New Orleans Pelicans: Giving Kudos To Eric Gordon
By Owen Sanborn
Coming into the season, the disappointment with Eric Gordon was escalating with each passing game. The New Orleans Pelicans had paid him to be a franchise-type player, but a slew of nagging injuries have since derailed his once promising career. His role was unclear, his shooting percentage was nosediving and his general fit within the Pelicans’ system was skeptical at best.
It was not inconceivable that New Orleans would have opted to trade him to another team had that team been willing to give up anything of value (which understandably, they were not because of his injury history and dreadful contract).
After missing 21 games earlier this season because of a shoulder injury that nearly required season-ending surgery, Gordon has finally discovered his role within the offense and stricken a nice balance between scoring, playmaking and spacing the floor. Over his last 10 games, he is averaging 15.6 points with 4.8 assists per game while shooting 48 percent from the field.
Considering that Gordon’s shooting percentage was in the 20s earlier in the season, his play as of late has been a welcomed surprise.
Overall, Gordon looks more comfortable along the edges of the perimeter than in recent memory. There would be stretches of play where Gordon would not get the ball for awhile (Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday are the primary ball handlers), relegating him to forcing the issue whenever he would get the opportunity to shoot.
This would lead to low percentage shots that rarely found the bottom of the net.
Other times, Gordon simply would brick wide open three-point opportunities produced by drive and kicks from other guards on the floor. I suspected that Gordon struggled on these shots because he was not used to primarily being a catch and shoot player.
But since he has returned from injury, Gordon has been a legitimate three-point threat that teams have to be aware of on the defensive end of the floor. His three-point percentage has jumped up all the way to 39 percent, stratospheres above where it was earlier in the season.
Now, one has to wonder if Gordon’s recent successes has something to do with the absence of Jrue Holiday.
Without an extra ball handler circulating around the offense, Gordon immediately moves up the ball handling hierarchy (I would assume that Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca are last on this hierarchy) right behind Evans giving him more opportunities to either score for himself or facilitate the offense for others (including Dante Cunningham and his frustrating long two-point shots!!!).
It will be interesting to see if Gordon’s game continues to improve once Holiday makes his return, whenever that may be. It is difficult to get four players (Evans, Holiday, Gordon and Anthony Davis) that need the ball to be productive and the Pelicans offense doesn’t flow as smoothly while all four of them share the floor together.
The key to Gordon’s productivity will continue to be his hot shooting stroke. Those open shots along the perimeter will always be there for him to take. Even if he hits a cold spell soon (it is bound to happen) he is still getting more lift on it than he did previously. He looks spry and healthy, for the first time in a while.
For a guy that has worked hard to get back and stay on the court, it is exciting to see him play up to his ability.