An abundance of persistence and an assist from Michael Porter Jr. are paying off for Zeke Nnaji ahead of his fifth NBA season.
“Honestly, the player on the team that made me really like understand how much I need to work is Mike,” Nnaji said after Denver’s 124-94 preseason loss to the Thunder on Tuesday. “MPJ, he comes in every night and seeing him come in every night, it was inspiring.”
If a player on a max contract was working like that, Nnaji figured he should follow Porter’s lead. Even if he was tired, sore or slightly banged up, he wanted to be in the gym. Nnaji and Porter would often head to the gym around the same time, 7 or 8 p.m., and go through drills or play one-on-one.
“I’m just picking up a lot of stuff from him just from shooting in general. He’s one of the best shooters in the league,” Nnaji said. “He doesn’t see a contest when he shoots the ball. To have that level of concentration and focus, I mean, it takes a lot of reps in the gym to be able to perfect that muscle memory.”
Nnaji has learned a lot about muscle memory in the last couple of years. After shooting 40.7% and 46.3% from 3-point range in his first two seasons, Nnaji changed his form in hopes of becoming an even better shooter. The first year after the change, Nnaji made just 26.2% of his attempts from 3. Last year, it dipped to 26.1%, but Nnaji remained committed.
“When you change your shot, it’s a process. I know a lot of people didn’t believe in it,” Nnaji said. “I had a few guys in my corner, the guys that I work with all summer – (shooting) coach Mike (Penberthy), (player development associate) Shemar (Waugh), all them guys – they really believed in me and helped me to stick it out. Now, it’s like I’m coming in the gym more and it’s like making my shot and my confidence in my shot just continue to grow. I feel great with it right now.”
The numbers, albeit a small sample size, are exceptional. Through four preseason games, Nnaji is 6 of 11 (54.5%) from deep. He’s scored in double figures in three of those games. Second-year wing Julian Strawther wasn’t around Denver for the promising start to Nnaji’s career, but he’s noticed a difference in Nnaji’s game from last year.
“These last two games, it’s a completely different approach,” Strawther said. “He just looks way more confident in his game. Obviously, the shooting has been amazing.”
The reward for Nnaji’s strong preseason was a spot in the starting lineup on a night Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray got the night off. Nuggets coach Michael Malone laid out what he wanted to see from his 23-year-old reserve.
“Show your versatility on both ends of the floor,” Malone said. “When you’re open from the 3, knock it down. If you don’t have the shot, make a play for somebody else, and as always as a big guy, help us on the glass.”
Nnaji knocked down three of four attempts from 3-point range with all his makes coming above the break. The issue the last couple of years, Nnaji said, was that he hadn’t had enough repetitions to shoot the ball quickly after changing his shot for the first time in his basketball life.
"It starts with the form. Just have the form and the release has to be perfected, and to do that, you have to shoot the ball slow. So, a lot of my releases, especially the third year, when I first did it, were kind of slow releases,” he said. “They looked a little wonky, but that was just because I hadn't perfected the muscle memory of it. But now that I've got the memory, the form, I feel like this past summer, all we worked on was quick releases and shooting it with speed and with quickness.”
Nnaji’s two points inside the arc came off a pass from Porter on the left wing and needed just one dribble to get from beyond the arc and into the lane where he finished a driving finger roll over Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein. On the other end, he blocked three shots and recorded a couple of steals. It will likely take continued success over a larger sample size for Nnaji to return to the Nuggets’ every night rotation, but the work and Porter’s example have proved to be beneficial.
“It definitely took a little while, but now it all feels the same,” Nnaji said. “Practice, game, I'm really comfortable, really happy, really confident with my shot."
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