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Nikola Jokić could not have known such a small request would change a career.
The Denver Nuggets begin each practice with a 10-minute stretch, one that “seems like nothing,” third-year wing Christian Braun says, but is more important than it appears. With a team trainer leading the session, each player sprawls out on a pad, readying his body for the day.
A younger Braun didn’t realize that practice began before these exercises, which he was using as social time. During his rookie season, he would be “half-assed stretching,” Braun remembers. Braun always considered himself a hard worker, but it never crossed his mind that dedication to the craft included such casual activities — until a multi-time MVP taught him otherwise.
Not long into Braun’s first professional season, as he chatted with fellow youngster Peyton Watson, Nikola Jokić approached. Jokić, an understated leader, had warned Braun more than once that he needed to concentrate during stretching. This time, he didn’t require many words.
He grabbed Braun’s mat, walked it to the other side of the court and placed it next to his own.
“You’re gonna do this every day,” Jokić told Braun. “Right here.”
The BEST basketball of his life pic.twitter.com/EXVnnAdlFr
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) April 16, 2025
Two years later, Braun still stretches next to Jokić before every practice. Now 23, he doesn’t chatter — at least, not until stretching is done. Once it is, the two race the length of the court. The advantage usually goes to Braun. Of course, a common victor doesn’t kill the tradition. Jokić needs Braun engaged, and this is his method.
“It can save your career,” Jokić said in a conversation with The Athletic. “Your body is your tool, and he had to understand that he’s young and stuff, but I think a routine is something that you’re doing over the course of time.”
Braun venerates Jokić, who just became the third player ever to average a triple-double in a single season. And amid a year of turmoil in Denver, the connection between these two has provided stability.
Change has spread throughout the Nuggets over the past nine months. On April 8, ownership fired both head coach Michael Malone, who led them to a title two years ago, and general manager Calvin Booth with only three games remaining in the regular season. It was the latest head-coach firing in NBA history. One week later, the Nuggets are preparing to play the LA Clippers in the first round of the playoffs, a series that will begin Saturday.
The moves came after a summer of renovations to the roster. Denver lost 3-and-D staple Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, which elevated Braun into the starting lineup. Today, the Nuggets might not be as deep as they could have been had Caldwell-Pope remained in town, but the first unit is hardly struggling — in part because of Braun, who has emerged as a Most Improved Player candidate during his third professional season.
He put up personal bests across the board in 2024-25: points, rebounds, assists, and not just because of an increased role.
Braun defends pesky guards. He has developed into one of the league’s most clever off-ball cutters. He and Jokić hook up for unexpected buckets that should now be expected. Braun’s per-minute production is up. His scoring efficiency has skyrocketed.
Nuggets veteran DeAndre Jordan has dubbed him a “badass White boy.”
Jokić agrees in sentiment.
NIKOLA JOKIĆ, HISTORYMAKER!
🃏 29.6 PPG (3rd in NBA)
🃏 12.7 RPG (3rd in NBA)
🃏 10.2 APG (2nd in NBA)Since per-game stats began in 1969-70, Nikola Jokić is the FIRST player to finish top 3 in PPG, RPG, & APG in a single season 🤯 pic.twitter.com/19advhKc3c
— NBA (@NBA) April 17, 2025
“I love the guys who were never given nothing. And I think he’s earned everything in his life,” Jokić said. “I think he is improved. I think he is a true winner.”
But if you ask Braun, whether because he’s being modest or not, he’ll tell you a different version of the same story.
Braun studies other teams obsessively. Much like Jokić, he’s a student of the game. But he’s also a student of Jokić, and he will argue he’s a product of an all-time facilitator, too.
“It’s all credit to Nikola,” Braun said. “He’ll grab you during the game, and he’ll tell you, ‘I want you here because they’re gonna do this.’ He’ll know three steps ahead. The credit doesn’t go to me.”
Braun is hardly the only teammate, current or former, to speak about Jokić in this fashion.
For all the talk of Jokić’s interests away from basketball — his love of horses, his offline persona or viral moments where he appears itching to get out of the building only moments after winning a championship — there is a studious side to the Serbian competitor.
“People don’t think he watches basketball,” Braun said. “But he knows what the other team is gonna do every time.”
Jokić is, of course, known for his offensive chops, but he enters each game having memorized the other team’s playbook. When whomever the Nuggets are facing calls out a play, he will move defenders into their proper places — sometimes literally. One time, as the Nuggets readied for an out-of-bounds play from the sideline, Jokić grabbed Braun by the shoulders and slid him across the court. Braun’s man was about to run around a pick, Jokić told him. If Braun stayed where he was, he would get screened.
Braun felt as if some cheater had handed him the answers to the test.
“The Jokić bump” has become a common description of how the three-time MVP boosts teammates. Somehow, anyone who pairs with Jokić experiences a jump in production. It shows for Braun as a cutter. Jokić is among the best passers ever, and Braun follows his lead.
Braun is one of the hoops sickos. He studies other teams’ tendencies on his nights off, scrolling through games on NBA League Pass. When he comes to work, he talks them through with Jokić. They enter games already knowing which defenders fall asleep, which types of off-ball cuts work best against which victims.
Every so often, Jokić will point Braun in a direction on the court. He gives his teammates in-game signs, as if he’s a third-base coach. If he nods his head at Braun, that means he wants a cut through the lane. If he spins baseline, Braun knows to dart to the basket for a possible wrap-around dish.
Braun’s humility aside, the two make an ideal match.
Nikola Jokić finds a cutting Christian Braun for the flush.
Jokić has the vision. Braun is one of the NBA’s headiest players moving without the basketball. Jokić assisted him on 168 baskets this season, the second most of any duo in the league, according to Second Spectrum. They trail only the LA Clippers’ James Harden and Ivica Zubac.
