Rockets: 3 reasons why Aaron Gordon’s disinterest is a blessing in disguise

3. Gordon isn’t the savior for the Houston Rockets

Although Gordon’s electrifying athleticism makes him a human highlight reel, he’s quite limited on the offensive end. In fact, he’s never even crossed the 20-point mark in his career, despite being in his seventh season.

Add to the fact that Gordon’s been playing for a team that doesn’t possess an abundance of offensive firepower, outside of Nikola Vucevic, and it makes it even harder to understand why Gordon hasn’t been able to provide more of a scoring threat. It’s even harder to understand why his shot attempts have dropped in each of the last four years, which is a concerning trend.

• 2017-18: 14.9 attempts per game
• 2018-19: 13.4 attempts per game
• 2019-20: 12.4 attempts per game
• 2020-21: 11.5 attempts per game

Much has been made about Gordon’s scoring regression and rightfully so, as the dropoff is impossible to ignore, which is also outlined below.

• 2017-18: 17.6 points per game
• 2018-19: 16 points per game
• 2019-20: 14.4 points per game
• 2020-21: 14.7 points per game

Although Gordon is in the midst of a career season from long-range (40.2 percent), the reality is that he’s not a reliable 3-point shooter. We shouldn’t ignore the fact that he’s made 33 percent from deep in five of his seven seasons in the league. One of those seasons came in 2018-19, in which he made 34.9 percent of his threes, which still isn’t exactly sniper-level.

So in theory, the only convincing season he’s had from long-range is this year, and 23 games is too small of a sample size to disregard the other evidence that exists on Gordon’s below average 3-point shooting.

Next: No. 2