Anyone who has been keeping up with the lead-up to free agency knows the Denver Nuggets are in a financial bind when it comes to the major decisions that await them. They want to pay soon-to-be restricted free agent Peyton Watson. That much is hard to do without cutting someone else loose.
If Watson is to receive the type of contract that his 2025-26 breakout season deserves, the path to that type of payday has long been thought to include shaking loose one of Cameron Johnson or Christian Braun. Marc Stein's latest report indicated there would be a preference of which one of the two is dealt in the process.
"League sources say that the Nuggets preferred course for a roster shakeup is finding a trade market for Christian Braun rather than entertaining deals that involve [Aaron] Gordon or Jamal Murray after Murray's first All-Star season, but those efforts are rife with challenges."
The challenges Stein is referring to surely has to do with Braun's large contract. The Nuggets wing is set to enter the first season of his five-year, $125 million deal with Denver. The Los Angeles Lakers have the cap space to give their Western Conference rivals an out. Getting that opportunity would mean 28 other teams being as disinterested with that massive contract as they should be.
Lakers can absorb Christian Braun's salary for cheap if no one else is willing
Simple and plain: Braun's disappointing 2025-26 was not one of a player who is set to make $25 million annually on his upcoming five-year deal. Injuries and overall struggles limited his impact last season.
Braun got paid as a 3-and-D player, and the first of those two aspects was not there for him in this past campaign. The young Nuggets wing only made 30.1 percent of his 3.3 attempts per game from beyond the arc. That is doubly disappointing for a player who is feeding off the scoring opportunities created by Nikola Jokic's playmaking.
That season does stand out as the outlier, though. Braun has shot a respectable percentage in every other one of his campaigns. A return to that type of production would be what the Lakers are banking on if they offer to alleviate the Nuggets of his sizable contract.
Should Los Angeles offer the helping hand to Denver, it would be more than fair to assume that Braun only ends up with the Lakers as a last resort for the Nuggets. Why else would you send a solid player to a direct competitor intent on reviving him?
Should the Lakers be serious about landing Braun, they need the mismatch in production to salary to scare off all other rivals teams who could give the Nuggets an escape. Luckily for Los Angeles, the list of franchises with serious cap space who could just eat the money is not a long one.
If the Nuggets are unable to truly generate a market for Braun, the Lakers have the "get out of jail free" card. Los Angeles would just need everyone else to think twice just long enough.
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