Denver Nuggets forward Will Barton struggled to find his game after feeling “abandoned” once he started struggling last season.

Barton had re-signed with the Nuggets under the condition of being a starter, which the organization honored. But he soon felt the splinters of his repeated shooting slumps, which eventually forced head coach Mike Malone to bench him:

“Getting booed, getting benched, having a position battle, made me feel abandoned and given up on,” Barton told Kendra Andrews of The Athletic in an interview covering arguably the most challenging season of his career. “When you feel abandoned, you can either feel sorry for yourself, make excuses and quit or you can go harder and prove to yourself who you really are. I choose to go harder and prove who I really am.

“Those three experiences made me relentless. That’s the whole theme of this season for me this year — being relentless again. I wanted to put myself back at the beginning stage of my career. How I came in with that hunger, that aggression.”

Barton has returned as a starter this season, getting the nod in all 23 games of this young season and posting healthy averages of 15.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.4 assists, all while shooting a career-high 41.3% from deep.

His inspired play is part of why the Nuggets have managed to still hang in the top four in a loaded Western Conference, despite winning only half of their last 10 games. The Nuggets are on a three-game winning streak, looking to shed a poor start to December the rest of the way.