According to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, the Denver Nuggets weren’t able to keep every member of their championship roster together this offseason, but veteran guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is confident in the young replacements coming up behind them, like Christian Braun.
Yes, Bruce [Brown] was lost. In fact, Jeff [Green] was lost. However, I think Christian Braun, a few of the players on our second unit, and our rookies have been stepping up and are having a great preseason. We already know what Christian Braun is capable of doing in Bruce’s place. We’ll still be fantastic. We haven’t lost a step, in my opinion. I’ve only been around them during training camp and when I played against the guys in the summer, but I can tell how they are.
What Christian Braun brings to the table
While losing Bruce Brown to the Indiana Pacers in offseason was a tough blow, the Nuggets have one of the league’s best cores built around Nikola Jokic. Brown’s unique skill-set is tough to replicate, but Christian Braun can provide a lot of the same results with his hard-cutting, defensive mindset, and ability to make plays with his length and athleticism.
If Braun can improve his spot-up shooting to go along with his transition skills and strengths off the ball, he could very well be the Nuggets’ breakout player this year.
One of the most challenging things in sports is to win a championship twice in a row, but giving minutes to eager young players like Christian Braun should keep the Nuggets motivated and prepared to challenge for another championship this season.