he is an alright defender, not a great one. His bulk helps him out. When i say he doesn't do much else, i mean on offence
He can get the odd assist here and there, but mostly he looks to score. He is not that great of a playmaker for others
So let me get this straight. You've conceded that he's a good defender, and he's somebody who can shoot 3's at a great rate, including deep bombs. He's one of the best finishers in the league around the rim because of his strength and body control, and on top of that he gets the odd assist here and there, and you're STILL trying to claim he "only does one thing?" Have you ever watched basketball before?
This is eric gordon who put the clamps on chris paul in the playoffs two years ago when paul was destroying our switch everything defense. He's one of the best on ball defenders in the league who's strong enough to hold his position even against lebron freaking james. strong enough to not be backed down by big men in the paint. He guarded giannis several games ago and then stripped him before he could make his move. i wonder why steve kerr says eric gordon is a "Phenomenal player". He may not be the ideal point guard but he's still good enough in iso to initiate the offense because of how good of a shooter he is. He's the perfect second or third guard on a contender. he's playing a tier below all star level and ppl on this board still can't give him respect. There are plenty of teams who are interested in him and giving us lowball offers. But we're not just giving him away.
It's actually crazy the lengths CF will go to discredit our own players, even ones who've got years of good service in a Rockets jersey.
i know....ask lebron james if he would take EG on his team, he would take him in heart beat. EG guarded Lebron and dropped like 6 threes in a half or something like that and was the only reason the game was close. EG was one of the main reasons we beat the thunder in that series and ppl still can't see that. How many players can even do a decent job trying to guard lebron? not many. he's got to do that step back on him. he can't just bully him. can't just get around him easily. and ppl still can't see that.
Don't forget what he did to Donovan Mitchell too. Straight embarrassed him. Gordon had everyone thinking Mitchell was a playoff choker because he averaged like 20 points on 30% shooting in back to back years, and they got sent home in 5 games both times. And of course that 3 at the end of game 5 against the warriors.
lol what you describe is exactly what i said........he only mainly scores. He is an ok defender, not a great one Funny how Eric is hitting threes and now people love him again. he hasn't hit shots for 3 years(granted he had some injuries, but then he always does)
Gordan is a near all-star player when healthy. The reason some want to trade him is because he is 33, has a pretty hefty contract (not terrible) but is one major injury away of being an 18m albatross contract. Just last year people were calling his contract immoveable especially after he got hurt. I am in the camp that we should trade him if we can get a FRP, not just for the pick but also to free minutes up for our young players. We are not competing this year and it really is foolish to keep running out veterans to win meaningless games in a year that we own our pick. Call it tanking if you want, but I am not suggesting we lose on purpose just that we need to give our young guys as much playing time as possible and if that leads to a top lottery pick that is best for the re-build. With one more good draft pick and continued development of our young core, I believe we will make the playoffs next year and be attractive to stars the following season. i am in the "tanking" crowd too. But that still doesn't mean that i would give away EG for a first and expirings. I wouldn't give him up unless its a good young player and a first, or an expiring and two firsts. If Robert covington can get two and Jrue holiday can get three than EG is worth two. Its all about supply and demand. Contenders that already have an all-star guard need a secondary one like gordon and there are so few of them at his level. I think EG can still be good on another contract, injury concerns and all. And i don't view his contract as hefty. I think its just right or a little underpaid. I think it would be a bigger mistake to give big contracts to wood and KPJ who will both be albatross contracts if they're injured and probably won't ever be as good as gordon is and will be even at an older age. We'll still need good players next year to compete and i'd rather gordon be the one we keep unless we get the right payment for him. With the emergence of Josh Christopher, Kenyon martin junior, and Garry bird, i believe that wood and kpj are the expendable ones. Unless they sign team friendly contracts. We will still be tanking if we unload wood. I don't think we need to unload both gordon AND wood. We'll still be in the lottery, and i don't think we need a top 3 pick. WIth green, sengun, christopher and Kenyon we have enough talent. I think that even Kenyon can be developed into a small ball five if his three point shooting gets better. I think that he can be even better than wood.
