Why Nuggets’ Zeke Nnaji didn’t give up on new shooting form after ratings collapsed – Boulder Daily Camera

More than an hour after the final buzzer, Zeke Nnaji still had Kool & The Gang in the queue. If he’s in charge of the workout playlist, buckle up. A skilled pianist and high school marching band graduate, he jumps between genres as often as anyone else on the Nuggets roster.

“I just played 70s and 80s funk music. They didn’t like it,” Nnaji said Tuesday as two-way player PJ Hall shook his head disapprovingly from across the locker room. “But sometimes I play Biggie and Tupac or older rap. Or sometimes I play older pop songs in the style of Billy Joel. Exactly what I feel. It depends on the mood.”

On a night when the Nuggets fell to 0-4 in the preseason, the mood called for the R&B band that wrote “Celebration.”

This choice pretty much sums up the ethos of Nnaji’s work ethic. He is entering his fifth NBA season and now earns the fifth-highest salary on Denver’s roster. He remains a fringe player whose 3-point efficiency declined dramatically after he changed his shooting form two years into his career. There have been many opportunities for self-doubt throughout this process, but the 23-year-old feels his patience and optimistic approach to training is finally being rewarded with results.

On a team that is lacking in 3-point shooting, he is a team-best 55% this preseason (6 of 11). The next step is to get those numbers into the regular season when his four-year, $32 million contract extension kicks in.

“Actually, I don’t feel any pressure (associated with the contract),” Nnaji said. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I have confidence in the work I’ve done and I want to keep working. And I enjoy it. When I work, I play good music and that just makes work more enjoyable. I enjoy it.”

The 6-foot-3 man has made it his goal this season to go to the gym every day and commit his form to muscle memory, “no matter if I’m tired, sore, injured or whatever.” At the moment, this often leads to evening training sessions overlapping with the person who motivated Nnaji to be there in the first place.

“Honestly, the player on the team who really made me realize how much I need to work is Mike (Porter Jr.),” he said. “MPJ, he comes in every night. And seeing him come in every night was inspiring because I was like, ‘Damn, he’s at his max (contract) and he’s coming every night.’ … I think it’s good to have that attitude. Because for me, I am a competitive person. So it’s like, even if I come in and don’t feel like doing anything, I just have this competitive nature in me… as soon as I think beforehand, “Okay, I’m just going to take some easy shots.” You know it , I’m going to sweat a lot. Work hard.”

Sometimes Nnaji and Porter work together on the same target practice. Occasionally they play one-on-one. Nnaji admires that Porter sees no competition in his swing, a trait made possible by his 6-foot-10 frame but developed through thousands of repetitions.

Nnaji was not always convinced by the change in form. The initial numbers made it difficult to resist a natural instinct to turn back. In his first two seasons, he shot 44% from beyond the arc on 139 attempts. Over the next two seasons, he hit 26% on 88 attempts. But the Nuggets were concerned about the long-term sustainability of his old form. They believed that centering its launch and refining its release would eventually pay off.

“When I started changing it, it didn’t work. My shot got much worse. I have dropped a lot in percentage terms,” said Nnaji. “I kept hearing people tell me, ‘Oh, you should go back to the way you were filming because you had a high rating,’ or whatever. So I kind of went back, and then I went back and forth a little bit, and that was bad for me. But it was definitely discouraging. And on top of that, sometimes you shoot well in training and you feel completely different in the game.”

Adapting to this difference has been the focus this summer. Nnaji had already passed the new Shooting Form 101 and was working through the application at a methodical pace. Total emphasis on mechanics. Next up was the advanced shot acceleration course.

“A lot of my releases, especially in the third year when I first did it, were kind of slow releases. They looked a little strange, but that was just because I hadn’t perfected the muscle memory yet,” Nnaji said. “…Sometimes (this summer) we used a (blocking) stick. …I have to shoot it before they can react and get going. So that’s kind of part of it. In general, just doing spot shots can make you feel a little rushed. Don’t be too hectic so that you feel like you’re losing control. But having that sense of urgency, like you’re in a game.”

Nnaji was a bright spot in Denver’s disappointing loss to Phoenix on Sunday. This resulted in a starting opportunity on Tuesday. He took advantage with his most complete preseason game yet – two steals and three blocks on defense as the undermanned Nuggets put up a good fight against Oklahoma City’s starters in the first half.

And a 3-for-4 night from 3-point range. The form was evident from the last two seasons. The rhythm, confidence and results improved.

“I know a lot of people didn’t believe in it,” he said. “But it’s like I’ve got a few guys in my corner, the guys that I work with all summer – (shooting) coach Mike (Penberthy), (player development staff) Shemar (Waugh), all those guys – “They really believed in me and helped me persevere.”