"It was between Portland with Dame, Denver, Boston, and Houston" - Aaron Gordon shares why he picked to get traded to the Nuggets
Before Aaron Gordon was traded to the Denver Nuggets to team up with Nikola Jokic, he had multiple teams to choose where he would take his talents to. The forward, who was considered the star of the Orlando Magic, also had to make a decision on whether he wanted to be the focal point of the team or not. In the end, Gordon decided to go to a team where he knew his skill set would fit best despite the sacrifices he knew he was about to make.
“I was a little bit unsure. It was between Portland with Dame, Denver, Boston, and Houston. Houston said they’d give me the keys. They were like, ‘We’ll let you play, you know what I mean? See you expand your game.’ Boston would’ve been cool with the other two dogs and boys, while Denver just felt like the perfect fit,” Gordon said in his appearance on the “Knuckleheads podcast.”
AG's role in Denver
Aaron compared his fit on the Nuggets akin to his time at the University of Arizona, where he played the small and power forward positions. He knew Denver needed a defensive stopper, somebody who could be the glue guy between their best players and one who brings the intangibles - which Gordon best believes he thrives in.
Despite knowing that he would no longer be the focal point of the team, the sacrifice to be a role player on the Nuggets paid dividends for AG.
“I felt like it added years to my career. I wasn’t having to do so much on the basketball floor. Still do what I do when I came in the league, which is defend, rebound, run, the intangible, cuts, spot-up threes, and then you got Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter, and other pieces like KCP, Jeff Green so selfishly my ego was like, 'When you put me on a team with these guys, we’re not losing'. That’s kind of how I felt,” Gordon added.
A franchise-altering move
Gordon was the piece Denver needed to get over the hump. He was acquired in March 2021, at the trade deadline, and seamlessly fit on the Nuggets. AG is averaging 14.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in his current four-year Nuggets tenure.
Aaron's best contribution, though, goes beyond the stat sheet, with his ability to defend the opponent’s best player, be the team’s best cutter, and be the piece that completed the championship puzzle for the Nuggets. For Gordon, the best part about his move to the Nuggets is that he no longer has to be the main hero every night, and he’s perfectly content with that.
“I can take a back seat. I mean this, of course, this is Nikola Jokic; I was like every day, this was wild as hell,” AG concluded.
