From Denver’s defense to the general state of the Rockets, here are the best and worst of the trade deadline.
What was expected to be a quiet NBA trade deadline brought fireworks, as All-Star Nikola Vucevic was sent to Chicago first thing in the morning to set things off, and a number of rumored players changed teams before the 3 p.m. ET deadline. The landscape of the league changed once again, as tends to happen on deadline day. One West contender improved its fortunes greatly, while Orlando’s wheeling and dealing created another tanking team down the stretch. Here are your winners and losers of deadline day 2021: By trading for Aaron Gordon (at the cost of Gary Harris, RJ Hampton, and a future first-round pick), the Nuggets plugged their biggest hole, one that has plagued them for multiple years. In Gordon, Denver finally has an answer for the question every NBA contender has to ask itself: “Who guards LeBron?” There are very few players in the league who can credibly be given that task, and Gordon is one. His strength, athleticism, and IQ make him a nice fit in Denver on both ends, as their aggressive defense and Nikola Jokic-centric offense are relatively unique. Gordon should slide in smoothly, provided he is OK having the ball even less than he did in central Florida. During the 2019-20 season, when Orlando at least had DJ Augustin to run the offense, Gordon was in the 92nd percentile as a cutter, per Synergy Sports, scoring 1.5 points per possession. If even a fraction of that efficiency and willingness to score off the ball gets on the plane with him to Colorado, Gordon will be a brilliant addition for the Nuggets. Sure, skepticism is warranted when it comes to his overall defensive impact, as even on an underrated Orlando defense under Steve Clifford, Gordon rarely graded out as an enormous positive on that end. Orlando has been better defensively with Gordon on the bench this season and two of the past three, according to Cleaning the Glass. However, the Nuggets went from losing Grant, not really replacing him, and having no chance against LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, or Luka Doncic to now having one of the players best-suited to defending those guys in the whole NBA when engaged on that end of the floor. When one of the most reticent tanking teams in the NBA finally tears down its roster, it’s a big deal. The Magic finally looked at their team honestly and realized that not only was it the right time to do so, with a playoff berth unlikely, but also an opportunity to sell relatively high on their best players.
