Christian Braun building quiet case for NBA’s Most Improved Player award: “A complete basketball player”

Another formidable rim protector joined Christian Braun’s poster collection recently.

Denver’s 6-foot-6 shooting guard received a dribble handoff from Nikola Jokic at the top of the key and turned the corner, driving with his right hand. Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez drifted across the paint and elevated in lockstep with Braun. A two-time All-Defensive team honoree, Lopez has blocked more than 2,000 shots in his career, more than any other active player. He wedged his right hand between the arms of Braun, sensing another opportunity.

But Braun has established a reputation by now. He fears no 7-footer. He climbs the ladder with anyone who dares to meet him at the top. With his sledgehammer of a right arm, he rebuked Lopez and the rim in one motion, collecting his latest highlight — and enough contact for a free throw — before crashing to the baseline.

Jokic could have predicted what Braun did next.

“CB, whenever he dunks, he likes to flex,” Jokic had pointed out to reporters a few weeks earlier, poking fun at his 23-year-old teammate.

With a balance of steady dependability and searing athleticism, Braun has emerged as a contender for the NBA’s Most Improved Player trophy this season, his first as a starter for the Nuggets. He has the third-best chance to win the award, according to Las Vegas oddsmakers, behind Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels. Cunningham is considered the resounding favorite, though his validity as a candidate altogether has also been scrutinized on the grounds that he was always supposed to take this leap as a No. 1 draft pick.

No player drafted first overall has ever won it. The winner last season, Tyrese Maxey, was drafted 21st in his class. So was Braun.

“I would hope that I’m in that mix,” he told The Denver Post. “I know there’s a lot of guys that get a lot of mentions, and they deserve it, too. But I want to be in that mix. I feel like I work hard to be in that mix. And that’s not just an individual award. I think that it shows how good those guys around me are, too.”

Braun has been earnest about his ambitions all season. When he briefly lost his spot in the starting lineup, he stated his intent to win the job back. Then he immediately did, scoring more than 20 points four times in a seven-game stretch after an injury to Russell Westbrook created an opening.

On March 2 in Boston, Braun sat for 72 seconds of game time in a hard-fought loss to the Celtics. So indispensable was his defense against Jayson Tatum that Nuggets coach Michael Malone couldn’t bring himself to rest Braun in the second half. Tatum shot 4 of 15 and committed six turnovers.

“That’s what I’ve wanted my whole life,” Braun said afterward, scoffing at any suggestion of fatigue. “That’s what I’ve asked for. Everybody in the league says they want to play more and they should play more, but I actually get the opportunity to play a lot of minutes every single night. So I’m just grateful for the opportunity. … I want to be out there every game. I want to play all 82 games.”

Was that game an indicator of how Braun should expect to be used in the playoffs? “I hope,” he said. “I hope it’s a reality. I want to play 48 minutes every night. Every single night. That’s what I want to do. I don’t like coming out.”

Maybe to a fault. Braun taught himself to grit his teeth and play through pain when he was growing up in Kansas. Instead of telling coaches when he was injured, he often waited to tell his family later. “As parents, we’re kind of old-school,” his mom said, describing their mindset as “a ‘rub some dirt on it’ kind of thing.”

“Never, when I coached him, did he sit out of a practice once,” said Ed Fritz, Braun’s high school coach. “Never once. Probably half the time when he wasn’t feeling good, he never let anybody know.”

He’s working on it. Braun probably shouldn’t have suited up for all 82 games last season, but he quietly played through wrist and leg injuries during portions of the year. He’s more intentional about his postgame recovery now, recognizing the importance of physical upkeep while contributing heavier minutes. He has even sat out two games to manage bumps and bruises, bringing his career total to nine DNPs in the NBA.

Meanwhile, his production has erupted. In his first two seasons, he posted one 20-point performance. He has 16 of them this year, highlighting a 7.9 point-per-game increase that rivals Norman Powell (9.3) and Daniels (8.3) for the largest in the NBA. His field goal percentage has improved by 11.2% despite a notable increase in volume. He’s averaging 15.2 points, five rebounds (up 35% from 2023-24), 2.4 assists (up 50%) and 1.1 steals (up 120%).

Braun is tied for the league lead in fast-break points per game with Giannis Antetokounmpo. He scores more efficiently in transition (1.31 points per possession) than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (1.26), Antetokounmpo (1.25), LeBron James (1.19) Jaylen Brown (1.16) and Luka Doncic (1.14), five of the most prolific transition players in the sport from a per-game standpoint.

In Denver’s halfcourt offense, Braun has made himself effective as a cutter and inverted pick-and-roll threat with Nikola Jokic. He’s shooting 39% from the 3-point line despite being overlooked by a number of opponents. He leads all NBA guards in true shooting (65.8%), ranking eighth overall behind a list of centers.

“Christian and Nikola are, I think, really close, on and off the court. They have a tremendous relationship,” Malone said. “And CB understands, ‘If I’m going to have a certain player (a weak defender) on me, I’m going to get him involved.’ And who better to get them involved with than Nikola Jokic, who’s going to make the right read every time? So Christian is much more than a five-point transition player. … His ability to knock down 3s, to rebound, to defend, but also to screen, to roll, to cut, to finish — just a complete basketball player.”

The Nuggets ended up losing in Milwaukee after Braun’s punishing dunk over Lopez. This has been an unfortunate trend for him. All of his best highlights seem to portend defeat for his team, including other poster dunks on Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Houston’s Cam Whitmore this season. The flexing has been in vain.

That’s why, after a moment that underscored Braun’s growth into a central character for the Nuggets, he couldn’t help but think it was too good to be true.

Denver and Phoenix were tied in the final seconds of regulation on March 7. As usual, Jokic set a screen for Jamal Murray, activating the two-man game that feels invincible with games on the line. But a second defender started to collapse to Jokic on the roll this time. When he caught the ball, he quickly relocated it back to the open man on the perimeter.

Braun being the player who takes the last shot for the Nuggets might’ve seemed unimaginable a year ago. Maybe that’s changing now. He knocked down the 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds to go. It was his first NBA game-winner. Until it wasn’t.

“I was pretty excited, obviously,” he said. “But then I was walking back (to the huddle), like, ‘This seems like a moment where I might foul somebody.’”

Almost. Kevin Durant answered with a game-tying shot at the buzzer instead.

“That,” Braun said, laughing, “is definitely something that would happen.”

Leaps and bounds

Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham is the favorite to win the Most Improved Player award for 2024-25. But Nuggets guard Christian Braun has exhibited some of the most impressive across-the-board statistical improvements in the NBA as well. Here are several contenders for the award and their improvements from last season in five categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals and true shooting. (Click here to view chart in mobile.)

* Year-over-year improvement in parenthesis

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