#16Ballot 2016–17: Sixth Man of the Year — Eric Gordon Found His Perfect Fit
Conducted by a bearded maestro, Eric Gordon has played a major part in one of the most devastating offensive attacks ever assembled.
Eric Gordon is a baaaaaaad man (Stephen A. Smith voice).
The seventh pick of the 2008 NBA Draft is a career 16.6 point per game scorer, with shooting splits of .431 from the field, .380 from deep and .816 from the stripe.
And yet, Gordon is 16 Wins A Ring’s Sixth Man Of The Year (and the frontrunner for the NBA award, announced in June) with numbers slightly lower than most of his career averages.
The number that jumps off the page is games played this season, his most since his rookie year.
Those games played on one of the NBA’s premier teams designed to optimize his talents have brought his game back to the forefront and freed his beaten soul from pre-CP3 Clippers and the Hornets/Pellies gumbo-filled wasteland. (Hey Eric, want to just run off countless down screens, flares, baseline drifts, etc. and hoist nine threes a game?)
The dude has always been a scorer, but missing over 30 percent of possible games in the overlooked depths of the NBA makes people forget about you. Gordon even had a nice first-round series against Golden State in 2014–15. Admittedly a four-game sweep for the Pelicans, but garnering 18.6 points per game on .444/.406/.833 splits.
Teamed up with Harden this season, Gordon (along with former running mate Ryan Anderson) has been weaponized in the high-paced Houston offense.
The free-flowing system has breathed life into Gordon and Anderson both, and given them license to launch the 24-footers they both adore. Basketball’s best creator is ready to hit them with a sidearm bullet in the mitts or feathery behind the back number, dragging the entire defense in the process.
Gordon has only started 15 games this season, but 65 percent of his minutes have come with Harden. In those minutes, they are a devastating combination that would rank best in the association among all 30 teams in offensive rating and pace.
Gordon is happy to spot up as Harden bends the defense to his will, right hand trembling in vintage Waiters style and ready to launch as soon as the microfiber composite material touches his fingertips.
Gordon is 4-of-9 this season from 30+ feet, tied for fourth in the league in makes. Most of these have come in transition, with Gordon walking comfortably into a shot fairly close to the scorer’s table. He’s not Chef Curry, but he can certainly whip up a tasty dish of his own with range like that.
With Harden on the court, Gordon shoulders the Klay Thompson mantle of running off countless screens in an effort to either invent enough misdirection for Harden to find a crevice, or create opportunities for the defense to make mistakes and free him up.
With Harden off, Gordon often quarterbacks the second unit, and is on the ball much more — minutes that are more reminiscent of his Clippers days. Though he doesn’t have the same explosion as he did coming out of college, Gordon is crafty using his own body and has displayed a nice touch around the rim.
The Sixth Man of the Year award has recently been reserved for ball-dominant, high volume, irrational confidence guys (see last five winners: Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, Crawford, J.R. Smith, James Harden).
Gordon hasn’t been like that this season. If he wins, he’d have the highest true shooting percentage and lowest usage percentage of a winner since Harden. Like the Rockets, Gordon has thrived on scoring in bunches.
Gordon’s victory, like any award recipient’s this year, is indicative of how the game of basketball is trending. Playing off the ball and allowing his game to thrive in a modern offense that is trying to out-Warrior the Warriors. Further, Gordon has a shooting chart that is a work of art in the hall of Morey.
When the Rockets traded for Lou Williams (a Sixth Man of the Year candidate in his own right), many wondered if there were enough shots to go around.
The answer is yes and no, but it’s a good problem to have. Gordon and Williams are like two assassins from the Jason Bourne series who have beef with Bourne (the net), and are ready when called by the CIA to take out Bourne. Except in this movie, the assassins usually win. So, there’s your Sixth Man of the Year case.
Williams was traded to the Rockets on February 22, and though Gordon’s shot attempts and points per game went down in March, his shooting percentages went up.
The numbers when Williams, Gordon and Harden are on the court together are even more mind-boggling. A blinding 109.04 pace that would lead the league by nearly six points, and a 115.2 offensive rating that would best the Warriors by two points.
Plays like this have Billy Donovan reaching for the Maalox as he does his best to gameplan for Houston’s troupe of shooters that will be ready to bomb away behind Harden’s leadership. The Rockets have honed their attack (not unlike Golden State) to know where the next pass will be, knowing how the defense will curve to Harden’s whim.
In Harden, they have one weapon the Warriors don’t: a cross-court pass virtuoso. Harden and LeBron James are the best at finding opposite corner shooters, which initiates a domino-effect for the defense, leading to wide-open shots.
Defensively, Gordon hasn’t been the black hole many feared Houston would inherit. Gordon ranks 33rd in shooting guard defensive real plus-minus, a far cry from the patented Jamal Crawford matador defense.
Gordon has even looked occasionally stout in the post, using his full 215 pounds to hold his own against bigger wings who try to back him down off of switches.
There was a high variance of Houston’s expectations coming into the season that hinged on the defense. Either the Rockets were going to hover around league average, or plummet to the bottom and lose a bunch of 135–130 games. The former has happened, and Gordon deserves some credit for that, by playing over 30 minutes per night on the team with the league’s third-highest pace.
It can’t be understated how much energy it takes to run off countless screens and not be a defensive liability on the other end. Just ask J.J. Reddick, younger Kyle Korver and Klay “Generic Face 8” Thompson.
Gordon has always been a marksman, but it seems like this year, his talents have been brought to the forefront. He gets most of his attempts off catch-and-shoot opportunities, but shoots an eye-popping 40.4 percent on pull-up threes in over two attempts per game.
Not to mention, Gordon walked into the 3-point contest at All-Star Weekend as a dark horse. (Everyone assumed Thompson would win after Steph Curry pulled out upon getting bored of just making shots).
Gordon lived by the code of Swaggy P that evening, and kept that right arm “strictly for buckets,” eviscerating the competition and cruising to a 3-point contest championship. His 24 points in the first round shook me to the core and tied for the second-most made all-time in the contest.
If the Rockets are to accomplish what they believe they can do (defeat the Oklahoma City Westbrooks, grind the winner of Spurs-Grizzlies to nothingness, play with the speed of Golden State), Gordon will be an integral part of that.
The key to Houston’s attack lies in the variety of options: it’s what has separated Westbrook from Harden all year and Oklahoma City from Houston. Harden has a rolodex of weapons and willingness to use them, with Gordon being at the front of that stack. The fact that the Rockets have the luxury of relying on Harden’s playmaking more than his shotmaking is indicative of Gordon and company’s abilities.
The last Sixth Man of the Year to go to the NBA Finals was, of course, Harden. Still, it’s unlikely Gordon will be traded at the beginning of next season because of a contract dispute and a pending cap squeeze. And yet, there are parallels to be drawn between these two players’ seasons.
The main reason — Gordon could be listed as the “X-Factor” in every Houston series going forward. History tells us that the stars often play to a draw, but the co-stars and role players are the ones with the power to sway games, particularly late in series.
Whichever way the pendulum swings for Gordon and the Rockets, he’s earned this through his outstanding play all season in a new system.
Eric Gordon has finally found a home in Houston, and he is 16 Wins A Ring - 2016–17 NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
