Six years before Will Barton saved the Nuggets' season, he was playing 5-on-5 at a Portland rec center with serious doubts about his NBA future

PORTLAND, Ore. — It’s 2013, and Will Barton is two seasons into his pro career and doubting for the first time in his life that he can make it in the NBA.

He’s at Bay Club — a Portland rec center located a stone’s throw from the Trail Blazers’ practice facility and 16 minutes south of Moda Center, facing off against high school and college players, but also average Joes who arrived at the gym after working their 9 to 5’s. It was the only way for Barton, who was out of Portland’s rotation for most of the two-and-a-half seasons that he spent with the Trail Blazers out of college, to get 5-on-5 reps.

“It was just tough. I wouldn’t say I thought about giving up, but there were definitely moments where you begin to doubt yourself and wonder if things are going to fall your way,” Barton told BSN Denver, reflecting back on his time with the Trail Blazers after Portland made him the 40th overall pick in 2012. “But I couldn’t give up. That’s just not the type of person I am.”

Barton’s youth plus a loaded Portland roster that boasted names from Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum to LaMarcus Aldridge, Wes Matthews, Mo Williams, Nic Batum and Dorrell Wright, barely allowed Barton to sniff the court during Blazer practices. So he’d go through his individual work and then play 3-on-3 games alongside other end-of-the-bench players like Victor Claver, a 21-year-old Allen Crabbe and Meyers Leonard, who was a rookie at the time, at the Trail Blazers’ facility before making the two-minute walk to Bay Club.

“That was a real humbling experience for me,” Barton said. “It was a time where I could have either given up or kept working. I decided to keep working, kept believing in myself, and it just made me want more.”

A mid-season trade in February 2015 brought Barton to Denver and gave the do-it-all wing a new lease on his NBA life under leadership that believed in him. Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly had known Barton since the wiry Baltimore native was 12 years old, and Barton and Denver’s top basketball decision-maker both played under legendary Baltimore coach Mike Daniel in high school.

Barton thrived off the Nuggets’ the bench and moved into a role as Denver’s sixth-man in 2016 when he averaged. 28.7 minutes per game. Three years later, Barton inked a four-year, $54 million offer with the Nuggets, turning down more money from the Indiana Pacers to stick with the organization that originally believed in him.

As the Nuggets’ season hung in the balance Sunday night in Portland with Denver in real danger of falling into a fatal 3-1 series deficit, Barton earned his paycheck. As the Nuggets clung to a 99-98 lead in front of a raucous Moda Center crowd with 3:02 remaining in regulation, Barton drained two 3s that quieted the same fans who showered him with love six seasons ago. A Gary Harris triple, combined with Barton’s two daggers gave the Nuggets a 107-102 lead they never relinquished. The Nuggets beat the Trail Blazers 116-112 in Game 4 to even the series at two games apiece with Game 5 on tap for Friday at Pepsi Center.

“I knew they’d put a lot of pressure on Joke (Nikola Jokc),” Barton said remembering back to his fourth-quarter 3s, both of which came off of Jokic kick-outs. “… I know they come storming at him any time he makes a move so I’m just telling myself be ready to shoot with confidence and knock it down.”

From his silk postgame threads to the playground flare that he brings to the hardwood, confidence is always something Barton’s had, and his self-belief, especially during an injury-riddled 2018-19 campaign, helped Barton emerge in Game 3 when the 6-foot-6 guard scored 22 points off the bench and a team-high 12 points over the four overtime periods in the Nuggets’ 140-137 loss. He tallied 11 more Sunday, two-and-a-half weeks after he was jettisoned from Denver’s starting lineup in favor of Torrey Craig following the Nuggets’ Game 3 loss to the Spurs.

“I think he was really big tonight. Just making those shots, just being aggressive…” Jokic said of Barton. “He was a little bit sloppy in the beginning of the playoffs but the last two, three games he’s been good.”

Late in Game 4 against the Trail Blazers, he replaced Craig, who’s dealing with a banged up right pinky finger and wasn’t effective as a defender on either Damian Lillard or C.J. McCollum.

“In the back of my mind, I was remembering Game 3, and the confidence Will Barton played with,” Michael Malone said of the move to close Game 4 with Barton. “He played here in this city, he knows their players and I know how much this series means to him personally, as an individual. I just wanted to throw him out there and stay with him.

“I think if you as a coach are pulling guys after a missed shot and they’re looking at the bench, no one can play like that, and I don’t coach like that. I want our guys to go out and play, and if you make a mistake, make it an aggressive mistake. If you miss a shot make sure it’s a good shot. And I think our guys respond well to that.”

Barton insists that he’s not thinking about his history with Portland throughout this series, but it’s difficult to imagine that the opportunity to beat the organization that stuck him at the end of their bench early in his career isn’t pushing him to perform to the best of his abilities.

The Moda Center crowd used to cheer for the wiry Memphis guard. Now, Barton gets the opportunity to shut them up.

“I’m passed that. That was a long time ago in my career,” Barton insisted. “Right now they just happen to be the opponent we’re playing against, and I just want to beat them. Not because I used to play with them, just because they’re in our way, and we’re trying to advance. That’s the only thing I’m thinking about.”

Barton also gets to play on the biggest basketball stage against Lillard, his former Summer League teammate who was also drafted by the Trail Blazers in 2012. Lillard and Barton used to live just a few minutes from each other when they both played in Portland and are still close.

They talk regularly but severed all communication ahead of the Nuggets and Trail Blazers’ second-round matchup.

“We’re good enough friends to where we know he’s trying to take me out, and I’m trying to take him out,” said Lillard. “So we don’t have nothing to talk about right now. He’s still my boy though.”

Lillard has been effective against Denver but hasn’t played at the MVP level that he did in the first round against the Thunder. He scored 28 points in Game 4 but shot just 9 of 22 from the field. Across four games, he’s averaging 27.3 points but shooting just 43% from the field and 25.7% from 3.

He also saw Barton’s love for the game up close before he blew up and gained a foothold in the NBA with the Nuggets.

“Just knowing that passion and how much he loved the game but he wasn’t getting an opportunity in Portland,” Lillard said. “When he came (to Denver) and got the opportunity and took advantage of it, got his new deal, I was happy for him.”

Barton’s basketball life has come full circle over the last few games — from starting in the Nuggets’ first-round series against the Spurs, to coming off Denver’s bench, still stuck in the first gear that he spent most of the season in, to becoming one of the Nuggets’ playoff heroes along with Jokic (21 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists) and Jamal Murray (34 points, five rebounds, four assists) in their Game 4 win.

“It was a big adjustment going from being one of the top high school players in the country, having a good career at Memphis, now you’re told basically, ‘You’re not ready, you’re not good enough,'” Barton said of his time in Portland. “That’s tough for your ego to handle. I’ve seen a lot of players go through that same thing and give up.”

The Nuggets are sure glad he didn’t.