PARKER — It’s about hitting more buckets and fewer walls. Which is the rationale behind all those hours Derrick White’s logged in the weight room this summer; why he’s putting up 500 shots per day; why he decided, for kicks, to reacquaint his lungs with The Incline in Manitou Springs a few weeks back.

“That was kind of fun. I hadn’t done it since I left UC-Colorado Springs,” White, the San Antonio Spurs guard and former Legend High/CU Buffs/UCCS standout, recalled Monday at the Parker Fieldhouse, site of the new basketball academy that bears his name.

“I was like, ‘This was way tougher than I remember.’ (At) UCCS, I used to get up there in like 30 minutes. Now it took me like 40-something this time.”

Age before beauty. The 24-year-old White is an NBA veteran now on the heels of a breakout spring that saw him average 15.1 points and 3.0 assists for the Spurs during a seven-game playoff loss to the Nuggets in the Western Conference’s opening round.

And while we’re on the subject of the Nuggets, how far can two postseason Game 7s, back-to-back, take one of the NBA’s new-money franchises going forward?

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“It’s probably going to help them,” said White, who torched his hometown team for 36 points in a Game 3 victory in San Antonio. “I mean, playoff experience is invaluable.

“I learned a lot from my first real playoff experience … the Warriors, they had all (this) playoff experience, they’ve been there, been battle-tested, so they’ve seen it all. I mean, Toronto had playoff experience. They might not have won (the title before), but they had playoff experience. Kawhi (Leonard) had it. Danny (Green) had it. Everybody had it.

“You can’t beat that. So I think it’ll just make (the Nuggets) better.”

White thinks the Western Conference figures to be better, too, with an emerging Sacramento Kings roster and the Los Angeles Lakers — buoyed by the reported acquisition of former New Orleans star Anthony Davis to pair with LeBron James — expected to challenge the status quo. The Lakers (37-45) finished 11 games behind the Spurs, the West’s 7 seed, in the 2018-19 standings; the Kings (39-43) wound up nine games back. Related Articles Down 3-1 again, Nuggets are blaming themselves, not NBA refs: “We put ourselves in this position”

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“I thought (the Davis swap) was a good trade for both teams,” said White, who makes his off-season home in the metro area. “I think both teams are happy.”

Yeah, but what about the rest of the West?

“Who knows?” White chuckled. “Free agency hasn’t even started yet and it’s already crazy.

“I mean, the West is always tough, no matter what. So it’s going to be a battle to try and get to the playoffs.”