LOS ANGELES — The trade that sent the Denver Nuggets to this other dimension as a basketball team was widely praised at the time. Still, the Nuggets’ deal to acquire Aaron Gordon from the Orlando Magic a little over three years ago has worked out better than imagined.
Gordon himself knew the fit was the right one. He knew the Nuggets were going to compete for championships. I fully expected it. But being able to envision something is no guarantee it will come to fruition. When you watch Denver play, and you watch the repetitive greatness that is their chemistry, you could ask yourself: How did the Nuggets manage to pull off that kind of a trade-deadline steal?
In a Game 3 against the Los Angeles Lakers, a 112-105 Denver win at Crypto.com Arena that for all intents should end any questions about who will win this first-round series, Gordon was the best player on a basketball court that featured Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. It was n’t so much Gordon’s playoff career-best 29 points, or his 15 rebounds. It was his impact on both ends of the floor, and the force he played with. It was his activity on both backboards, his versatility and his ability to affect the game with and without the ball.
The Lakers bent to Gordon’s will on Thursday night. They had no answer for his tenacity. They couldn’t keep him from finding the basketball. And, oh yes, Jokić and Murray and Michael Porter Jr. were all excellent as well. As a result, the Nuggets have an opportunity for a second consecutive series sweep of the Lakers, after taking four straight last spring in the Western Conference finals. Denver has beaten Los Angeles 11 consecutive times. And, if we are being truthful, it’s tough envisioning this dominance not continuing in Saturday night’s Game 4, without some help from the Nuggets themselves.
“Quite frankly, my expectations were championships,” Gordon said. “I thought this was a great fit when the trade happened. I think what everyone is seeing is that there isn’t a lot of overlap in our starting five. The first year I was here, we were making a run. But then Jamal goes down. Next year Mike goes down. Injuries are always a part of the game, but if you take the injuries out, I feel we would have already won a championship. It’s just so great playing with these guys. They are so damn talented and amazing to play with. At this point, it makes the game look easy.”
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This blueprint, the power forward who could do it all in an unselfish way next to Jokić, actually came before Gordon himself. It started with Paul Millsap, who was a big part of Denver’s run to the 2020 Western Conference finals. But, that wasn’t prime Millsap, the one who played at an All-Star level with the Atlanta Hawks. His skill set was perfect for Denver, perfect next to Jokić and Murray as well. But by the time Millsap got to the Nuggets, he was n’t the same defender or the same athlete he had been at the height of his basketball powers.
Gordon is like Millsap, only in his prime. And physically stronger. Offensively, he consistently finishes above the rim, and against the Lakers on Thursday night he punished them from the dunker’s spot with cuts to the basket from the baseline.
The Lakers haven’t been able to stop their offensive rebounding throughout the series. In Monday night’s Game 2 comeback, Gordon secured Jokić’s errant half-court shot with the Nuggets down three in the final 90 seconds. He then found Porter for the game-tying 3-pointer that led to Murray’s game-winner. In Game 2, Gordon switched on to Davis when Davis was cooking Jokić offensively. Gordon held him without a made basket for the final 19 minutes of the game.
“What’s amazing is how much he accepted his role when he was traded to us,” Jokić said. “He knows that every game is going to be different for him, and he is fine with it. He knows that there will be nights when he scores 10 points. He knows there will be nights like tonight where he gets a lot of touches and it is amazing. But he does whatever our team needs, and our team would not be the same without him.”
What Gordon brings to the Nuggets is something nobody on the roster can replicate. He’s the one player in Denver’s starting lineup who’s capable of consistently playing above the rim. He’s a better passer than he’s given credit for, and it’s something that’s underrated because Jokić is on the roster and is one of the NBA’s best passers.
Gordon handles the ball like a guard, so when he grabs a defensive rebound, he’s often able to push the ball himself in transition. Because he handles the ball so well, he forces a ton of matchups with smaller players in transition, which triggers advantages in Denver’s offense. Because he’s so versatile on both ends, he’s become head coach Michael Malone’s de facto backup center for Jokić in the postseason.
More importantly, Gordon plays big in a league that has gone small, and that makes him difficult to play against. He doesn’t have any designs on being a shooter. He does n’t play outside of what his capabilities are. Against the Lakers on Thursday night, almost all of his output came in the paint. He took 18 shots, and only one of them came from beyond the arc. Los Angeles is trying to keep him from dominating with guys who are smaller than he is, and it isn’t working.
The irony of it all? Gordon was much more ball-in-hand as a player with the Magic. He has willingly become a third and fourth option with the Nuggets, because that’s what is needed within their offense. His value on and off the court, however, is absolute to Denver because of his ability to play off the collective brilliance of Jokić and Murray.
“I thought Aaron Gordon was just incredible tonight,” Malone said. “We need so much from him. We need him to be a playmaker, a defender, a roller, a scorer, a rebounder. We need him to be an anchor for the second unit, kind of like what Nikola does for us when he’s out there. I thought a lot of guys stepped up tonight. But, you go 12-of-18 from the field, and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line and play 41 minutes.
“We asked a lot of Aaron Gordon tonight, and he delivered.”
(Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
