Given their aerial differences, it wasn’t surprising that Aaron Gordon was willing to go where Nikola Jokic wasn’t.
Less than two days after the Nuggets swung big to acquire Aaron Gordon from Orlando, Denver’s latest leaper was already tickling himself at the possibilities.
“Cutting is a huge part of my game,” Gordon said. “Slashing is a huge part of my game. … It’s just beautiful. I’m extremely excited to get on the court and start working with (Jokic).”
When posed with the same question following the Nuggets’ win over New Orleans on Friday night, Jokic was a bit more understated.
“We will see,” Jokic said. “He’s athletic. Maybe he can catch some lobs.”
Catch some lobs? Gordon finished second in the dunk contest twice in the last five years.
Jokic didn’t want to get ahead of himself before Gordon’s highly-anticipated debut Sunday against the Hawks. But what Denver’s management did in landing Gordon was, potentially, obtain the missing piece in the Nuggets’ title hunt.
“I’m here to make (Jokic’s) job easy,” said Gordon, who struck all the right notes in his introductory news conference Saturday morning. “Whether that be cutting or running out … and then just locking up on defense, making sure that people on the other team don’t go unchecked. His passing ability is incredible. I think my passing ability is slept on.”
If Jokic was throwing Paul Millsap “free cheeseburgers,” as the veteran forward attested earlier this season, consider the incoming Gordon alley-oops the triple-stack version with all the fixings.
Gordon, who was either the second or third offensive option in Orlando, will inevitably get knocked down a rung behind Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. when the Nuggets are attacking. However, if you listened carefully to Gordon, that should be no problem.
“I think it’s a balance of offense and defense,” Gordon said. “I think some nights call for just being a lockdown defender and exerting all my energy on that end, and some nights call for scoring the ball. I’m able to do both these days.”
The Nuggets have been upfront with Gordon. He doesn’t need to initiate offense in the half court or create points off the dribble, like he did in Orlando. All he needs to do — and a point that’s been emphasized to him privately — is move.
“I think we all have a mutual understanding just to be an athletic slasher, a runner, a cutter, a facilitator, a spot-up shooter and tenacious defender,” Gordon said.
The first thing Nuggets coach Michael Malone thought when he learned they’d traded for Jerami Grant in the summer of 2019 was how significant an asset he’d be defensively. Grant’s length, with the ability to guard up or down positions, made him invaluable in last year’s playoffs. So when he left in free agency, there was an immediate and glaring vacuum.
That void is now Gordon’s to fill.
“I think the thing that excites me about Aaron Gordon is the defensive versatility that he brings to the table – his ability to guard some 5s, 4s, 3s, some perimeter players,” Malone said on Friday. “Not a lot of teams have a weapon like that, and I think in the Western Conference, when you look around the landscape of the West, you need a guy like that.
“… He’s skilled. He’s unselfish, he’s a very good passer, rebounder, his 3-point percentages have increased,” Malone said. “So this was a really important acquisition.”
And given the dearth of practice time, in addition to the condensed schedule, don’t expect Malone to delay the acclimation process.
“We’re not going to gently work them in,” Malone said, also referring to trade acquisition JaVale McGee.
That’s good with Gordon, whose giddiness over his new environment was palpable.
“It was between a couple of teams,” Gordon said. “I think Denver is easily the best fit.”
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