Just a few weeks into the Nuggets’ offseason, an Instagram post by the team’s head strength and conditioning coach, Steve Hess, showed Darrell Arthur already back in the weight room beginning to get his body together to be ready for training camp and the new season a few months from now.
That will be key. A sore left knee was Arthur’s biggest opponent in 2016-17.
Complications from that knee caused him to directly miss 21 games during the season. There were many others where he was dressed but not fully available because of the fear of a setback. Arthur played in just 41 games, the second-lowest number of his career, and averaged 6.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists.
Arthur was able to finish the season on the court, however, playing in each of the last two games. He had 13 points and four steals in the Nuggets’ win in their season finale at Oklahoma City.
But Hess’s photo underscored Arthur’s biggest offseason challenge – to get himself in good health. He played 70 games the season before, but had knee surgery late in the summer following that campaign. Arthur wasn’t able to fully participate in training camp or the preseason, and the rehab spilled into the start of the regular season. He played in just two of the first 14 games.
Everything was a struggle from there.
When he was on the court, Arthur flashed a 3-point shot that was among the best in the NBA. Had he played in enough games, Arthur’s 45.3 percent from the arc would have led the entire league.
Getting back to playing the majority of the season, therefore, is his aim.
OFFENSE. Arthur has been known for his defensive prowess, but offensively he’s begun to carve out a personality as a shooting specialist. Even with a small sample size – just 41 games played -- this was the best shooting season of his NBA career, and his transformation into what appears to be a knockdown 3-point shooter has taken just two seasons to establish.
Arthur, simply put, was arguably the Nuggets’ best spot-up shooter. It was his most-used action, nearly 40 percent. The breakdown: In 101 possessions of spot up shooting, Arthur scored 115 points, which equaled 1.139 points per possession. That was good enough to grade out as one of the best spot-up shooters in the NBA, per Synergy stats.
Arthur’s shooting evolution has been swift. Here are the two seasons leading up to this one:
- In 2015-16, he had 174 possessions of spot up shots and scored 176 points, which equaled 1.011 points per possession.
- In 2014-15, he had 107 possessions of spot up shots and scored just 65 points, which equaled .607 points per possession. His top used action that season was being the roll man in pick-and-roll situations.
Not anymore.
Arthur’s biggest asset offensively going forward is his ability to help stretch the defense from the power forward spot. If he can replicate this season even mostly shooting-wise, he’ll be a big boost to a Nuggets offense that looks to have the 3-point shot become an even deadlier piece in its arsenal. Arthur would pop in a cut to the rim or dive to the bucket on some screen-rolls just to keep defenses honest. But make no mistake, his shot-making is what both he and the Nuggets will hang their hats on next season.
DEFENSE. It wasn’t a typically dominating team defensive season for Arthur, and much of that was a function of the team not playing well overall on the defensive end. Still, in the top three actions he had to defend – pick and roll as the big defender, spot up and post up, opponents averaged over a point per possession in all of them. Again, not all pinned on Arthur, but at the same time it was apparent he wasn’t moving around or holding players off as well as he could of due to the constantly nagging and sore knee. Improved health will be Arthur’s biggest weapon next season.