Few players believe more in the Nuggets’ future than does Darrell Arthur. He’s completely invested in it.

The veteran forward turned down an offer last summer to play for the Los Angeles Clippers, a decision that would have him in the playoffs right now. At the trade deadline, Arthur activated his contractual right to refuse trades, because, again, he wanted to stay in Denver.

Why?

“I felt that I could possibly make a difference in trying to help this team make it to the playoffs,” he said. “That’s my whole goal, getting this team back on track.”

The 2015-16 season was largely about Arthur getting himself on track physically — and improving his game. He checked both boxes.

After playing in just 58 games in 2014-15, Arthur saw action in 70 games in this his seventh NBA season. He started 16 games and averaged 7.5 points and 4.2 rebounds. His scoring average was the second-highest of his career. His rebounding average was the third-highest of his career and his highest since the 2010-11 season. Arthur shot a career-high 38.5 percent from the 3-point line.

On top of all of that, Arthur averaged a career-high 21.7 minutes per game.

In many respects, it was a solid season for Arthur, who made his name as a defensive-minded forward. But an expanded offensive game put a more well-rounded Arthur on display, and the Nuggets hope to get him back next season.

Arthur is holding a player option and is likely to opt out of the one year remaining on his current deal in hopes of signing a three- or four-year contract with the Nuggets this summer.

It appears the Nuggets want him back.

“He chose to stay and fight it out and be around his teammates and his coaches and his organization,” Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly said. “We like to reward loyalty.”

Offense. Arthur insisted that he worked on his offensive game, and it showed.

From Feb. 21 to the end of the season, he was the Nuggets’ leading 3-point shooter at 41.5 percent. He shot 44.6 percent from the field and 73.7 percent from the free- throw line. His base averages in that span were 8.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 23.7 minutes — big-time production in limited minutes.

Arthur was a much better offensive player than he was in 2014-15.

He still profiled as a jump-shooting forward. He was just much better at it. In half-court offense, 63.5 percent of the shots he took were jumpers, and he averaged 1.014 points per possession on those, which ranked among the top 20 percent of the league.

Among those jumpers, 54 percent of them were catch-and-shoot attempts and, interestingly enough, Synergy stats showed he had a slightly higher shooting percentage when guarded (44.2 percent) than unguarded (43.8 percent).

By the end of the season, the Nuggets were running quick-hitting plays to get Arthur off-screen looks from the 3-point line. He made 64 percent of his shots off screens during the season.

His spot-up attempts were up 7 percent from last season, but his ability to post up was the most eye-opening improvement.

Arthur went from averaging .682 points per possession on post-ups in 2014-15 to .957 in 2015-16. He went from a shooting percentage of 33 percent on them to 48 percent this season.

Defense/turnovers. By the end of the season, when his knees were flaring up, Arthur wasn’t moving well. That jumped off the film as he struggled to contain dribble penetration in screen-roll situations. But overall he rated high in his coverages in a number of areas, and the Nuggets were better defensively with him on the court (103.5 defensive rating) than when he was off (108.3).

Arthur ranked among the NBA’s top 25 percent in pick-and-roll defense on the screener, in spot-up defense, in post-up defense and in off-screen defense. He’s a top-flight defender.

When Arthur did turn the ball over, which wasn’t often, it was in a variety of ways. But bad passes and lost ball turnovers cropped up a bit more than others.

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost

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