Eric Gordon

Eric Gordon
SG – 6’4, 215lbs - 29 years old - 10 years of experience

If Eric Gordon was to win the Sixth Man of the Year award this season - which, at the time of writing, is still undecided - this would be slightly unfair considering his splits as a starter versus as a reserve. As a starter, his usage rate went up 5%, and despite scoring at pretty much the same sort of efficiency numbers, his much higher volume of scoring and assists as a starter massively biases his overall season numbers, which should be factored into his sixth man candidacy. He technically qualifies, but, eh.

Nevertheless, outside of the criteria for the award (things which only matter within the field in which they are measured), Gordon had an empirically good season in his sometimes starter, sometimes backup role.

Almost always on the court with either James Harden or Chris Paul, Gordon served as an off-ball scoring option. He would shoot, he would drive, he seemed to have some more of his youthful explosiveness back, and he passed well to maximise the defensive attention he drew. He also defended quite well, and although all of this became inconsistent during the playoff run, it was partly Gordon’s play until that point that made the Rockets so good as to even open the championship window in the first place.

This does however make him a bit of a luxury. Houston would surely love to have Gordon from here on out, but considering his not-inappropriate-yet-not-insignificant salary amount, they may need to look elsewhere to find this scoring punch long-term, should that salary slot be needed for an upgrade in star talent. Which, it seems, is always the aim.

Mind you, there a tax that can be paid for such luxuries....

Player Plan: Two years and $27,558,105 remaining, all guaranteed with no options. Always trading low is a bad thing, and trading Anderson would be trading low. So if a star is available that needs to be traded for, or if a star is acquired and money needs to be saved considering luxury tax concerns, Gordon should be the one. He is a good player and pretty good value, which is why it should be him, not shouldn’t.

Eric Gordon
SG, 6’4, 215lbs, 28 years old, 9 years of experience

A season of relentless three-point gunning and not much else from Gordon, shooting nearly nine threes a game and almost one every three minutes. 37.2% of them went in, relatively consistently, and amidst a rela-tively healthy season for Gordon, whose 75 games played were the most since his rookie season. Gordon is worth his money if he guns up the shots this well, this often, in this many games. That said, if a big con-tract is needed as the foundation for a deal for a star, this is probably the one, considering its size and Gordon's relative unreliability considering his injury history. For now, though, it's all good.

Player Plan: Three years and circa. $40.5 million remaining, with no options. Gordon is a good player in the best situation for his new style of play, on a contract that is not prohibitive. It is hard to imagine him making it to the end of the fourth season, though; as of next offseason, this will become a very tradeable deal.