Aaron Gordon keeps finding ways to matter for the Nuggets, and that’s exactly why his workload feels so alarming.
Since landing in Denver, Gordon has turned into the kind of all-purpose glue piece teams dream about. He’s earned the “Mr.
Nugget” label, fought through a pile of injuries, and played a major role in the franchise’s first championship in 2023. He’s only 31, but the wear on his body is real, and when he’s healthy enough to stay on the floor, he still looks like one of Denver’s most important players.
That’s the problem. Gordon’s value is so broad that it reaches almost every corner of the Nuggets’ game.
He’s their best player in the dunker spot, their best spot-up shooter, their best backup center, and their best defender. That isn’t a small collection of jobs.
It’s the kind of workload that makes him indispensable and, at the same time, dangerously overused.
In a cleaner setup, Denver would have built a roster that lets Gordon conserve himself through the regular season and save more of that energy for the postseason. Instead, the Nuggets keep running into the same issue: the drop-off from Gordon to the next guy is huge.
The backup-center minutes are a perfect example. Denver clearly would prefer not to ask Gordon to handle that role for long stretches in the regular season, but is there real confidence that Marvin Bagley, Zeke Nnaji, and DaRon Holmes can cover it for 82 games?
The same issue shows up on the perimeter. Gordon is too important as a three-point threat, but outside of Cam Johnson, who else is truly dependable enough to keep launching?
And defensively, the burden gets heavier in a hurry. If Gordon isn’t carrying a huge share of that load, the defense slides badly.
None of this is new, which is part of what makes it so frustrating. The Nuggets still haven’t solved the roster imbalance that keeps pushing so much onto Gordon’s shoulders. It’s a setup that looks risky now and even riskier later, especially if the goal is to protect bodies for the stretch run.
Maybe the younger players and newcomers will give Denver more than expected. Maybe someone in that group can absorb some of the minutes and take pressure off Gordon. But that’s a difficult thing to bank on for a team trying to squeeze everything it can out of Nikola Jokic’s championship window.
What the Nuggets have right now is a player who does too much, too well, for a team that still hasn’t figured out how to ask less of him.
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For the Bulls, the immediate concern is less about the scoreboard than about how many workable combinations they can put on the floor without sacrificing too much at either end. Denvers frontcourt depth can expose shortages quickly, and Chicago may have to get creative in the paint to keep the game manageable, especially if the injury list grows any longer before tipoff. There is also the added wrinkle of former Bull DeMar DeRozan potentially being part of the matchup, which only adds another layer to a preseason game already carrying more personnel questions than usual. [Read more 🡒]
Nuggets May Have Found A Camp Surprise With Real Defensive Value
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There is still a lot to sort out as camp moves forward, but Diallo appears to be pushing himself into the conversation for minutes this season. Denver has been encouraged enough by the early returns to keep experimenting with where he fits best, and his value may end up coming from how quickly he can handle multiple assignments on both ends. [Read more 🡒]