More than an hour after the final buzzer, Zeke Nnaji still had Kool & The Gang queued up. When he’s in charge of the workout playlist, buckle up. A skilled pianist and high school marching band alum, he’ll jump between genres as much as anyone on the Nuggets’ roster.
“I just put on some 70s, 80s funk kind of 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’ll play some Biggie and Tupac, or older rap. Or sometimes I’ll play some, like, Billy Joel-type older pop songs. Just whatever I’m feeling. It depends on the vibe.”
On a night when the Nuggets fell to 0-4 in the preseason, the vibe called for the R&B band that wrote “Celebration.”
That choice pretty much encapsulates the ethos of Nnaji’s work ethic. Entering his fifth NBA season, now earning the fifth-highest salary on Denver’s roster, he remains a fringe-rotation player whose 3-point efficiency declined dramatically after he changed his shooting form two years into his career. There has been plenty of opportunity for self-doubt during that process, but the 23-year-old feels that his patience and his upbeat approach to workouts are finally being rewarded with results.
On a team that lacks 3-point shooting, he’s a team-best 55% this preseason (6 for 11). The next step is to bring those numbers into the regular season as his four-year, $32 million contract extension goes into effect.
“I actually don’t feel any pressure (associated with the contract),” Nnaji said. “I don’t know if that’s bad or good, but I feel confident in just the work that I put in, and I want to continue to keep working. And I’m enjoying it. I put on some good music when I work, and that just makes it more enjoyable. I’m having fun with it.”
The 6-foot-9 big man has established a goal this season to come into the practice gym every day and commit his form to muscle memory, “whether I’m tired, sore, injured, whatever.” Right now, that often results in evening workouts that overlap with the individual who motivated Nnaji to be there in the first place.
“Honestly, the player on the team that made me really understand 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, it was inspiring, because I’m like, ‘Dang, he’s on a max (contract), and he’s coming in every night.’ … I think that mindset is good to have. Because to me, I’m a competitive person. So it’s like, even if I come in and I don’t feel like doing anything, just that competitive nature in me … as soon as I’m like, ‘OK, I’m just going to do some light shooting,’ before you know it, I’m going to be in a full sweat. Working hard.”
Sometimes Nnaji and Porter work on the same shooting drill together. Occasionally, they’ll play one-on-one. Nnaji admires that Porter doesn’t see a contest when he goes into his shot — a characteristic made possible by his 6-foot-10 height but engineered by thousands of reps.
Nnaji wasn’t always confident in the form change. The initial numbers made it difficult to resist a natural instinct to revert. In his first two seasons, he shot 44% beyond the arc on 139 attempts. The next two seasons, he shot 26% on 88 attempts. But the Nuggets were worried about the long-term sustainability of his old form. Centering his launch and refining his release would pay off eventually, they believed.
“When I first started changing it, it wasn’t working. My shot got way worse. I went down a lot in percentage,” Nnaji said. “I kept getting people in my ear telling me, ‘Oh, you should go back to just how you were shooting before, because you had a high percentage’ or whatever. So I kind of went back, and then I was going back and forth a little bit, and that was bad for me to do. But it was definitely discouraging. And on top of that, sometimes you shoot it well in practice, and in the game it’s like a completely different feel.”
Adapting to that difference was the entire focus this summer. Nnaji had already passed New Shooting Form 101, working through the motion at a methodical pace. Total emphasis on mechanics. Next was the advanced course in accelerating the shot.
“A lot of my releases, especially the third year, when I first did it, were kind of slow releases. They looked a little wonky, but that was just because I hadn’t perfected the muscle memory of it,” Nnaji said. “… Sometimes (this summer) we would use a (blocking) stick. … I have to shoot it before they can react and get up to it. So that’s kind of part of it. Also, when you’re just doing spot-up shots in general, it’s about feeling a little rushed. Not too rushed where it’s like you’re out of control. But having that sense of urgency, like you’re in a game.”
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Nnaji was a bright spot in a disappointing Denver loss to Phoenix on Sunday. It resulted in a starting opportunity Tuesday. He took advantage with his most well-rounded preseason game yet — two steals, three blocks at the defensive end as the short-handed 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 recognizable from the last two seasons. The rhythm, the confidence and the results were enhanced.
“I know a lot of people didn’t believe in it,” he said. “But it’s like, 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.”