 6-foot-6 starting guard averaged 8.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 31 minutes per contest.
“I just think I’m the leader of this team. I’m the vocal leader of this team,” Braun told the Denver Post. “And when we don’t play well as a whole, you can blame whatever you want. You can blame anything. But I didn’t play well enough as an individual and I didn’t have this team ready enough to play in a tough series. So we’ll be better. I’ll be better.
“I’m looking forward to next year, when we can respond,” he added, noting the six-game first-round series loss was “just unacceptable, especially with the talent we have on this roster.”
He stated that starting in the preseason, “every single year we talk about championships. That’s our mindset and our goal. And obviously we fell short. A first-round exit is not acceptable. We’ve got to bounce back. We’ve got to get to work.”
Braun, a key rotation player in 2023 when the Nuggets claimed the franchise’s first NBA title in team history (spanning 47 seasons), scored just three points on 1-of-4 shooting (all 3s) with three blocks, one rebound and zero assists while playing 28 minutes in the 110-98 Game 6 loss in Minnesota.
Overall in the first round, he hit 42% of his shots including 43% of his 3s and 74% of his free throws. Braun, who was 6-of-14 from 3 in six playoff games against the Timberwolves, missed 13 of 22 shots from 2-point range.
In the last four games of the series, Braun averaged 5.5 points on 6-for-17 shooting.
During the regular season he averaged 12.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. He hit 51.9% of his shots and was 43-of-143 from 3 for 30.1%.
The Post reported this week that Braun’s somewhat passive play in the postseason may have been the result of injury.
He missed 38 games during the regular season after suffering torn ligaments on the inside and outside of his left ankle on Nov. 12. After returning to play in three games in early January, Braun was held out of games for three weeks. He received treatment all season and in fact, according to the Post, his ankle was swollen during the playoff series.
Two sources told the Post that Braun suffered a left calf injury in Game 1 versus Minnesota.
“It exacerbated Braun’s inability to explode off the ground — his left leg is the one he usually pushes off of when he jumps,” Denver Post reporter Bennett Durando wrote.
Braun in response said: “I could sit here and make every excuse. I could blame my ankle. I could blame injuries that people don’t know about. But that doesn’t really matter. If I’m going to be on the court, the expectation is to win. The expectation is to play well. Any season for me that doesn’t end with a championship, I think is a disappointment.”
Braun — he won three state titles in high school, one in college and one in the NBA so far — right before the start of the 2025-26 season agreed to a five-year deal worth $125 million that starts in 2026-27.
“I was rewarded for my work on my rookie deal, so I understand the expectations are higher and I need to be better,” Braun said. “That just is what it is. So as an individual I understand I need to get better. I need to play better. I’ve got to get healthy, first and foremost. But there is no excuse.”
There’s been speculation Braun could be traded this offseason. SI.com reported that, “all three starters around Jokic and Jamal Murray are in danger of being traded. Aaron Gordon ($33.6 million), Christian Braun ($21.5 million), and Cam Johnson ($23 million) make a combined $78.1 million next season.”
Durando wrote that “freeing up his (Braun’s) contract allows the Nuggets to continue building around Jokic, adding depth to the roster. The only question is whether other teams would want to trade for his contract. If the Nuggets were to move on from Braun this offseason, it’s widely believed that they would need to attach other assets in a trade to get another team to take on his contract.
“They currently have no future first-round draft picks eligible to be traded after using their 2032 pick to move off Michael Porter Jr.’s hefty salary last summer. They can, however, trade this year’s first-round pick on draft night if they so choose,” Durando added.
Braun has said he loves being a member of the Nuggets.
His focus will be on getting completely healthy this offseason while continuing to work on all aspects of his game. He’s still just 25 years old and won’t turn 26 until April 17.
“We were a historic offense during the regular season. We were so good. Even with guys in and out, we were really good,” Braun said. “And that just didn’t translate into the playoffs this year. And that goes on every one of us. It goes on the screener who’s getting guys open, whoever’s taking the shot. I need to be more aggressive with the ball and go downhill better. There’s a ton of things you can blame. You can’t point at ‘Jok’ and all those guys. They’re killers. That’s what they do every night. So we’ve got to help those guys. I’ve got to help those guys. Whether it’s screening well, whether it’s bringing the ball up and taking care of it, we’ve just got to be better. And I know we will moving forward.”
