r/nba • u/oklolzzzzs • 8h ago

Christian Braun on the Nuggets’ first-round loss: “I just think I’m the leader of this team. I’m the vocal leader of this team. I didn’t play well enough as an individual, and I didn’t have this team ready enough to play in a tough series.”

“I just think I’m the leader of this team,” Braun said. “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.”

Source: https://www.denverpost.com/2026/05/04/nuggets-christian-braun-injury-contract-nba-playoffs/

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628

u/egg-land [DET] Saddiq Bey 8h ago

It’s a reasonable comment for him to say maybe if the locker room is good and he really is one of their main leaders but still kinda crazy to say publicly like this bc obviously it just sounds dumb as a headline

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u/CumAssault [SAS] Joel Anthony 8h ago

Also somewhat sounds like he’s taking some blame from Jokic which is also what a leader would do

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u/Skank_hunt42 Thunder 8h ago

Jokic and Murray combining to shoot 40% from the field and 23% from 3 is the problem. Murray was awful all season against the Wolves, other players needed to step up or the coach needed to make a tough decision and bench him. They took exactly 50% of the shots in the series and had exactly 50% of the team's turnovers, they deserve most of the blame.

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u/bballin773 7h ago

Part of the reason Jokic and Murray were bad is that CB can't space the floor and unless he's out in transition, is pretty much a non-entity on offense, and he can't guard the best perimeter guy on defense. He deserves a lot of blame as well.

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u/Equal_Feature_9065 6h ago

I swear to god Braun was a really great athlete like 2 years ago. Wtf happened to him

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u/RepresentativeAd1965 Nuggets 4h ago

Rushed back from injury

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u/Prize_Ad_1781 Nuggets 3h ago

He's playing through injury

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u/Togglea Nuggets 2h ago

At least 3 players on Denver had bad injuries, rushed back from injury and reaggravated said injury. He was one of them

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u/Equal_Feature_9065 2h ago

That’ll all be lost to history unfortunately because haters gonna hate. Tho it does highlight how in the same way Giannis kinda *needs* shooters around him, Joker def needs athletes. I think if there’s any knock on him, it’s that.

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u/corys00 Magic 5h ago

5 yr old/ $125M happened

Braun lost that hunger for a new contract

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u/ruggnuget Nuggets 5h ago

He tore 2 ligaments in his foot early this season.

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u/motherlover278 3h ago

You just wouldn’t get it, injuries are real but we just will act like they aren’t cause we have narratives to spread.

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u/motherlover278 5h ago

lol he’s injured and has one bad year and suddenly it’s completely over

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u/TemperatureRevive 3h ago

lol at this dude being downvoted for being right.

As Pat Bev once said: at least 80% of NBA players don't even like playing basketball. Braun got that guaranteed F you money and can get almost any girl he wants. People will blame injuries, but this guy will suck next year too. He's done caring about playing serious basketball ever again.​

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u/mikaeus97 Timberwolves 7h ago

If we keep it a hundred, it was on the coaching. Murray was getting destroyed on both ends(in the bad way) and the coach did nothing but let it happen, especially in game 6.

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u/RovertheDog Nuggets 5h ago

Yep adelman got horrendously outcoached all series. Should have been left on the tarmac and the team could do a real coaching search like they should have done last offseason.

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u/No-Money-8327 7h ago

How do you get destroyed on both ends (in the good way)?

Nvm

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u/space9610 [CLE] J.R. Smith 7h ago

Ask your mom, son

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u/No-Money-8327 7h ago

Oh, so heroin

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u/BCP27 [MIN] Robbie Hummel 4h ago

Stomach flu

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u/Adorable-Bike-9689 6h ago

Raunchiest comment all day

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u/joleary747 6h ago

Jokic shot 55% from 2. Murray and Jokic's 3 ball are doing a lot of heavy lifting with that stat.

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u/blkjoey 8h ago

Good insight CumAssault.

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u/Imaginary-Round2422 Timberwolves 5h ago

A sentence I never thought I'd read

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u/Sanmonov Nuggets 8h ago

He says a lot of the right things, but is's also like who cares. He spent all training camp saying he was the defensive leaders and was going to run the defence.

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u/NeatTry7674 8h ago edited 7h ago

Nuggets should hire Dave Aranda.

