The Denver Nuggets are currently faced with the near-impossible task of knocking off the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals. Of course, having the best player in the world in Nikola Jokic on your side always helps. But we can't forget the incredible impact of Aaron Gordon as well.
What Gordon has been doing in these playoffs is concrete proof that the Nuggets pulled off one of the most league-altering trades of the last decade when they acquired him in March of 2021. Typically, we reserve that description for trades involving top-10 players in the association. But AG has never had to play like an MVP to bring the kind of impact he does.
Think about where the Nuggets were a decade ago. They were finally about to bring Jokic over to the United States after he spent the 2014-15 season in Europe, playing in the Adriatic league. In that time frame, Jokic went from an unknown second round pick to a three-time MVP and the best player on the planet.
But it certainly didn't happen overnight. Those first few years of the Jokic era were difficult in Denver, and the Nuggets often found themselves overmatched in the playoffs.
Aaron Gordon has been a huge reason for Denver's success
Sometimes, a star player like Jokic does need another All-Star caliber talent alongside him (in addition to Jamal Murray) to make things work. But in this case, Aaron Gordon ended up being that magical addition that changed so much of Denver's process. Once he arrived in the Mile High City, everything began to change.
AG became the most seamless fit on this team's roster from day one, and he accepted his role from day one. That allowed him to flourish next to Jokic, and make life for everyone around him easier. Gordon works off-ball wonderfully, plays solid defense, and uses his large physical frame to be a game-changer on the interior on both offense and defense.
It's pretty safe to say Denver doesn't win that first round series against the Los Angeles Clippers without Gordon. His game-winning put-back dunk in Game 4 prevented the Nuggets from going down 3-1, and then just a few nights ago he came up extremely clutch once again with his gutsy go-ahead transition three-pointer that gave Denver the Game 1 win over OKC.
He just comes up big time and time again. Gordon's shooting numbers were much improved all season long, and now his contributions are paying big dividends for the Nuggets in the playoffs as well. Jokic will always be Denver's best player, but it's also not a coincidence that this team started making deep playoff runs consistently after bringing AG on board.