Nuggets wing Christian Braun has been diagnosed with a left ankle sprain and will miss at least six weeks, which is when he’ll be reexamined, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (via Twitter).
The Nuggets put out a press release confirming the news (Twitter link).
Braun sustained the injury late in the first quarter during Wednesday’s win at the Clippers. While attempting to pressure James Harden near mid-court, Braun appeared to have his right foot briefly stepped on and then took an awkward step backward with his left foot and immediately reacted in pain (Twitter video link via Law Murray of The Athletic).
Braun, who signed a five-year, $125MM rookie scale extension on the final day he was eligible to so (October 20), emerged as a full-time starter for Denver in 2024/25, posting career-best numbers in virtually every major statistic, including points (15.4), rebounds (5.2), assists (2.6), steals (1.1) and minutes per game (33.9) in 79 appearances. His shooting line of .580/.397/.827 was also excellent.
The 21st overall pick in the 2022 draft, Braun hadn’t been quite as productive through 10 healthy games this season, averaging 11.9 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 2.9 APG and 0.9 SPG on .484/.214/.778 shooting in 30.8 MPG. But he’s still an important part of the rotation, particularly on defense, where he’s frequently tasked with slowing down the opposing team’s best perimeter scorer.
The 24-year-old guard/forward had been quite durable to this point in his career, only missing nine total games over his first three seasons. He’ll more than double that total because of the left ankle sprain — the Nuggets play 19 times over the next six weeks, Murray notes.
Braun isn’t the only Nugget dealing with an injury, as starting forward Cameron Johnson will miss Saturday’s game in Minnesota with a right bicep strain, tweets Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette. Superstar center Nikola Jokic is questionable due to a left wrist sprain.
With Braun out, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Julian Strawther are candidates for more playing time. Peyton Watson seems likely to start in place of Johnson, though that’s just speculation.
Man these injuries just keep piling up. At least most are not serious. Only seems like a high amount so far this year …. Get well — Christian
I can’t remember a season with this many injuries in just the 1st month of play. Your Knicks are a prime example, Brunson out, OG with yet another hamstring last night.
Any team missing 2 starters is going to struggle.
Nuggets might get better, with Tim Hardaway in the starting five and Julian Strawther into the rotation.
^This take is not informed. Braun is a significant loss and a huge part of how Denver approaches offense and defense out on the wing.
Druu, I understand seamaholic’s comment here.
You have two guys moving into the rotation, splitting Braun’s minutes and improving the bench with their up-to-date productivity.
Gives them some burn and their combined stats might even better than Braun who has started slowly.
Yes, Braun is awesome but perhaps inserting two for one could make them better right now?
My man Gary, Braun impacts defense more than THJ and Strawther combined. He fears no man and plays with an edge the other two combined cannot match. THJ can tread water in his absence and is a good shooting vet on any squad, Strawther is a zero though.
@ GaryRSW
Well, with Jokic hurt as well, it’s going to be a difficult 6 weeks.
Nuggets have the 4th best def rtg so far, and Braun has a lot to do with that.
What @seam means, the lost points from a Braun injury, might be covered by the inevitable increase in minutes for THJ and possibly, Strawther …. some nights, awesome offense is enough to win in today’s NBA.
Indeed Braun does so many winning plays and he’s a big loss for those 6 weeks, still NUGGETS are way deeper this season…. might be enough to remain in the West upper half and keep Jokic, Murray fresh by the playoffs.
Honcho, Jokic is the best player in the NBA by far, and his presence puts Denver and almost any other roster in the top half of the west automatically. Jokic may go down as the 3rd or 4th best player in NBA history if he decides to play long enough. If he got the Shai whistle, the NBA product would suffer, but his greatness would never be questioned, ever.
Joker’s still dominating, yet his minutes are down …… it’s the new depth around him, heck he has an actual back-up center this season.
Yes, much like Shaq, dominant bigs will never get their fair share of the calls.
@ mike.h
Agree that this might not be disastrous for the Nuggets, but as long as no one else gets hurt they should be reasonably OK through Christmas.
But then they have a ridiculous 7 games in 12 days east road trip starting in Florida and ending in Boston. That would be tough fully healthy.
No one has mentioned Watson, he might be the replacement for Braun as the POA defender with THJ replacing cam Johnson.