This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
Unless you Rock Chalk Jayhawk so freaking hard, you probably didn’t have “The Christian Braun Game” on your NBA Finals bingo card.
But the rookie finished with 15 points, shooting 7-of-8 from the field in a Nuggets victory over the Heat in Game 3. It was such an outstanding show from the 2022 NCAA national champion that two-time NBA MVP said that the first-year wing is a winner who won the game for Denver.
This was an optimal time for Braun to have what was, statistically, perhaps the best game of his professional career. There is a fearlessness with which Braun plays on the court and it shows when he attacks the basket regardless of who is defending him.
He can do this because he isn’t sneaky athletic. He is, plainly, athletic as heck.
His standing vertical (33.5 inches) and max vertical (40.0 inches) both ranked in the 93rd percentile or better among all participants in the NBA Draft Combine since 2000, per Stadium Speak. His three-quarter sprint (3.16 seconds) ranked in the 86th percentile.
Note that the players that show up with the most similar historical physical comparisons are guys like Jimmy Butler, Bradley Beal and Brandon Roy. Braun uses that athleticism as one of the most promising young slashers in the league.
When including the postseason, per Synergy, Braun has averaged 1.56 points per possession on cutters. That is one of the most efficient marks in the NBA and trails only a few players including star athletes including LeBron James, Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Braun wasn’t consistently in the rotation for the Nuggets during the regular season or the postseason. But he plays with such unabashed confidence that you cannot tell the difference one way or another.
He is a disruptive role player who leads all Denver players this season, per 36 minutes, in deflections (2.9) and contested shots (9.2). Both rates signify real improvement since the regular season, and Nuggets coach Mike Malone has trusted him to defend Butler.
This is the exact type of player you need on your roster to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy … and the Nuggets got him with the No. 21 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
With two more wins, he could soon make history, becoming just the fifth player to ever win an NCAA title and an NBA title in back-to-back seasons. The only other players to accomplish as much include Bill Russell and Magic Johnson (!!!) as well as Henry Bibby and Billy Thompson.
Braun would become the first basketball player to achieve this feat since 1987, which is 14 years before he was even born.
Quick Hits: Stephen A. Smith is proven wrong … college football players aren’t happy … and more.
— J.J. Redick hilariously proved Stephen A. Smith wrong for claiming Nikola Jokic has no post game
— Why college football players are considering boycotting EA Sports’ new NCAA Football video game
— Women’s college basketball post-transfer portal Top 25: Where do Iowa, UConn land?