Worried about Eric Gordon's lackluster play? Don't be!

I hope Hareen and Gordon is ready tomorrow to do more layup and slam dunk. We have Covington for 3 points.

 

Best to hope for is that EG goes nuts in the playoffs, helping us get the Larry O'Brien and jacking up his trade value for the summer.

 

I am more worried about his knees than his shot.

 

I'm pretty sure they are connected.

 

I think Gordon is time. His production is usually good and he’s not that bad of a defender.

he scored 50 not long ago, he has the capability. He’s a guy you want to have come playoff time because he can go superstar mode at times. Plus side is we have all these guys now we can use if he does play poorly at times

 

Eric WHO??

I've pretty much decided he's a non-factor for the season.
Been pretty ineffective and injured lately. Although he HAS hit some
shots in other games that contributed to help us win.

But most times, he's taking up floor space or seemingly making us regress.
I like Eric, but he needs to step up and contribute

 

Dont go to sleep on Gordon.

 

EG is too small to guard guys when we play switching defense.

Morey will almost certainly trade him in the summer for another forward.

 

the guy is just ass this year, and nothing is changing that.

 

Only factor that interests us, his future fun factor.

 

dude sucks...hope he’s gone whenever the league starts up again

got paid, and then started playing like pure sh*t...should’ve never given ol’ bumass EG that extension...smmfh

 

Jesus he's going to go 12 percent from 3 when he comes back

 

Ego is a 3 pt contest winner. I still got faith.

 

kinda miss eric's 40 foot bricks rn tbh

 

All that money and he can't afford $100 for a cheap hoop???

I guess this would explain his shooting % and everything else.

 

Do you guys remember when some people were saying he was better than Bradley Beal last year? Lol. That is a fun thread to revisit.

 

I spent so much time worrying about Gordon's shot this past month I've barely had time for anything else.

So what else is going on? Anybody see any good movies lately? Also why are my kids and me home right now?

 

CF delusion at its finest

 

HOUSTON — The Rockets’ undersized but efficient practice court regularly doubles as a multipurpose hall — a stage for friendly shooting wagers between teammates, a vibrant comedy club after a good win — and on this day it’s being used as a conference room.

James Harden, Russell Westbrook, head coach Mike D’Antoni and assistant coach Matt Brase are gathered near center court in what should have been a postgame/pre-practice briefing but has since turned into a lengthy discussion.

To the naked eye, it would appear to be just another group of men talking basketball. But brain trust meetings like these aren’t uncommon to a team boasting as many veterans and basketball minds as this one, nor are they uncommon with D’Antoni’s time as head coach.

It’s early March, less than 24 hours after the embarrassment suffered at the hands of the Clippers, and another timely reminder that small ball isn’t a foolproof plan just yet. Nothing this bold and defiant will come together quickly. There will be ups and downs, bumps and bruises along the road. But this is how you learn; getting punched in the mouth on your home court, going home to wipe the blood off, and coming back the next day to get better.

It won’t be discussed in the meeting — the defense, rebounding, and shooting has all taken a hit and been accounted for — but a huge reason they haven’t reached their full potential happens to be a few feet away from them.

Eric Gordon is slowly dribbling at the far end of the floor, away from the meeting, away from his teammates and, really, away from the world. His mind is all over the place, unable to concentrate on the layups he should be doing or the right knee that’s been bothering him for months. He figured he should have been fine by now — the surgery was more than three months ago — but he’s not.

His shot has completely abandoned him; he’s hit just eight of his last 32 3-point attempts. Against the Clippers, a primetime game everyone was geared up for, he finished with five points in 25 minutes. He hasn’t scored 20 points since the January 50-burger he randomly dropped in Utah.

Aside from the offense, he’s just not moving the same anymore. Every plant, turn or burst he makes is met with immediate pain. For someone who’s unfazed by everything that happens on a basketball court, Gordon’s confidence is shot.

This isn’t how Gordon imagined it, not as a former Sixth Man of the Year. Not as a $75 million-dollar man. That max extension he received over the summer was a sign of good faith from the organization, from the city of Houston. Gordon’s 2019 playoff campaign had shown his importance to the team, from a versatility and X-factor standpoint.

Of course, his offense has always been his selling point, but he’s not just a one-trick pony. He was the warden of the jail Donovan Mitchell found himself in during the first round last year. How did he go from that to a struggling shooter missing half of the season? The NBA ecosystem accounts for a lot of things, from the way teams set up their offense to the best travel times for road trips. A lot of things can be controlled, except one: health.

But even at that, could this have possibly been in anyone’s wildest dreams?

“No, never man,” Gordon says. “Cause you know, as you get older and when you have an injury during a season, no matter who you are, it’s always gonna be a, it’s always a tough bind to deal with.”

If there’s one thing that’s constant with NBA players today or in the past, it’s the obsession with being on the court. It’s instilled from a young age. Children turn into teenagers and young adults, the message stays the same: play.

You could take a poll of the league and find out that a majority of its employees are going through some sort of physical pain, carrying one injury or the other. Sometimes, it’s made public to the team and the appropriate steps are taken. But sometimes, it’s not. Some players prefer to keep that to themselves and try to play through it.

After all, the games you don’t play, those minutes go to someone else. The future is unknown. This game is about the competition at the highest order, but it also encompasses money, fame, livelihood. Gordon had some pain in his right knee towards the end of last season but he opted against having offseason surgery, citing a high tolerance level.

So he said nothing about it. He had a slow start to the season, missing 44 out of his first 62 shots, but nothing stood out more than the Nov. 1 loss in Brooklyn. Gordon went 0-for-7 from the floor in nearly 30 minutes and just didn’t look himself.

D’Antoni understands Gordon and decided to shake things up by inserting him back into the starting lineup for the next game in Miami. If adjusting to a new role was what was behind Gordon’s early slump, perhaps that would be the jolt he needed. It was the right move in D’Antoni’s mind anyway, who constantly refers to Gordon as the “sixth starter” in reference to the fluid small forward position he and Danuel House occupy.

As the team took the floor for pregame warmups in South Beach, Harden noticed Gordon’s morale could use a pick-me-up. Harden’s leadership style doesn’t follow the “traditional” path, but when he wants to get a message across he does. There’s a certain trust that exists between he and Gordon, one that’s been manifested on a number of occasions, sometimes off a pass from Harden in clutch situations. Game 5 against the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Last season against the 76ers and Lakers.

It’s this dynamic that caused Harden to abandon his routine to work with Gordon, playing defense on him and encouraging him to be aggressive and score. Once the game started, Harden made an effort to get the ball up ahead to Gordon early in the shot clock, trying to help him find a rhythm early, but Gordon just didn’t seem to have the urge to attack defenders or even take the deep 3s he’s accustomed to.

The pain in his knee refused to subside as the game went on. At one point, he tried to take the ball the length of the floor but knocked it out of bounds off of himself — a testament to the kind of season he was having. Late in the third quarter, as the Heat had already run away with the game, Gordon tried to drive in the paint but was met with hard contact, causing him to grimace in pain as he missed the attempt. He would finish the game with just four points in 22 minutes on the floor. Something was amiss.