{"id":119502,"date":"2025-01-22T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=119502"},"modified":"2025-01-22T14:45:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T19:45:48","slug":"christian-braun-consistent-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/22\/christian-braun-consistent-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Braun is Providing the Nuggets with Consistent Production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Braun<\/a> has provided a spark for the Denver Nuggets, as his production is the best of his career. He slid into the starting lineup after the Nuggets let Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> leave in free agency. Since then, his chemistry with the starters has flourished as he has found his role. He is playing solid defense while making open shots and thriving in transition. His play style has fit perfectly alongside the playmaking of Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a> and Russell Westbrook<\/a>. Braun’s recent play has been a big factor in the Nuggets’ recent trend of wins, which has led to them climbing the standings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Christian Braun is Providing the Nuggets with Consistent Production<\/h2>\n

Providing a Scoring Threat in the Half-Court<\/h3>\n

Since Braun’s arrival to the Nuggets in the 2022-23 season, he has thrived as a cutter in the half-court offense. As a full-time starter this season, he thrives in that role. He is averaging 1.4 possessions on cuts this season, scoring 78.3% of the time, seventh among all players<\/a> with one or more possessions from a cut per game. He averages 1.55 points per possession on cuts, also tied for seventh<\/a>. Playing alongside the crafty Joki\u0107<\/a>, who is constantly looking for cutters has propelled Braun into one of the most efficient cutters in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Despite Braun being solid on the interior with cutting, his three-point shooting<\/a> has been inconsistent. In November, he shot a flaming-hot 51.4% from the three-point line. That stellar shooting did not carry into December, where he only shot 17.9% from three. Braun has bounced back this month and returned to being a consistent threat from behind the arc. He is shooting a respectable 37.0%, which helps open up his offense. When his three-point shot is hitting, it opens up his interior scoring.<\/p>\n

With his three-pointer back to a reliable number, his field goal percentage shot up to above 60% during January. In the 16 games where Braun has shot 50% or better from three, the Nuggets are 11-5<\/a>. Although the Nuggets aren’t dependent on Braun to be an elite shooter, knocking down his threes gives them a much higher chance to win. Braun’s offense comes within the offense, 79.1% of his makes are assisted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An Elite Transition Threat<\/h3>\n

Braun has become an elite threat in the transition, where his production is among the best in the NBA. He has taken full advantage of playing alongside Joki\u0107, as he looks to run in transition to get open for easy buckets. Braun has solidified himself as one of the best players in transition this season. The Nuggets are sixth in transition<\/a> points per game and first in transition field goal percentage. Braun is a big reason why they succeed so well in the transition.<\/p>\n

Among the 82 players in the NBA with at least three transition possessions per game, Braun is 12th in points per possession<\/a> at 1.26. He is first among those 82 players in the frequency of shot attempts<\/a> that come in transition by a wide margin. A large chunk of Braun’s offensive success comes in the transition. He scores 5.9 points per game<\/a> in the transition, over 40% of his average in points per game. That number is good enough for 11th in the NBA. He is scoring on 62.6% of his transition possessions, which is fourth among players<\/a> with three or more transition possessions.<\/p>\n

Braun’s involvement in transition has allowed the Nuggets to get out and run more often than in past seasons. The Nuggets<\/a>‘ 19.8% frequency of transition offense is the highest since Joki\u0107 arrived in the NBA, and Braun is a huge reason they have become so efficient in that area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian Braun has provided a spark for the Denver Nuggets, as his production is the best of his career. He slid into the starting lineup after the Nuggets let Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave in free agency. Since then, his chemistry with the starters has flourished as he has found his role. He is playing solid defense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5342,"featured_media":119553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1608,62],"tags":[4524,72],"class_list":["post-119502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-christian-braun","tag-nikola-jokic"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119554,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119502\/revisions\/119554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}