pepe1991 wrote:
It would still not matter for them at all.
Gordon works for Nuggets because they have 4 players around him with ability to hit open shots and he spends vast majority of time standing on dunker's spot.
Even last night his existence and purpose on Nuggets, in matchup with Lakers started to be questionable. As long as he is around paint, he allows Davis to patrol paint. If he could shoot, it would force Lakers to not do cross-matchup and it would force Davis to be full time Jokic matchup. But since that's not case, Lakers gamble with Hachimura on Jokic with Davis being rim protector and ignores Gordon whenever he isn't around rim.
You look how they beat them last night, they made 15/32 threes. That's not very sustainable offense going forward.
Gordon's still a good on ball defender. He's flourishing on the Nuggets because the Maestro can get him the ball from so many places on cuts. Covington was just a team/help defender, defensive reputation inflated by the number of steals he got. Portland needs players that can play defense. Gordon would not be nearly as good on Portland as the Nuggets, but still would have been much better that Covington.
Just think how bad these trades were:
1. Two first rounders for Covington
2. Gary Trent Jr. for Norm Powell (fine on its own)
3. Covington + Powell for scraps to get under luxury tax