Christian Braun, Peyton Watson both express desire to stay with Nuggets

With three weeks remaining to reach a deal with the Nuggets Christian Braun and Peyton Watson both shared an optimistic stance on their respective futures Monday Denver s two first-round draft picks from are nearing the final year of their rookie contracts That means they re also nearing the deadline Oct the last day of the offseason to sign a rookie-scale extension As they convened at Ball Arena ahead of training camp Braun and Watson both expressed a desire to remain with the squad that drafted them There s no frustration at the lack of a contract agreement so far I think that it s gonna happen at specific point Braun announced during Denver s annual preseason media day Whatever happens happens And I think the greater part central part is I need to show up and do my job I think that s kind of how I ve perpetually been So that doesn t change Continue to put the work in and all that stuff will take care of itself Braun likely made himself more expensive to the Nuggets with a breakout third season Replacing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the starting lineup he averaged an efficient points and rebounds per challenge while often guarding the opponent s best athlete A bench contributor during Denver s playoff run Braun has outperformed his draft placement since he was picked st overall in Now he s widely projected to earn anywhere from million to million annually on his second contract We have had preliminary conversations and we hope to kind of build on that in the next couple of days moving forward Nuggets VP of athlete personnel Jon Wallace commented He s a large part of what we do We look forward to it Watson was taken th in the same draft class While his improvement is not as far along as Braun s from a production standpoint the -year-old has emerged as one of the best shot-blocking wings in the league with blocks over the last two years Watson is expected to remain a regular in Denver s rotation after playing in of regular-season games the last two years They both have huge roles coming up this year Nuggets VP of basketball operations Ben Tenzer revealed We feel like they re both ready to take a step and we hope they re here for a long time Cap space is the only snag The Nuggets are already on the hook for at least million in salary spread across only five contracts for - when the extensions for Braun and Watson would go into effect The second tax apron is projected to be around million If Denver hopes to stay under that punitive threshold the front office will have to be savvy about how to delegate the remaining space We re just taking it day by day I was telling Jon not too long ago I ve got everything that I ve ever needed and yearned Watson mentioned I ve got more money than I ever thought that I would ever make So I m not one of those guys who s only playing basketball for the money I ve inevitably played it for the enjoyment and the love of the contest And it s put me in a position where I m gonna have the opportunity to make particular money here in this league But I m young I ve got a lot of time I know that I ll make a lot of money in this encounter For me it s more so about doing things the right way having an organization that embraces me as a member and the person that I am and I think Denver does that So I m happy with where we are as far as extension talks are going Related Articles Nikola Jokic on contract extension delay Plan to be Nugget forever Renck vs Keeler Who is under more pressure Nuggets David Adelman or Avs Jared Bednar Nuggets Journal Nikola Jokic s future Jonas Valanciunas s arrival and other storylines entering training camp How much will it cost to watch every Nuggets match after NBA s new media rights deal Nuggets Podcast Nuggets media day storylines and the annual NBA wins draft If a draft pick doesn t sign an extension by the last day of this offseason he ll be faced with restricted free agency next summer a structure that limits the performer s autonomy in free agency and favors the incumbent crew Finances aside though both Braun and Watson indicated Monday that their preference would be to remain with Denver I don t want to be anywhere besides being a Denver Nugget I think everybody knows that Braun declared I think I owe it to these guys I owe it to the association to the city to continue to just approach the encounter the way I ve inevitably approached it Want more Nuggets news Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis