Still Can't Believe Eric Gordon Is Actually Finally a Sixer

AU has mixed feelings about the long-coveted former future Sixer.

To be honest, I never really wanted Eric Gordon on the Sixers. 

Well, that's not totally true. Back in the early days, when Gordon was a Clipper, he was one of my favorite young players in the league. His array of bowling-ball drives and slingshot jumpers with his unusual physicality made him electric to me; when the then-still-Hornets nabbed him in the Chris Paul deal in 2011, I thought it might end up being a great trade for them. But then injuries and general New Orleans malaise basically robbed him of what should have been his prime years, and by the time Daryl Morey brought him to Houston in 2016, he was already more of a role player. 

Naturally, this was about when Sixers fans started to really covet Eric Gordon. It wasn't hard to see why: He shot, and we didn't. Back in the days when our wing depth largely consisted of such non-marksmen as Gerald Henderson, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot and Justin Anderson -- even Nik Stauskas never put 'em up quite as frequently or as effectively as we wanted -- Gordon won Sixth Man of the Year by shooting nine triples a game, nearly three more a night then anyone on the Sixers, and off the bench no less. Philadelphia basketball history has been plagued with anti-shooters, folks who arrived in Philly and lost the ability and/or interest to shoot, as if Andre Miller himself was dosing their Wawa coffee orders. Eric Gordon seemed like the antidote to such franchise-wide sickness, and for that, we wanted him. 

Not me, however. I like shooters but I don't necessarily like chuckers. For all his shooting volume in Houston accuracy was never really an Eric Gordon hallmark; he usually hovered around 36% from deep -- a decent number for good volume, but hardly Steph or even Seth Curry territory -- and for a couple years dropped into the low 30s. Usually when you watch opposing shooters as a Sixers fan they feel far more deadly than they actually are in real life, but despite him hitting a game-winner against us in 2017, I never really feared Gordon: My primary memory of watching him in Houston is seeing him unexpectedly pull up for deep threes and going man I'm glad he's doing that for their team and not ours. 

But now, he is gonna be doing that for ours. Maybe a lot: His only real competition on our depth chart at shooting guards is a rookie in Jared McCain and a vet whose shooting numbers historically are right in line with those 2016-17 Sixers luminaries in Kelly Oubre Jr. We wanted him, and after eight years, we finally got him. Now the question is if we got him too late, or at just the right time. 

Will We Still Love Kelly Oubre Jr. Now That We Actually Expect Him to Be Good?

I thought for sure the window had passed on us actually getting Eric Gordon. If after four years in Philadelphia, during which time we'd already reacquired every other player on those peak late-'10s Rockets team besides Trevor Ariza (supposedly retired), we still hadn't brought Gordon back into the fold, I figured the statute of limitations had passed on that one. Also, for those last four years, I've assumed that pretty much every Eric Gordon season would be his last in the NBA, or at the very least his last as an effective contributor. He's been around since 2008 -- same draft as Michael Beasley, O.J. Mayo and our old friend Jeryd "Meatballs" Bayless -- and he's still something of a unitasker, hardly a Batum/Lowry type whose all-around games and big ol' NBA brains can ensure them a roster spot into their mid-40s. 

Strangely enough, though, he's remained effective through the 2020s, even since moving on from Houston. His volume has gone down a little -- the last few years, he's down to 6 or 7 threes attempted per 36, when he was in the double-digits during his peak Houston years -- but his accuracy has gone way up: 45% from the field and 39% from three combined over his last three seasons, after averaging 41% and 36% from deep the five before that. His minutes are down a bit too, but not as much as you'd probably think: He still played 28 a night for an understocked, injury-stricken Phoenix team last year, finishing fifth on the team in scoring with his 11 a game at age 35. 

Will he do the same for us at age 36? We could still certainly use his shooting willingness and reputation -- and if it sticks around too, his effectiveness -- and playing alongside Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid should prove mutually beneficial for all. If we need him to play 28 minutes a night like he did last year, then either something has gone horribly wrong, or I guess we've just gotten our answer to the Oubre question I posed last week. But I can't really deny the reasoning behind his addition, and to get him for a near-minimum contract -- still owes Daryl one for giving him $76 million when it seemed like he was just a couple shooting points away from slipping into fringe role-player status, I suppose -- was unquestionably a win for the Sixers this summer. 

Still... I dunno. It might just be bad memories of Lou Williams, another very good player who I hated watching when he was here. It's those wait, what threes taken early in the shot clock, or when the offensive possession has barely gotten a chance to unfold, or when he's five feet behind the line with a defender only one foot away. It's one thing when Steph Curry or Caitlin Clark takes them, it's another thing when... well, when pretty much any other basketball player does. (Maybe Tyrese too in a couple years.) I just can't stand the feeling of wastefulness to it, the sense that we certainly had better options, but we'll never even know what they were because you just jacked a lightly contested 32-footer and now the opponents are breaking back in the other direction. As bad as the Sixers' shooting (and non-shooting) woes have been the past decade, at least we've mostly been spared those types since Sweet Lou left. 

But we wanted Eric Gordon, we maybe kinda needed Eric Gordon, and now, much to my amazement, we at long last actually have Eric Gordon. I feel the Be Careful What You Wish For will be strong, but maybe 36-year-old Eric Gordon has shed just enough of the recklessness of Peak Eric Gordon for us to appreciate the good things he brings to this team and not totally lose our minds at the rest of it. Or maybe being reunited with Daryl on a team with actual championship aspirations will unleash the chuckiest Eric Gordon ever, looking off Maxey and ignoring a posting Embiid as he pulls up from the second row. In any event, I suppose we'll have to find some new shooty vet to covet at the trade deadline this year. Duncan Robinson? Buddy Hield (again)? Is Terrence Ross still in the league, maybe? 

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Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard. 

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