The Nuggets are looking inward for a fix to one of their biggest lineup chores: getting more ball-handling help around Jamal Murray.
After Denver’s first-round playoff exit in May, head coach David Adelman said he wanted the roster to add another handler. Instead, the team appears ready to ask Christian Braun to shoulder more of that load, giving Murray a chance to work off the ball more often.
“It’s more about being able to handle the pressure and get into a set and make sure Jamal is not always having to bring the ball, go to the corner, then come back up,” Braun said. “Jamal can start in the corner. I can bring it up.”
Braun enters the first year of the five-year, $125MM rookie scale extension he signed last fall, and he’s trying to answer after an uneven year. An ankle injury limited the 25-year-old to 44 regular season games in 2025/26.
“I need to be a guy where Jamal is looking for me to bring it up to help him out,” Braun said. “I know it will help him and his legs in the fourth quarter of a big playoff game.”
Denver’s backcourt depth took another small hit on Friday when third-year forward Spencer Jones sat out a scrimmage after tweaking his hamstring. Adelman called it a precaution, saying, “It’s one of those small things that could be a big thing, so you want to make sure you keep him off his feet.”
The Nuggets also added a new name to the mix this week in Ryan Nembhard, who signed a two-way contract on Wednesday. The Canadian point guard has already made a habit of big nights at Ball Arena. He once led Creighton to the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA tournament with 30 points on 13 field goal attempts, and he also shredded Denver there last December as a rookie with the Mavericks, finishing with 28 points on 12-of-14 shooting, 10 assists and three rebounds in 35 minutes.
“I felt like they wanted me,” Nembhard said of the Nuggets. “It’s just a winning culture that they have over here.
They’ve proven that they can win. There’s so many high-IQ players that I feel like I can mesh well with.
Obviously, a great coach, a great organization that I feel like is going to benefit me.”
Elsewhere in the rotation picture, Nuggets insider Chris Dempsey wrote that Denver will need contributions from players all over the roster if it wants to reach its ceiling this season. Dempsey called Braun the Nugget with the most to prove in 2026/27 and pointed to Alpha Diallo as the team’s “most underrated” new addition.
The roster shuffle also pushed out KJ Simpson, who was waived Wednesday to create room for Nembhard. Cameron Johnson said he’ll miss having the former Colorado star around, praising the work Simpson put in throughout camp and around the facility.
“Every time I was in the gym, KJ was in the gym. Every time I was in Denver in the weight room, KJ was there.
He was playing really well in training camp,” Johnson said, per Bendetto. “That’s when the business hits you kind of hard.
He joined us last year and has been really bought in the whole time. It’s just a tough part of the business.
It’s part of it, but it’s always tough to digest. I wish him the very best going forward in whatever opportunity he encounters.”
In Other News...
Nuggets Guard Rotation Just Got More Interesting Behind Jamal Murray
The Nuggets made a small but meaningful roster tweak this week, adding 23-year-old point guard Ryan Nembhard on a two-way contract as they continue shaping the guard mix behind Jamal Murray. To make room, Denver waived KJ Simpson, a move that underscores how seriously the team is taking the search for backcourt depth and steady ballhandling as training camp continues.
Nembhard arrived with some momentum after a notable rookie season with the Dallas Mavericks, and he has already been around the Nuggets' camp with an eye on broadening his game. He has talked about sharpening his defense and shooting, while veteran forward Cameron Johnson has pointed to the way Nembhard can create for others and bring another dimension to the lineup. [Read more 🡒]
David Adelman Shares What Nuggets Took From Coach Prime Visit
Deion Sanders made a stop at Nuggets training camp practice this week, bringing a little cross-sport energy to a group already settling into its preseason work. David Adelman said the visit mattered because Sanders did not just show up for a photo opportunity, but shared a message the team could take into the grind of the year ahead, the kind of reminder that tends to land when it comes from someone who has spent so much time around high-level competition.
Sanders also singled out Nikola Jokic during the visit, praising the star centers performance and reliability in the biggest moments. For the Nuggets, hearing that kind of respect from one of Colorados most recognizable coaches only adds to the sense that Jokics reputation reaches well beyond basketball, even as Adelman and company continue building toward the season with those outside voices floating through the gym. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Nembhard Already Has A Sneaky Important Role For Denver
Ryan Nembhard may not be in Denver for the sort of headline-grabbing role that turns heads in October, but he already has a clear job in camp. Coach David Adelman said the guard will be used in practice as a quick, pesky test case, the kind of smaller ballhandler the Nuggets need to handle better as they sharpen their pick-and-roll defense. It is the sort of behind-the-scenes assignment that can matter in a league where so many problems start with a guard getting downhill too easily.
The fit makes plenty of sense after Nembhards performance against Denver last season with Dallas, when he gave the Nuggets trouble as a playmaker and scorer. Denver has been looking closely at how to defend faster guards, and rookie Alpha Diallo has been part of the defensive example the staff wants to lean on. Nembhards role may be temporary and mostly internal, but for a team trying to get sturdier at the point of attack, those reps can carry real weight. [Read more 🡒]