Houston Rockets: Eric Gordon’s shot has improved after injury

When the team needed him most, the former Sixth Man of the Year has found his shot once again for the Houston Rockets. Can he continue to regain his form as the games get more important down the stretch?

Eric Gordon has been having an odd season so far for the Houston Rockets. His inconsistency has been the theme of his year, being an incredible scorer in some games and a brick-layer in others.

Fairly consistently, though, he has been off with his 3-point shot. Historically a sharpshooter, especially in his time with the Rockets and Pelicans/Hornets, the confidence in his 3 was non-existent for the first half of the season.

In late December, he went down with an injury that would sideline him for eight games. This, in addition to the Chris Paul injury, was brutal for the Rockets. That’s when James Harden went superhuman, thankfully.

Now that he’s back, Eric Gordon has actually been much better from long-range, looking more and more like his old self. In the six games since his return, EG is shooting 39.2% from downtown and is averaging 19.7 points per game. He has been a spark in the lineup and has hit multiple clutch shots for the team.

His role for the future

While he won’t necessarily be asked to average nearly 20 points a game, Eric Gordon’s scoring burst recently is very much appreciated, especially when CP3 was out for awhile. His clutch gene that has shown itself is always nice to have on the team.

On the season, Gordon is now averaging 16.3 points per game on 31.7% shooting from deep. While that percentage certainly sounds bad, it is much better than the low-mid 20s that he was at earlier in the year. If he keeps shooting like this, it’s perfectly reasonable to think that he can make it back up to the mid-30s in percentage from deep.

When everyone’s healthy, it’s looking like he’ll continue to start at the small forward position. The Rockets starting small with EG allows them to have that extra speed and scoring while causing matchup nightmares for the opposition. Danuel House, the starting small forward while EG was out, is still in limbo with the RGV Vipers. Until that situation is resolved, it’s tough to know what the Rockets will do for their main starting 5.

Gordon is 13-3 as the starting small forward of the team. That’s a pretty telling statistic on whether or not he should continue to start.