{"id":120758,"date":"2025-01-29T16:00:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T21:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=120758"},"modified":"2025-01-29T15:31:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T20:31:42","slug":"the-denver-nuggets-three-point-shooting-woes-are-an-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/29\/the-denver-nuggets-three-point-shooting-woes-are-an-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets Three-Point Shooting Woes are an Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

With less than half the season left, teams will try their best to resolve their issues before the playoffs begin. The Denver Nuggets three-point shooting is an issue \u2014 offensively and defensively. The Nuggets have lost their last two games after winning eight of nine and looking like a dominant threat<\/a>. The three-point differential played a large role in both contests. They made 17 combined threes in the two games compared to 38 for their opponents. They shot a measly 28.8% from three and allowed their opponents to shoot 45.7%. The three-point disparity haunted the Nuggets for those two games while raising a significant concern heading into the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

The Denver Nuggets Three-Point Shooting Woes are an Issue<\/h2>\n

Must Attempt More Threes<\/h3>\n

Offensively, the Nuggets are fourth in three-point percentage<\/a>. Although they excel at shooting the three, they are dead last in three-point attempts<\/a> per game, shooting 6.5 threes less per game than the league average this season<\/a>. A team in the top five of three-point percentage should not be shooting the least threes in a three-point-dominated league.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets have shooters that can excel at shooting with ample attempts but struggle to get them going. Despite being an elite three-point shooting team, the Nuggets do not have a single player in the top 50 of three-point attempts per game<\/a>. Jamal Murray<\/a> and Michael Porter Jr.<\/a> are the only two Nuggets in the top 125 of attempts despite shooting 37.2% and 41.0%, respectively.<\/p>\n

A player shooting 41.0% from three must be in the top 50 of three-point attempts for a team to thrive in today’s NBA. Getting Porter Jr. more involved on offense could give the Nuggets a needed three-point boost. Murray has also shot incredibly well<\/a> since his poor start<\/a> to the season. Involving more threes within their offensive game plan could elevate the Nuggets’ offense.<\/p>\n

Three-point shooting can make or break a team in certain games. Losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> in the offseason lost the Nuggets 4.1 three-point attempts per game at 40.6%. Although it might not sound significant, it can make a difference in some games. Nikola Joki\u0107<\/a> is currently third in three-point percentage among all players<\/a> but only takes 4.3 attempts per game. The Nuggets are not a three-point-centric team, but they should not be last in attempts per game as a team.<\/p>\n

Limiting Their Opponents From Three<\/h3>\n

How the Nuggets’ opponents shoot from three has been the largest factor in if the Nuggets win or lose. They have held their opponents to shooting 35.6% from three, tenth among teams<\/a>. That 35.6% number is significant, as the Nuggets’ winning percentage while giving more or less than that average is vastly different. The Nuggets are 8-12 in the 20 games their opponents shoot above that 35.6% average. In the other 26 games where they hold their opponents under that percentage, they are 20-6.<\/p>\n

Despite being solid at holding their opponents to a respectable percentage from three, the Nuggets’ opponents shoot 39.1 threes per game, the sixth-most. They allow 19.4 wide-open threes per game to their opponents, the tenth-worst in the NBA<\/a>. The Nuggets must sharpen up on closeouts and prevent teams from getting open looks from downtown.<\/p>\n

In a three-point-dominant era, limiting teams to fewer three-point attempts is not easy. Allowing 40 threes by an opponent, especially in the playoffs, is a recipe for disaster for the Nuggets. The Nuggets attempt fewer threes than their opponent in nearly every game, but getting on a more level field of attempts would benefit the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With less than half the season left, teams will try their best to resolve their issues before the playoffs begin. The Denver Nuggets three-point shooting is an issue \u2014 offensively and defensively. The Nuggets have lost their last two games after winning eight of nine and looking like a dominant threat. The three-point differential played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5342,"featured_media":120803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,20,62],"tags":[109,1105,1223,72],"class_list":["post-120758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nuggets","category-nba","tag-jamal-murray","tag-kentavious-caldwell-pope","tag-michael-porter-jr","tag-nikola-jokic"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120804,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120758\/revisions\/120804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}