Portland and Milwaukee made those trades in order to get themselves a legit starter that they were previously missing. Asking for a team to trade us two 1st rounders for a player that, at best, would be used in a 6th man role is a bit unrealistic, especially one that is making $18 million this season and $19 million next season.
at best a sixth man? he could be starter or sixth man as he's always been, depending on which team. EGs always played at least 30 minutes a game so what difference does it matter who starts, its who finishes, just like ginobli. Those teams gave those picks cuz they needed to keep their stars happy before they demanded a trade and there are so few 3 and D players of that calibur available. And EG has always been a tier above covington, EG's just injury prone. if we just give EG away who will replace him next year in order to contend? No one on our team is the defender that gordon is. Christopher is good, but he was getting cooked by trae. EG is not easily replaceable even with our young core. 18 to 19 million? how much is marcus smart making? EG is and has always been better than marcus smart.
Shut the **** up, you know nothing about basketball if you think EG does "one thing." Just delete your account and go play video games.
There's a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the last paragraph: trading Gordon for a 1st rounder is not "giving him away". Giving him away would be releasing him or trading him for an expiring contract/player that's a total non-factor. As for his defense, he's an average to above average defender--nothing more, nothing less. There's no metric that can prove that he's more than just that and if you happen to have one handy please let me know. In regards to his "replaceability"...I mean is that even important at this point given that this team is going through a rebuilding process? The hope is that the team can replace him in the near future with either a player that's currently on the roster (JC, Martin, Matthews, etc.) or a future acquisition. It's also weird that you bring up JC getting cooked by Trae, as if he's not 2nd in the league in points per game. The rookie was given an assignment to guard an All-NBA player and performed about what you would expect out of a rookie. As for the first paragraph, those teams made the trades because they needed those players. Milwaukee didn't ship off 3 1sts for Holiday because they want to keep a smile on Giannis' face--they made the trade because they were in desperate need of a point guard and an All-Defensive team point guard was available. They upgraded from Eric Bledsoe to Jrue Holiday. Portland desperately needed a starting small forward who could help mask their starting backcourt's pathetic defense so they went out and got, at that time, the best wing defender that was available. Covington came in and replaced Bazemore and Ariza. At the end of the day I'm not going to cry if Stone extracts more than just a 1st rounder for Gordon, however, I'm not going to say Stone got robbed if all he could get for Gordon was an unprotected 1st. A market for a 33 year old shooting guard making $18 million with a history of injuries isn't that big. Historically teams trading for a hired gun at the deadline don't surrender the returns you're expecting: Trade deadline history, Hired Guns edition 2021: Miami used a 1st rounder and expirings to get Oladipo Boston used 2 2nd rounders to get Fournier Sixers used 2 2nd rounders in a 3 way trade to get George Hill Hawks used 2 2nd rounders and Rondo to get Lou Williams 2020: Clippers used 2 1sts and a 2nd for Marcus Morris. 2019: Sixers used 2 1sts and 2 2nds to get Tobias Harris, Mike Scott and Boban Mavericks used 2 1sts to get Porzingis, THJ, etc. So in the past few years only one trade saw an exchange of multiple firsts for pretty much one solid rotation player and that was mostly due to the fact that a bidding war occurred between the Clippers and the Lakers for Morris.
i appreciate the well thought out post, i've already posted in this thread as have others as to why i think he's more than an average to above average defender. Giannis at the time was on miami's radar and he wasn't a lock to stay. Lillard also at the time had been getting tired of losing in the playoffs and the blazers needed to keep him happy. I don't want to further debate this as i respect your opinnion. I feel that gordon should be used to sell high to a team desperate for that missing piece that could push them over the top or to keep their stars happy. its all about leverage. I think he's worth more to them than those future picks.
If you offered EGO for Westbrook I'm sure Lebron would literally drive Westbrook to Houston and take Gordon with him. Gordon is this teams best player. By a wide margin.