That’s not only a Jokić stat but a Braun one, too.
He upped his scoring in transition this season, understanding when to leak out the other way. Jokić will snag defensive rebounds and fire outlet passes from impossible angles. No coincidence, Braun led the NBA in fast-break points.
Jokić is Braun’s silent leader.
“I’m not really a big talker,” Jokić said.
Even on the court, he communicates at times with all but his voice.
Bruce Brown, who played for the Nuggets’ 2023 title team, knows the Jokić bump firsthand.
Early in Brown’s season in Denver, the guard went into a handoff play with Jokić. Once the MVP received the basketball, both his defender and Brown’s followed him, which left Brown open. Brown screamed out the proper terminology.
“Wolf! Wolf!” he yelled, the Nuggets’ alert that a double team was coming.
With no one on him, Brown then cut to the basket, figuring Jokić could hit him for an easy layup. Instead, Jokić tossed a no-look pass far behind him and out of bounds. Later in the game, Jokić explained why.
“Don’t cut,” he told Brown. “I’m listening to your voice.”
Take a look at some of Nikola Jokić’s best no-look passes throughout his career!
Jokić, like a bat, can tell where people are just by where sound waves originate. From that point on, Brown never cut after yelling for the ball; Jokić hit him with no-look dimes constantly.
“That was crazy to hear from a teammate,” Brown said. “I’ve never heard that before.”
Most people cannot find Waldo just from hearing the page turn.
Beyond the sonar are Jokić’s facial expressions, which he will use to telegraph messages to teammates. During his five years with the Nuggets, point guard Monté Morris would follow Jokić’s eyes, waiting for a cue.
“He’ll just put his eyes up big,” Morris said, bulging them out of his head. This is the sign to cut, one Jokić still uses with Braun and others.
It leads to the other side of Jokić, one that doesn’t often reach the public. Jokić isn’t just helping teammates on the court. Whether he knows it, he’s teaching.
A few times a season, he’ll grab the clipboard from his head coach and draw up plays during a game’s most important moments, which Malone encouraged. He has done the same while playing with the Serbian national team.
Teammates say that in those moments, Jokić tries to keep it simple. He’ll notice a flaw in the opponent’s coverage and will draw up actions he knows make his guys most comfortable.
“He understands who can understand what,” LA Clippers wing Bogdan Bogdanović said.
Bogdanović came of age alongside Jokić, competing on a Serbian national team that has grown into of the globe’s best. He credits little nuances of the game, ones he didn’t once think about, to his longtime teammate.
Bogdanović recalls a mantra Jokić has repeated to him over the years.
“Steal every second of the game,” he said.
He means that literally: Every second. Each moment on the court is an opportunity to pounce, no matter how subtle.
For example, Bogdanović used to corral defensive rebounds, then look up the court and decide to dribble or pass from there. Now, as he’s pulling down a board, thanks to advice from Jokić, he swivels his head upcourt, checking if a defender fell or if a streaking teammate freed himself for a touchdown pass. If a Hail Mary isn’t there, Jokić explained the second option must be automatic. The quicker an offense can get into its first action, the better its chance of scoring.
“It’s just pop, fast. Two, three seconds to bring the ball up,” Bogdanović said. “It’s constantly thinking.”
No one weaponized eyes like Jokić does. He communicates with them — and he moves defenses with them.
Oklahoma City center Isaiah Hartenstein would follow Jokić around like an eager puppy during his short stint with Denver in 2020-21, back when Hartenstein was a journeyman fighting to stick in the league. He identified Jokić’s mind and began peppering him with questions. Now, Hartenstein is also one of the NBA’s best passing centers.
Jokić taught his pupil to look for pupils. Hartenstein had to focus on his defender’s eyes, Jokić explained. If whoever was on him peered away, a pass that might not appear open could actually be doable.
“(Jokić) is really open,” Hartenstein said. “He’s not gonna come to you and tell you, ‘Hey, you should do this.’ But when you ask him questions, he’ll really take time and go through it with you.”
He adjusted Hartenstein’s process on dribble handoffs. Hartenstein used to lock in on whichever teammate was curling around him on a handoff. Like with Bogdanović, Hartenstein learned to glance at the rest of the court, processing where his four teammates and the five defenders were so he could better assess his next move.
“I think I’m leading with example,” Jokić said before editing himself. “Actually, I think people can learn from me in some way. If they ask me a question, then I’ll always tell them what I’m doing or what I see.”
Braun has placed himself into the same program as Hartenstein once did. And he doesn’t end his days much differently than he begins his practices, cozying up to Jokić all the way.
Jokić goes through a strict postgame routine, which takes him to the training table, the ice bath and the weight room. When Morris played in Denver, he followed Jokić there.
“I’m like, he’s the MVP,” Morris said. “Let me try his method.”
Morris began lifting with Jokić after each game and churned out the best basketball of his career while doing it. He left the Nuggets in 2022, but to this day, he still keeps the same routine after every game, just because of Jokić.
Braun has done the same. When Jokić lifts after games today, the ambitious guard is alongside him each time.
Jokić might appear out of shape by NBA standards, but he’s one of the best-conditioned players in existence. He has never in his decade-long career missed more than 13 games in a single season and is consistently around the top in minutes played among big men.
Now, Braun has put himself on the Jokić plan — the stretching, the lifting, the studying, the level of care. And it’s changing his career.
“That is somebody I wanna be like,” Braun said. “There’s a reason why he’s successful, and I wanna be successful, too. So, why not try to mirror that?”
Fred Katz is a senior NBA writer for The Athletic. Follow Fred on Twitter @FredKatz
