Grading The Week: Christian Braun, Peyton Watson proving Nuggets’ kids are all right after all

No one’s ever asked the kids up in the Grading The Week offices to help them with their taxes, but those wise apples sure know how to work a calculator. When it comes to the Nuggets, we were stoked to see Calvin Booth’s roster math start to finally add up.

From Nov. 3-8, despite losing franchise cornerstones Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon to injuries, Denver went 3-0. Yeah, Nikola Jokic carried the flag, the way only a generational MVP can, with 27 points, 15 rebounds and 14.3 assists per game. Michael Porter Jr. averaged 21.3 points, 4.7 3-pointers and 7.0 boards.

But you know what else happened? The Nuggets got almost as many non-Joker points in those three games from players 25 and younger (146) as they did from those 26 and older (153).

Nuggets’ electric youth movement — A-

Holy smokes, Calvin’s kids can play! And play well!

Off-guard Christian Braun picked up the baton for both Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in one swing, averaging 20.7 points, 2.7 treys and 6.0 rebounds. Julian Strawther averaged 9.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Swingman Peyton Watson stepped it up, averaging 14.0 points, 4.7 boards, 2.0 blocks and 1.3 steals.

And Watson provided perhaps the most emphatic (and symbolic) moment of a great week for the Nuggets’ youth movement when on Wednesday night he rallied from two missed free throws to swat away a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shot to salvage a 124-122 victory.

Look, nobody on the GTW crew is thrilled at the idea of the Nuggets missing Gordon for an extended stretch. But if it forces coach Michael Malone to trot out the young guns who’ve become part of his roster’s core, it might turn into a blessing in disguise. Especially given that Malone doesn’t really have much of a choice.

Tad Boyle lands his 300th at CU — A

Sure, it took longer than anybody hoped. And yes, it had a bunch of uncomfortable … er, teaching moments. But a tip of the cap for the umpteenth time to CU men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle for picking up his 300th career victory with the Buffs on Friday night.

Poetically, it came in double OT against scrappy UNC, a program where Boyle cut his teeth as a head coach for four seasons before joining the Buffs for the 2010-11 campaign.

Since #RollTad settled in BoCo, the CU men have won 20 or more games 10 times; reached the NCAA tourney six times (COVID-19 kept them from a seventh); and finished fourth or better in their respective conference race four different times, including last season, when the Buffs were third in the final year of the “old” Pac-12.

Context: From 1960-2010, in the 50 years before Tad arrived, CU had been selected for five berths in the Big Dance — an average of once per decade.

Team GTW brings this up because as good as the new-look Big 12 — no blue bloods, no Oregons, USCs or Washingtons — has been for Deion Sanders and Buffs football, it could prove fairly harsh on Boyle and his rebuilding roster in 2024-25. The Big 12 isn’t a great football league. On paper, it’s setting up to be a beast of a basketball league.

Best show patience with young Buffs who’ll have to learn on the fly while traveling to hoops hornets nests such as Stillwater (Jan. 18), Tucson (Jan. 21), Lawrence (Feb. 11), Ames (Feb. 18) and Lubbock (March 5) this winter. Friday night confirmed that CU’s got a long, long way to go. Boyle’s resume should assure you they’ll get there. Eventually.

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