Why the game of basketball is about to get a whole lot easier for Aaron Gordon

For the last several years, Aaron Gordon held one of the most challenging jobs in the NBA: being a lead offensive option for the Orlando Magic.

The Magic cycled through coaches at an unhealthy rate while Gordon was in Orlando. Gordon played under four different head coaches in his first three NBA seasons (Jacque Vaughn, who was fired midway through Gordon’s rookie year, James Borrego, Scott Skiles, and Frank Vogel). He found some rare continuity with Steve Clifford during his last three years with the Magic. But under Clifford, Orlando finished above .500 just once.

With every coaching change came a tweaked offensive system and scheme. None of them worked. The Magic finished every one of Gordon’s seven seasons in Orlando as a bottom-10 offense. Orlando’s best offensive season in the Gordon era came in 2018-19 when Gordon, Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier, and Terrence Ross willed the Magic to the NBA’s 22nd-best offense. The Magic were also 42-40 that year, making it the only season that Gordon finished above .500 in Orlando.

In Denver, Gordon has a new lease on NBA life. He enters a franchise with an ingrained offensive and defensive system that the Nuggets used to win playoff series in back-to-back years. Gordon will also join by far the most talented roster he’s played with at the NBA level.

It’s why just how successful Gordon is going to be in Denver is primarily up to him. Gordon was miscast as a lead offensive option for most of his time with the Magic. He averaged a career-high 14.9 field goal attempts per game during the 2017-18 season but registered an uninspiring 53% True Shooting Percentage, the third-lowest of his career. After the Magic finished an abysmal 25-57 that season, Gordon’s offensive role trended downward. He averaged 13.4 field goal attempts per game in 2018-19 and 12.4 per game last season. Through 25 games this year, Gordon hoisted just 11.7 shots per game, the fourth-most on the Magic behind Vucevic, Fournier, and Ross, and the fifth-most if you’re counting the eight games Markelle Fultz played before tearing his ACL.

The Nuggets’ recipe for success with Gordon may come down to what role the 6-foot-8 forward sees himself playing. Ideally, that role is miles away from the one that saw Gordon as Orlando’s lead offensive honcho in 2018 and much closer to the secondary and tertiary scorer he was with the Magic over the last two years. In Denver, Gordon will be the fourth and occasionally the fifth offensive option on the Nuggets’ projected starting five behind Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. — and at times, Will Barton.

Gordon should post by far the most efficient offensive numbers of his career in Denver. Vucevic is a bona fide All-Star and a heck of a talent, but he’s no Jokic. Gordon will also reap the benefits of playing alongside a point guard with as much gravity as Murray. The list of lead ball-handlers Gordon’s played with over the last three seasons is cringeworthy: Fultz, Cole Anthony, Michael Carter-Williams, and D.J. Augustin. The best point guard Gordon shared the floor with throughout his Magic tenure was probably Elfrid Payton.

Gordon will surely need an adjustment period going from a primitive Eastern Conference style of play in Orlando to the Nuggets’ read-and-react Jokic Ball attack. But once he gets acclimated, look out. Gordon won’t believe the number of easy looks he’ll get off of timely and uncomplicated cuts to the basket. Playing alongside Jokic, Murray, and Porter, Gordon will get one wide-open catch-and-shoot three after another. That alone will send his offensive efficiency skyrocketing. Gordon is shooting 37.5% from three this season, which would tie for only the eighth-best mark on the Nuggets, but is converting 43.5% of his catch-and-shoot triples.

A general rule of thumb this season for Gordon will be the fewer dribbles in the halfcourt, the better. The Nuggets’ offense will be at its healthiest when Gordon gets the most of his offense in transition, on spot-up threes and off of cuts and offensive rebounds. If Gordon accepts that role, he’ll flourish, and the Nuggets’ attack will continue to be among the most potent in the NBA.

Of course, Denver really didn’t acquire Gordon for his offense. The Nuggets traded away locker room favorite and the longest-tenured player on their roster in Gary Harris, along with a first-round pick and rookie RJ Hampton — who Denver’s front office was extremely high on — for Gordon mainly because of his defense. Gordon’s size and strength will automatically anoint him as the Nuggets’ top defensive option against opposing score-first wings.

With Gordon, the average height of Denver’s projected starting lineup (Murray, Barton, Porter, Gordon, Jokic) is 6-foot-7. It’s the tallest and most defensively versatile starting lineup of the Jokic era and one of the taller starting five’s in the league.

Gordon and the Magic held Luka Doncic to 20 points on 7-20 shooting in a matchup earlier this season.

It will be fascinating to see if Gordon, who’s just 25-years-old and looking for his next contract when he hits free agency in the summer of 2022, wants to take on the role of Denver’s defensive stopper and slot into the Nuggets’ offensive pecking order behind Jokic, Murray, and Porter. Jerami Grant would have played a similar role this season if he re-signed in Denver, but a desire for more offensive responsibility (among other factors) led him to Detroit. In surrendering a prized asset like Hampton, Denver must be confident that Gordon is on board.

Quite frankly, he should be. Gordon should post the most efficient offensive numbers of his career while showcasing his defensive tools against the dynamic guards and wings that dot the Western Conference. Gordon can drop the 4.5 pull-up jumpers per game he’s averaging this season (Gordon’s shooting just 33% on those shots) from his bag in favor of wide-open spot-up threes. Instead of attacking his man off the dribble and manufacturing his own offense like he often had to do in Orlando, Gordon can lull his man to sleep on the backside of Denver’s offense and then dart into the lane and receive a perfectly placed no-look pass from Jokic.

Basketball will never be easier for Gordon than it will be in Denver — as long as he buys into the role that suits him best.