Annual salary of 30 million! Is Braun worth it at 24 years old?

Everyone knows that the Nuggets' season is over.

However, the issues that belong to the Nuggets management may have just begun.

This summer, the Nuggets will not only find a new GM, but also face renewals from two important players.

One of them is the star Jokic. If he gives up the 27-28 season's player option worth 62.8 million, Jokic can sign a three-year, $212 million contract renewal with the Nuggets.

Jokic has been playing for the Nuggets for ten years and has brought the first championship in team history to the Nuggets. He is currently 30 years old, at the peak, and is the world's number one in pure strength, so whether to renew the contract is almost a question that doesn't need to be considered.

Or we can say that 212 million yuan in three years looks very large, with an average salary of more than 70 million yuan, but the Nuggets still have to ask Jokic to renew his contract. If Jokic says he doesn't want to renew his contract, then the trouble is really big.

So, Jokic's contract renewal is quite simple, but the other person's contract renewal is a bit troublesome - Braun.

Bryan is the 21st pick in the first round of the 2022nd. This season is his third season. According to the labor-management agreement, he will be eligible for an early renewal this offseason.

After the Nuggets season, ESPN's well-known salary expert commented on Braun: "The amount of his (Braun) contract renewal is at least $30 million per year."

The question is: Annual salary of 30 million? Braun? Is it worth it?

First of all, looking at the regular season, Braun has made great progress this season, playing in a total of 79 games, including 77 starts, averaging 33.9 minutes per game, scoring 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals.

As a comparison, last season's Braun played 82 games, 78 substitutes, averaged 20 minutes per game, scoring 7.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 0.5 steals.

Braun was barely considered the team's seventh man last season, but this season, with Pope's departure, Braun became a stable starter for the Nuggets.

Of course, his performance responded to expectations. With the doubled score compared to last year, he maintained very high efficiency, with a three-item hit rate of 58.0%/39.7%/82.7%, and a real hit rate of 66.5%.

It must be said here that around Jokic, the offensive level of any player will improve, and so will Braun.

He may not have good ball-holding offensive skills, nor is he a truly stable space point, and he averages only 2.8 three-pointers per game, and most of them are open three-pointers.

However, Braun also has his own uniqueness. He is a young player with excellent physical fitness and has strong fast breaking ability. He averaged 5.1 points in the regular season this season, ranking first in the league, higher than fast breaking masters such as Antetokounmpo and James.

And Braun's defense is also good. Although he is not an elite, he is definitely worthy of the starter. The tacit understanding with the team's four core members has also been developed. The data can also prove that:

This season's regular season, when Jokic, Murray, Gordon, Porter Jr. and Braun are on the court at the same time, the Nuggets can win 10.6 points in a hundred rounds. This number is definitely the level of championship competition.

Looking at the playoffs again, although the Nuggets were eliminated in the second round, Braun's performance is really not bad. He has a total of 14 games and averaged 12.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game, with a shooting percentage of 45.3%/30.0%/71.0%, and a real shooting percentage of 54.8%.

The Nuggets' three most critical games in the playoffs, Braun's performance was quite good:

-G7 in the first round, 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, 8

-G6 in the second round, 23 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists, 8

-G7 in the second round, 19 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, 7

Defensive end, Braun averaged 18.9 shots per game, his opponent's shooting percentage dropped by 5.5%, his three-point shooting percentage dropped by 3.3%, and his inside 10 feet fell by 9.5%.

Specifically in terms of the matchup, in the two rounds of the series, Braun had the most home defenses, Harden, Alexander, and Jewish:

- 283 rounds defending Harden, Harden made 16 of 40, and scored 47 points

- 261 rounds defending Alexander, Alexander made 36 of 73, and scored 87 points

- 65 rounds defending Jewish, Jewish made 9 of 26, and scored 30 points

There is a saying that it is not a defensive gate, but it is very difficult to defend these players, especially Alexander. It may require the efforts of the whole team to prevent the MVP. Braun, as a third-year rookie who was just promoted to the starter this year, has performed well.

In fact, Braun in this playoffs can be said to be the fourth player in the Nuggets team. His performance is much better than Porter, who played with injuries and pulled blood in the second round.

Comprehensive regular season + playoffs, I personally think that Braun's contract renewal between 20 million and 25 million will be more reasonable, and 30 million will be a bit expensive. After all, Gordon's contract in the next four years will only be 132 million for 4 years.

However, considering that Braun has the possibility of continuing to make progress in his youth (such as training for more stable three-pointers), as well as the Nuggets' small market attributes and the effectiveness of the new broadcast contract, if we finally sign an annual salary of 30 million, we will not be surprised - in today's league, there are not necessarily players who hold the ball to attack, and functional players like Braun will sometimes get more favors..

Of course, Braun's contract renewal will definitely bring more serious salary problems. Next season, without moving the lineup, the Nuggets' total salary has reached 201 million, and the four major cores account for 82% of the total salary.

If Braun's new contract takes effect in the 2026-27 season, you can imagine what difficulties the Nuggets will face - before that, the Nuggets' lineup will definitely change. I hope no matter what, I will not waste Jokic's peak.