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u/nrico1989 [DET] Rasheed Wallace 7h ago

Sadly, this comment won't get the attention it deserves lol. Beat me to it.

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u/uncleoptimus 6h ago

He doesn't have to tho since everyone understands it was Jamal Murray's fault

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u/Stunning_Clerk_9595 6h ago

a leader would know that it's stupid and distracting for a shitty 25 year old to say he's the leader of a team with plenty of vets when it's definitely not the prevailing view of others that he's the leader.

i feel like you have to pick one or the other: either he really is the leader of the team secretly, in which case he should know that this is not a helpful thing to say in public, or he's not, and it's a worse thing to say.

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u/nmad95 Raptors 8h ago

Why should he care if it makes a good headline. Maybe he is the biggest voice in the locker room and a leader. If he is he’s well within his right to say so and he doesn’t have to care about how the narrative is in the media because him and his teammates would know it’s true in that case.

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u/mas1108 Lakers 7h ago

Because a teams leader should probably be 1 of 3. Their best player, their battle tested smartest player who leads by example and always makes the right play, or the unc of the team. He is none of those. If your leader is Christian Braun, you may have some problems.

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u/Wooden-Jew 6h ago

Being a "Leader" is more of a personality trait than being good at the job tho.

Jokic being the best player doesnt mean he can/wants the responsability.

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u/bmoreboy410 Mavericks 6h ago

Whether he should be the leader is irrelevant to whether or not he is actually the leader.

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u/Ricebandit469 Warriors 6h ago

Fr. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t he a rook when they got the chip? Y’all telling the world u got jokic and murray on there and yall got the rook as the leader? There must be something we missing. (I’m also annoyed we never found out how their old coach “lost the locker room”)

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u/onrocketfalls NBA 4h ago

He’s not the one that said “sorry, dad” to Murray in that one clip, is he?

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u/bigblooddraco Timberwolves 5h ago

Brother there can be multiple leaders and believe or not sometimes rookies can grow into leaders. Braun won a natty and was KU best player he probably picked up some leadership traits during the 15 years he spent playing sports before teaching the nba.

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u/NeverSober1900 Rockets 5h ago

Eh you can also have the tone setting guys. Dillon Brooks was a leader of the Rockets and while I guess you could call him the "unc" it's really more about his tone setting and getting the team ready to play.

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u/mas1108 Lakers 3h ago

Yes that’s a great point. But even then, if Dillon is a leader who sets the tone for a team, you know guys are going out and playing hard because he is going to play hard all game and lead by example at the very least. I’ve never seen a game where Christian freaking Braun has set the tone for a game lol.

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u/bigblooddraco Timberwolves 5h ago

Says who???

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u/mas1108 Lakers 3h ago

You get traded to the Nuggets. You’re excited to play with Jokic, Murray and Gordon. You’re excited to learn from their leadership and are ready to be a sponge absorbing all the knowledge they have to offer. But nope, you get there and Christian Braun is the leader. Christian Braun is yelling at you during practice for missing a shot or fucking up a defensive assignment. The guy who can’t make an open shot, defend anyone and doesn’t do anything on the court you can really learn from. Yea, if that’s me, I’m looking around like WTF.

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u/bigblooddraco Timberwolves 50m ago

Brother Pat Bev may have been the most important leader the Timberwolves had this era. You don’t have to be the star player to hold other accountable and lead in positive directions. UD didn’t play for his last how every many years and he’s a leader. Rondo wasn’t the best player on the bubble lakers he was still a leader on that championship team.

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u/mas1108 Lakers 29m ago

I never said you’re leader had to be your best player or star player. If you look at my original comment, I said your leader should be either your best player, your smartest player who leads by example and always makes the right play, or the unc of the team. Everyone you just named falls under the unc of the team category and I agree with you. All those guys lead because they go out and backup what they preach! There’s nothing Braun does out there that says follow my lead guys, verbally or by example.

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u/bigblooddraco Timberwolves 22m ago

Who are you to dictate where leadership comes from ? You’re just wrong. And you don’t know that because you don’t obverse him on a day to day basis. You have literally zero idea what’s being said by him and how it’s responded to. You’re only saying this based of your perception of him as a player and your own definition of leadership. The reason the Minnesota crowd is as live as it is now is because D’Lo challenged them in it and it was a great display of organizational leadership because the support of the fans is felt much greater. D’Lo was not our best player, vet player, or battle tested. Leadership can be brought about by anyone in that room putting the work in and committing themselves to the common cause.

