Apparently, when it comes to the future of current Denver Nuggets forwards Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon, a good chunk of Nuggets Nation have somehow convinced themselves they can’t go on without Watson – who is a restricted free agent this summer – but they would be okay with trading Gordon.
Really?
These folks are more than willing to give a big bag of Stan Kroenke’s money to a soon-to-be 24-year-old with a career scoring average of 8.7 points per game… who missed 28 regular season games and all of the playoffs with a pulled hamstring this past season. They would do so even if it meant parting with the guy who the numbers say is Denver’s second most valuable player.
Make no mistake: Aaron Gordon is a much better and far more accomplished basketball player than Peyton Watson is. Choosing to keep Watson (and handing him a contract some estimate will be in the $30 million per season range) and 86-ing Gordon for financial reasons would be a catastrophic blunder.
Watson was terrific in January of this past season. While three-time MVP Nikola Jokic was out with a hyper-extended knee, Watson went off, putting up three of his five career 30-point performances in a span of nine games. Watson’s offensive outburst was more than welcomed; known much more for his defensive prowess and outstanding athleticism than his outside shooting touch, Watson was knocking down three-pointers like crazy and helping Denver win 16 out of the 26 games Joker missed. He helped save the regular season.
Then he went out with the injury that limited him to just six games the rest of the way, and wasn’t seen in the playoffs.
Gordon was also in and out of the lineup, also with a nagging hamstring issue. He missed more than half the regular-season games, but did give it a go against Minnesota (likely because the undersized Nuggets had no shot against the towering Timberwolves without him, and everyone in the locker room except the head coach knew it) but was severely limited and largely ineffective. It was Gordon’s absence – not Watson’s – that has been documented as being the key element in Denver’s postseason struggles the past two seasons.
Sorry, but Watson, listed at 6’8” and a very slight 200 pounds, isn’t indispensable, and he absolutely can not fill Gordon’s spot on the Nuggets’ front line (The 6’8″ Gordon weighs in at a muscular 235 lbs). There are more than four dozen guys with dimensions similar to Watson’s playing in the NBA right now, and none of them are playing power forward. When it comes to NBA talent, “long and athletic” grows on trees, as they say. Wing players like Watson aren’t rare, and aren’t hard to find and add to your roster.
Powerful front-court players like Gordon very much are.
If some other team wants to offer Watson a stupid-big contract this offseason, Denver would be insane to try to match it. Watson isn’t an All-Star, and he might not even be a full-time starter on the Nuggets. The love for Watson is all projection, based on hope and a single month that thrilled a fan base. And as we all know, hope is not a strategy.
For some ridiculous reason, Aaron Gordon, the heart and soul of the Nuggets, is seen by many of the same folks as yesterday’s news. Yes, AG needs to figure out his chronic hamstring issues and find the remedy to get totally healthy, whatever that is. He owes his employers that much. He also needs the team to find him a viable backup so he can get more rest.
Ironically, both players need to focus on getting healthy this summer, and when both players are, Nuggets fans will see that there is no comparison between the two.
Strike 2: For the Nuggets, Peyton Watson isn’t indispensable Mile High Sports.
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