With Nikola Jokic’s terrifying 41 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists on Christmas Eve, his third MVP seems to be beckoning to himself. But we mustn’t make a mistake, the Serbian’s evolution was born by finding the best boxmate for him, and the team swerved in the right direction, pushing him to improve. Aaron Gordon may never be an All-Star, but it looks like he’s becoming a super-powered version of Kevin McHale’s Robert Parish.
A little over the top? Maybe not. Because since Oct. 31, both Gordon and Jokic have shot better than 50 percent from the field in every game, a stretch of 22 consecutive games. That’s the longest played by any pair in the past 40 seasons, surpassing the 18 games held by McHale and Parish in 1990-91.
After one season, Gordon has adjusted to having a Magic Johnson by his side, and knows he no longer has to play a “3D” – he’s hit just 2.7 threes per game this season, that’s the lowest after the 2015-16 season, but his shooting percentage reached a career high of 39%: he can let his innate beastly athletic ability swing freely on the field, he can run, cover, shoot, appear anywhere, and not worry that the ball does not reach your hand when there is an empty space.
A whopping 29.6 percent of Gordon’s shots this season have been dunks, up from a previous high of 17.3 percent in his first full season with the Nuggets. At present, he has played in 29 games and hit 85 times and, according to this progress, he should hit more than 230 times by the end of the season. For comparison, Shaquille O’Neal’s single-season dunk record stands at 255.
Putting the ball in is obviously easier than putting it away. Gordon has shot 79.7% from 0-3 feet from the field goal this season, and the bottom line is: 53.6% of his shots have been in this box. this season. The way Jokic “feeds the cake” is different from the way James Harden activates Clint Capela through the pick-and-roll, it is more like that of the Warriors system: Green holds the ball in high position, and then Igoudala and Curry collaborates with the pick-and-roll: the former receives the ball after a slam in the air cut.
As we’ve seen time and time again this season: These two created a new level of 4-5 team play in basketball history in passing and rushing, and Jokic’s threat at the free throw line is the NBA The “version 2.0” supported by the center forward combines Magic’s no-looking pass and Larry Bird’s shallow short pass. He gave Gordon those imaginative passes that can only be seen in Queens, New York, combining ornament and practicality, with the highest level of power, accuracy and timing, and even sometimes passing “changeups” to confuse the defender. ． ． The definition of a good pass has been changed. The law of fast, hard and accurate does not apply to Jokic. He often sends a slow and oblique pass with the frequency of cutting the ball on the tennis court, but it is accurate. If it is given to the right person, one may even suspect that it cannot be transmitted otherwise.
Not only that, we know that Gordon was flown from Orlando to Denver, over 5,000 feet above sea level, to fill in for Jerami Grant, protect Jokic on defense, and do some dirty work in the penalty area. He limits the opponent’s best perimeter attacker. He has done a great job at this point. This season, his players include but are not limited to LeBron James, Jerami Grant, Zion Williamson, Kyle Kuzma and other big three; Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, DeMar DeRozan and other top scorers Linebackers; giants like Lauri Markkanen and Jusuf Nurkic who are over 210.
Gordon isn’t the best perimeter fielder and a traditional No. 4, but his height, wingspan, and mobility make him very well suited as a mobile sweeper in a defensive system that emphasizes immediate anticipation like the Nuggets. Ryan Saunders was hired this summer as part of Denver’s defensive back coaches. His philosophy is that in modern basketball, teams need someone on defense who can respond quickly to what’s happening on the court. The best example is Draymond Green. In Nugget, that person is Gordon.
From the first day of cooperation, this pair of insiders has shown an ideal adaptability. In the 2020-21 season, Jokic ushered in his first season as MVP. Jamal Murray scored a record 21.2 points per game. Michael Porter Jr. developed into an excellent shooter, and under Gordon, the foursome outscored their opponents by 18.2 points per 100 carries in 117 minutes together.
It’s just that Murray’s torn anterior cruciate ligament and Porter’s back surgery were ruined last season, so their “full body” needs to be deferred for another season. But this “lost year” has allowed the Nuggets to realize their problems in a more profound way. Having Jokic allows them to solve many problems on the offensive side, but the team must also help him find someone who can protect him on the defensive side. In the series against the Warriors, Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole took turns tearing them apart.
From Gordon, the Nuggets learned they needed a defender with size, toughness and a degree of versatility, so this season they found Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown. Tim Connelly and Calvin Booth don’t play short-term, they understand that success in the NBA is about more than just getting the best player – it’s about understanding and accepting his strengths and weaknesses and building a team around him.
Thus “The Ringer” writer Seerat Sohi accurately wrote: “That’s the beauty of a team that shows continuity. The Nuggets have continually overhauled their game plan and roster over the years to make up for the shortcomings of Jokic Looking for details to improve, having bodyguards around him to prevent him from being a target for opponents running behind a screen.”
The effects of these changes may not be as apparent in the regular season, but when the Nuggets face Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Curry again in the playoffs, they will have better answers to their opponent’s problems.
Gordon’s success on the Denver Plateau also repeats an old tale: South Orange and North Trifoliate. In a business league, there will always be situations where a long man with big feet is asked to roll the 3, a pick-and-roll genius is asked to play a traditional point guard, and a creative player is asked to play in a more trivial way. , requiring a player who excels in one aspect to be versatile, and worse, requiring a selfless player to play selfish basketball.
In the Nuggets, Gordon only did what he does best, threatening the field goal as much as possible; and Jokic was never forced to increase the number of shots, but became the Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady in the NBA with the first – – Biography The ball, the run and the touchdown.
It may be the best thing we can see.
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