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I thought that this might work out for Denver, over time, but it seems to be working out fairly quickly.

Braun
14/5/2 on 52/42/88
14 PER, .119 WS48, -0.9 BPM
.635 TS
$3M contract

The "different element" Braun brings is his verticality and aggression in transition. The dunk on Gobert was a good example.

The biggest concern with Braun was his ability to hit shots. He's also a guy IMO that doesn't have a lot of wiggle on his drives. He's a straight line driver.

But it's working now. He's hitting shots, being aggressive on the break and making cuts for easy buckets. And he's a beast on defense.

Denver's bench is still a work in progress but if Braun keeps this up, the starting unit could still be near its best.

HotRocks34 wrote:

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I thought that this might work out for Denver, over time, but it seems to be working out fairly quickly.

Braun
14/5/2 on 52/42/88
14 PER, .119 WS48, -0.9 BPM
.635 TS
$3M contract

The "different element" Braun brings is his verticality and aggression in transition. The dunk on Gobert was a good example.

The biggest concern with Braun was his ability to hit shots. He's also a guy IMO that doesn't have a lot of wiggle on his drives. He's a straight line driver.

But it's working now. He's hitting shots, being aggressive on the break and making cuts for easy buckets. And he's a beast on defense.

Denver's bench is still a work in progress but if Braun keeps this up, the starting unit could still be near its best.

My only concerns is navigating through screens kcp was the best in the nba at that and against quick guards kcp is quicker than CB. Other than those two CB is just as much of defender if not better in other areas than kcp. On offfense CB is better off ball as a cutter and vertical threat. Kcp is better as 3 point shooter but this season so far CB has been better. People forget CB shot 38 percent from 3 last year in the regular season. People criticized Booth but getting CB late in draft is looking like a steal

The question is: can the Nuggets afford his extension, if he keeps it up this way?

CB is better at attacking of the dribble and better at guarding big guards, he showed that vs Ant in last years playoffs.
KCP is far better floor spacer. Braun has solid % right now but he is shooting only wide open 3s.
KCP is also as someone mentioned much better in fighting trough screens and navigating around them.

That means Braun would ve better in evntl matchup vs Wolves, and KCP would be fat better vs OKC since they have no1 right now to guard SGA.

AleksandarN wrote:

HotRocks34 wrote:

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I thought that this might work out for Denver, over time, but it seems to be working out fairly quickly.

Braun
14/5/2 on 52/42/88
14 PER, .119 WS48, -0.9 BPM
.635 TS
$3M contract

The "different element" Braun brings is his verticality and aggression in transition. The dunk on Gobert was a good example.

The biggest concern with Braun was his ability to hit shots. He's also a guy IMO that doesn't have a lot of wiggle on his drives. He's a straight line driver.

But it's working now. He's hitting shots, being aggressive on the break and making cuts for easy buckets. And he's a beast on defense.

Denver's bench is still a work in progress but if Braun keeps this up, the starting unit could still be near its best.

My only concerns is navigating through screens kcp was the best in the nba at that and against quick guards kcp is quicker than CB. Other than those two CB is just as much of defender if not better in other areas than kcp. On offfense CB is better off ball as a cutter and vertical threat. Kcp is better as 3 point shooter but this season so far CB has been better. People forget CB shot 38 percent for 3 last year in the regular season. People criticized Booth but getting CB late in draft is looking like a steal

Good points on the KCP strong qualities.

I do think that Braun is looking like a very good pick.

KCP averages in Denver
10/2/2 on 46/41/85
11 PER; .093 WS48; -1.2 BPM
.600 TS
$14M contract

Booth hasn't been perfect, but I think he made good picks with Braun, Watson, Strawther and Holmes. And Tyson may be better than I thought.

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:The question is: can the Nuggets afford his extension, if he keeps it up this way?

We will see.

He's a solid player. The problem now is the garbage dumpster of a bench....

Mrakar wrote:CB is better at attacking of the dribble and better at guarding big guards, he showed that vs Ant in last years playoffs.
KCP is far better floor spacer. Braun has solid % right now but he is shooting only wide open 3s.
KCP is also as someone mentioned much better in fighting trough screens and navigating around them.

That means Braun would ve better in evntl matchup vs Wolves, and KCP would be fat better vs OKC since they have no1 right now to guard SGA.

I agree about Braun and Ant. I have to go over the Shai thing but I'm not sure either one of them was great at checking him. But I think a key to guarding Shai is length and KCP is a bit longer than Braun is, so he may have the edge there.

I think that Denver has used Watson to guard Shai some because of his length. But Watson has to work on his offense.

He has been simply outstanding. The third best player this season after Jokic and AG. He is better than KCP offensively and defensively. No disrespect to KCP at all every nuggets fan loves the guy, but it was an easy decision to let him walk.

The problem with the nuggets so far is very simple. The bench has been absolutely horrendous and Jamal Murray has been almost as bad. If the bench can become average and Murray can round into form by the time the playoffs role around this team will be more than fine.