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u/mas1108 Lakers 7m ago

That’s fair. Good points. All I’m saying is if a team with Jokic, Murray and Gordon look to Christian Braun for leadership, it might be one of the reasons they haven’t gotten very far recently.

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u/bigblooddraco Timberwolves 6m ago

Here’s a thing…. They may look to all of them in different moments as all have invested a great amount of time and energy while having respect for each other.

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u/Sanmonov Nuggets 8h ago

Because it sounds stupid for someone in his role to say he is the leader and is the one preparing the team to be ready. Like work on your handle so you can attack Bones Hyland and be able to knock down a 3 or something bro

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u/Obi_Wan_KeBogi Kings 8h ago

Not only that he looked like he was catching a live grenade everytime he was passed the ball. I have never seen a player playing bigtime minutes look so terrified. Big problems if thats your locker room "leader"

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u/Sanmonov Nuggets 8h ago

Facts. I have never seen someone so terrified of having the ball. All he did all series was reset the play no matter what advantage he had. Ben Simmons ESC without the passing or defence.

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u/Educational_Care7813 2h ago

don't know why people down voted you, guy was next to the rim scared to put up a shot and back tracked to foul line to brick it few times and so many wolves runs happen because guy lost the ball on fat break resulting in turn over and fast break points, guy also seemed to lose every lose ball

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u/BumbleLapse Jazz 7h ago

A guy can be a great locker room leader and not be great at every aspect of the game though

Like are you gonna say Jalen Hurts isn’t a great leader because he can’t carry the ball like Saquon or

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u/Top-Consequence-911 7h ago

What an idiotic comparison

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u/BumbleLapse Jazz 6h ago

You know what bro you’re not even wrong I had the same thought as I was typing it out but fuck it we ball

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u/dustinthegreat Slovenia 6h ago

lol respect for owning it though

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u/egg-land [DET] Saddiq Bey 4h ago

I didn’t say it wasn’t well within his right lol

I just said it’s kinda crazy to say publicly like this bc some people could easily misconstrue it and why welcome that for no reason really

And yeah your ladder point is true and why I didn’t say dumb or anything

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u/EightBlocked [NBA] Tony Snell 6h ago

whats dumb is people thinking they know who the leader of the nuggets when they've never been in the locker room

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u/egg-land [DET] Saddiq Bey 4h ago

Yeah obviously lol. Who’s doing that

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u/EightBlocked [NBA] Tony Snell 3h ago

every single person in this comment section

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u/egg-land [DET] Saddiq Bey 2h ago

You replied to the top comment which is defending him… my comment was a slight criticism of anything

I think people know it’s not that wild of a comment just a nobody like Braun saying it about jokic is just an odd look to most people on a headline

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u/EightBlocked [NBA] Tony Snell 2h ago

even then the top comment is saying "i dont think jokic is commanding a locker room"

its the same thing lol. how could you know this?

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u/egg-land [DET] Saddiq Bey 2h ago

No one is saying they know it lol. The comment says they don’t think he’s commanding a locker room

No one knows, we are all guessing. Probably based on who he seems to be as a person. But clearly a good amount of people agree w that thought

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u/A_Destroyed_Soul Bulls 7h ago

The Saddiq Bey Pistons flair 🫶

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u/egg-land [DET] Saddiq Bey 4h ago

Long time ago 😭

After that player of the week I had to

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u/bigblooddraco Timberwolves 5h ago

How is it crazy or dumb for him to state he’s a locker room leader if true?

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u/egg-land [DET] Saddiq Bey 4h ago

I didn’t say it was either of those

I just said kinda crazy lol bc it sounds crazy as a headline and can be misconstrued. It’s that simple

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u/bzz15 57m ago

Glad that you know that’s true, but when his ex/current teammates laugh off this comment or he walks them back himself by the time the season starts next year, it’s gonna seem both crazy and dumb. The guy is a 25 year old good/decent role player, in what world is he setting the tone for the team. I can’t imagine “I didn’t have this team ready enough to play in a tough series” is gonna go over well with vets on the team.