Houston Rockets: 5 goals for Eric Gordon in 2017-18

4. Shoot 40 percent on 3-pointers

The first thing many people think when they Gordon’s 2016-17 season brought up is “knockdown shooter.” And to an extent, that would be accurate. However, Gordon simply wasn’t that for a good portion of the season, which led to Houston’s sluggish results starting in late January.

Gordon and the Rockets took the league by storm in November and December, and Gordon shot 40.0 and 45.7 percent beyond the arc in those months. That’s what you’d call a locked-in shooter.

Houston Rockets

However, Gordon then proceeded to shoot 29.9 percent, 34.3 percent, 37.6 percent and 26.7 percent in the remaining months of the regular season, leaving him with a final 3-point shooting percentage of 37.2 for the season.

In fact, that 37.2 percent was the lowest percentage he shot on 3-pointers since the 2012-13 season. So while Gordon can be a knockdown shooter, for most of last season he wasn’t.

For his career, Gordon is a 38 percent shooter from beyond the arc, and there is good reason to believe he can hit 40 percent of such shots this season with the addition of Chris Paul. Mike D’Antoni has said he will stagger Harden and Paul’s minutes to ensure that one of them is one the floor at all times, which bodes very well for Gordon.

Now Gordon will play alongside a great point guard whenever he is on the court, which will surely lead to better and open looks on 3-pointers. Gordon won’t have to assume a big playmaking role, and he can focus to running around screens and creating space for quality looks. For this reason, Gordon can return to his most comfortable role, only this time it will be alongside a great point guard at all times.