Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun did not have a good first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He was far from alone, but particularly in a season-ending Game 6 loss, Braun was a ghost.
He scored only three points in 28 minutes and added one rebound and zero assists. Braun was essentially a body occupying space on the floor, not doing anything of note to impact the outcome.
Denver lost to Minnesota 110-98, sending them home after only two postseason wins. It was miles short of the Nuggets’ championship goal.
And Christian Braun had some revealing quotes to Bennett Durando of the Denver Post, taking the blame while also calling himself something fans really haven’t heard before — a leader.
“I just think I’m the leader of this team,” Braun told Durando. “I’m the vocal leader of this team. 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.”
On one hand it’s great to see Christian Braun take accountability. He averaged just 8.3 points per game in the series and cracked double-digit points only twice. Those were in Games 1 and 2.
Yes, Braun battled an ankle injury that limited him to 44 regular season games, but he didn’t look like a player worthy of a five-year $125 million deal that the Nuggets gave him last offseason. The expensive contract doesn’t even kick in until next year.
Durando also reports that Christian Braun was dealing with a calf issue in the playoffs.
Still, he’s no longer a fun rookie on a championship team. He has real expectations of being a starter on a contender and came up well short over the last seven months.
“It’s just unacceptable. Especially with the talent we have on this roster,” Braun also told Durando. “I think when we come here every single year, we talk about championships. That’s our mindset and our goal. And obviously, we fell short. A first-round exit’s not acceptable. We’ve gotta bounce back. We’ve gotta get to work. … You can kind of put it on my shoulders. I think this team wasn’t resilient enough in the playoffs.”
And with a summer of questions ahead for Denver — including the future of Christian Braun — we’ll see if that resiliency shows up when it matters most next season and beyond.
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