Houston Rockets: 5 goals for Eric Gordon in 2017-18
5. Stay healthy (play over 70 games)
One of the most important and surprising aspects of Gordon’s 2016-17 season is that he was able to stay healthy for the majority of the season. Sure he got banged up here or there, but he ultimately played in 75 games. In fact, that was the highest amount of games he had played in a season since his rookie season back in 2008-09.
Even though he was coming off the bench, Gordon played a very similar amount of minutes per game compared to his previous seasons. Last season he played 31 minutes per game, compared to 32.9, 33.1, 32.1 and 30.1 per game in previous seasons.
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Also, Gordon’s usage last season was its highest since the 2013-14 season, as he assumed a big role in the second unit.
In previous seasons Gordon had been hampered by rather freak injuries such as broken fingers (resulting from attempting a steal). Last season he was bothered by his foot/ankle for stretches of games but avoided a major injury for the first time in a while. Credit should also be given to Houston’s training/medical staff, especially because Ryan Anderson played in over 70 games last season as well.
However, it’s perhaps even more important that Gordon stays healthy this season due to the limited depth at guard for the Rockets.
There isn’t a tested, quality option behind Paul, Harden and Gordon, so if one of them were to go down for significant time it would put tremendous pressure on the other two as well as the end of the bench options such as Bobby Brown or Isaiah Taylor.
Because of this, it’s crucial that Gordon plays a similar amount of games this season and handles a similar role off the bench if the Rockets are going to be successful.