As far as the bench goes I’m concerned about whether they can figure it out or if a trade is necessary. Most people thought Russ would be bad, but nobody thought he’d be this bad. It’s reasonable to expect he will improve to the mean. He’s a bad shooter, but even he isn’t a 20% from the field bad shooter. Hopefully Malone will soon figure out Nnaji is better than Saric and Strawther, who has been the best bench player, continues to gain confidence.

Braun was an obvious replacement of Brown.

Don't know why he didn't get the minute bump last season, probably had something to do with Reggie Jackson minutes.

zimpy27 wrote:Braun was an obvious replacement of Brown.

Don't know why he didn't get the minute bump last season, probably had something to do with Reggie Jackson minutes.

Malone is a good coach but has some major flaws. I’m so curious to see how he handles the Russ/bench situation this year. I could see him playing Russ 15-20 mins a game no matter how bad he plays, and I could also see him never giving Nnaji a chance over Saric despite Nnaji clearly being better. Nnaji brings everything Saric brings plus athleticism and defence.

But Malone is stubborn and really doesn’t like playing young players. Braun and Strawther are somewhat exceptions to that but even then he has given them too short of a leash, whereas a vet can be ass for 40 games before they see a slight minutes drop. This has been a lot of the tension between Booth and Malone. Booth is basically forcing his hand to play young guys (Braun as starter, Strawther in rotation). Malone doesn’t like it but he has no choice. If he has his way KCP would still be here starting, Braun would be getting limited minutes off the bench, and Strawther would be buried.

LeBronSpaghetti wrote:The problem with the nuggets so far is very simple. The bench has been absolutely horrendous and Jamal Murray has been almost as bad. If the bench can become average and Murray can round into form by the time the playoffs role around this team will be more than fine.

Agree on the bench and Murray.

I expect the bench to improve and there have been signs. Strawther is a star in waiting IMO. Watson should keep improving after missing preseason. I'm not worried about Russ. He can help. You just can't rely on him to shoot.

I'm not a Nnaji guy but he looked solid in preseason.

Saric has been disappointing. He just can't move on defense and his slow style doesn't fit the unit.

Losing Holmes hurt the bench a lot IMO. He would have been a big help.

Tyson may be better than I thought.

I think a trade will be in order for a big man to assist the bench and maybe play some minutes with the starters.

Holmes and Saric were IMO going to be guys who could both help the bench as well as come in for Gordon and stretch the defense. I'm not sure Saric will be able to do that without wrecking the defense. We'll see.

So a move for a journeyman big who can shoot a little bit and not be a cone on defense might be in order. Or if necessary just a rim protector for the second unit.

It's kind of a shame that they let Jay Huff go. It looks like he may be starting to figure things out with Memphis.

KCP was a great fit and difficult to replace. By inserting Braun in the lineup, the Nuggets didn't try to replace KCP's exact skills. They are definitely two different players as above posters have shown.

Saying that Braun can't drive through traffic as well as KCP is true but immaterial. With Jokic & Murray, driving through traffic isn't important. What is important is motion and Braun is more active than KCP. Cutting and running to the hoop is the most valuable asset any player can have when playing with Jokic IMO.

NuggetsWY wrote:Saying that Braun can't drive through traffic as well as KCP is true but immaterial. With Jokic & Murray, driving through traffic isn't important. What is important is motion and Braun is more active than KCP. Cutting and running to the hoop is the most valuable asset any player can have when playing with Jokic IMO.

Great point.

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:The question is: can the Nuggets afford his extension, if he keeps it up this way?

I think so the cap is going up 10 percent per year going forward because of the new tv deals. I think CB is going to get around 10 million per year if he continues his play. There should be room under the 2nd apron for his contract

Braun looks like a good, solid player and I think there was plenty of reason to project that. The problem for DEN in general is that the pieces out the door are, collectively, better than the pieces in since that championship and that's on top of the issue of Murray repeating that playoff run which is far above the player he's ever been in his career even when healthy. They're bleeding on the margins of the rotation and their 2nd best player probably isn't capable of playing at that level again. Braun being as good or even a bit better than KCP isn't covering for that.

AleksandarN wrote:

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:The question is: can the Nuggets afford his extension, if he keeps it up this way?

I think so the cap is going up 10 percent per year going forward because of the new tv deals. I think CB is going to get around 10 million per year if he continues his play. There should be room under the 2nd apron for his contract

forget about it, is he continues with this play he might command close to Suggs money.
You can give 10m (much less than the MLE!) to your fourth guard, not to a starter

If they can fix the bench not to be a disaster but only normally bad, they will be fine

People keep mentioning how Braun is playing like the third best player (behind Jokic and AG) which I think is true and that Murray needs to step up, which is also true but I also have higher expectations for MPJ.

He should be a top 3 player on this team almost every other night.

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:

AleksandarN wrote:

Ryoga Hibiki wrote:The question is: can the Nuggets afford his extension, if he keeps it up this way?

I think so the cap is going up 10 percent per year going forward because of the new tv deals. I think CB is going to get around 10 million per year if he continues his play. There should be room under the 2nd apron for his contract

forget about it, is he continues with this play he might command close to Suggs money.
You can give 10m (much less than the MLE!) to your fourth guard, not to a starter

No way he get Suggs money. Suggs is a better defensive player, and better shooter. Plus I think he is over payed.