Eric Gordon
Phoenix Suns

Player Facts

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 215lbs.

Wingspan: 6'9"

Date of Birth: Dec. 25, 1988
College Experience: Indiana (1 year)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 7
Physical Strength: 8
Positional Size: 5
Positional Wingspan: 7
Paint Scoring: 7
Midrange Scoring: 5
Three-Point Scoring: 8
Dribbling: 7
Passing: 4
Perimeter Defense: 6
Interior Defense: 5
Rebounding: 2

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Lighting it Up from Three

> Shot Creation

> Aggressive Attacks

> Valuable Post Defense

> General Man Defense

> Ugly Shooting Percentages

> Inferior Playmaking

> Defensive Downfalls

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of Smart Highlights, NF Highlights & Z. Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Eric Gordon provides a scoring spark whether starting or coming off the bench. He's a rock-solid 215 lbs. at 6'3" with notable length in the form of a 6'9" wingspan. While not the most efficient player by any stretch, Eric is capable of erupting for a big scoring night.

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Lighting it Up from Three

Gordon is typically a bountiful source of spot-up points. He has provided worthy secondary and tertiary creation alongside more ball-dominant players like James Harden, Russell Westbrook, John Wall, and Chris Paul. He was in the 86th percentile for spot-up scoring in his age-33 season (2021-2022).

A separator for Gordon's perimeter shooting compared to most is how deep his range is. From 2016-2017 to 2019-2020, he's always been in the top ten in 25-29-foot buckets per game. 2018-2019 saw him provides 7.6 catch-and-shoot points a night, besting everyone in the league that isn't a Splash Brother (min. 30 games played). 2021-2022 had him at a strong 4.2/game.

Shot Creation

The beauty of Eric's game is that he can do good work as the primary option as well. He can penetrate, shoot, or otherwise create a shot for himself one-on-one. He's great at splitting the defense and also at firmly maintaining his driving angle through pure strength.

Eric was in the 80th percentile for isolation scoring in 2018-2019. His 2019-2020 campaign included an 82nd percentile mark, shooting exactly 50% on his isolations. His 1.02 points per possession here bested guys like Pascal Siakam, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Terry Rozier.

Aggressive Attacks

Like most guards, Eric relishes his chance to go at a big man switched out on to him. He likes the between-the-legs explosion with his good burst. He'll hit his man with a large negative step to propel off from and attack. That hard back-and-forth "machine gun dribble" is something he can quickly pull up out of as well.

When using ball screens, he's looking to score the rock. His approach is simple: bomb threes or take it to the rack. Eric is talented at doing both, nailing 39.8% of his pull-up triples in 2019-2020.

Eric is violent as a slasher and is extremely physical as he barges inside. He can hang and hit difficult shots in the paint. With the head of steam after a pump fake from downtown, Gordon is tough to contend with as he drives.

Gordon is superb when he decides to put his head down and attack a scrambled defense in semi-transition. He takes huge deceleration strides as he gathers to go up. Eric shields the ball very well as he blasts downhill.

Valuable Post Defense

With that powerful build in tow, Gordon is one of the league's best non-center post defenders. He leverages his hand strength to jar the ball loose at times too.

This provides copious value for the squad, able to comfortably switch little-big pick-and-rolls given that Eric can hold his own down low. For the bulk of the game's 6'3" players, this type of switch would require immediate help on the low block.

He was in the 95th percentile for his post defense in 2018-2019, with the identical number of these defended as bigs Anthony Davis and Julius Randle. Gordon was in the 86th percentile in 2019-2020, also within Houston's switch-heavy system.

General Man Defense

Eric's positional defense is serviceable most of the time. When he's locked in, he uses his strength and length to bother one's, two's, and some three's competently. His reaction time is solid, and the defensive smarts are there.

WEAKNESSES

Ugly Shooting Percentages

The Indiana product is the epitome of a high-volume shooter, with percentages that can get ugly. He has only shot north of 45% from the field once in his career, being his rookie season. His relatively weak percentages at the rim and on floaters are just one reason to highlight for this overall deficiency.

At the core of Gordon's shooting inefficiencies is his three-point shot selection. He takes an abundance of threes, including several deep ones with plenty of time left on the shot-clock.

An even more worrisome data point is that he shot only 34.9% on his wide-open threes in 2019-2020. His total three-point clip that year was an awful 31.7% on high volume, with a 36.9% overall field goal percentage.

Inferior Playmaking

Gordon's playmaking profile is mediocre-to-poor for a high-usage perimeter player. He's very much so a score-first guy which can lead to some bad shots as well as some open teammates neglected. His assist-to-turnover ratio was an unsightly 1.43 in 2018-2019, followed by 1.26 in 2019-2020.

Defensive Downfalls

With solid man defense and admirable post defense at 6'3", Gordon is not necessarily a negative as an overall defender. His off-ball defense is far from elite which pulls down his value on this end as a whole. He hasn't averaged more than one steal a game since 2014-2015 as a Pelican.

Eric is also not always the intense shooter-chaser that defense-first guards are. He is rarely tasked with being a primary option on offense, so the energy conservation angle is not an airtight one. He can also lose sight of his man as they sneak in behind him on a basket cut.

Last but not least is Eric's minimal rebounding rates. His strong build would allow for respectable work on the defensive glass if the commitment was there.

Per 36 minutes, Eric has never even eclipsed 3.0 defensive rebounds per game for a full season. He provided merely 1.0 defensive box-outs per contest in 2019-2020.

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Beacon Bacon

Gordon was the Sixth Man of the Year in 2016-2017, beating out Andre Iguodala for the award