Perhaps the safest position in all of basketball is that of “anonymous NBA scout.” They can say outlandish things in public and, though many hear their words, no one ever finds them out.
It has been more than a decade, for instance, since one of them told a writer for Sporting News that Aaron Gordon, then a lottery-pick prospect in his first season of NCAA basketball, should be viewed as nothing more than “a glorified role player” and would struggle to transition to the small forward position.
No one knows who put such foolishness into the public discourse, except the writer.
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Gordon was a freshman with at Arizona then. In the summer before he arrived in Tucson, he’d traveled to Prague with USA Basketball and led the team – a team featuring Marcus Smart, Justise Winslow and Elfrid Payton – in scoring and rebounding on the way to a gold medal in the FIBA U19 World Championship. In his one season with the Wildcats, he was named a third-team All-American by SN and led the team in rebounding and ranked second in scoring on a squad that went 33-5 and lost its Elite Eight game by a point in overtime.
When Gordon announced after his freshman season he would enter the NBA Draft, another writer for SN said he “has a great hunger to improve … He’s worked as hard at his game as any player I’ve come across in my 25-plus years of covering college basketball.” (That writer was me.)
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Aaron Gordon emerges in playoffs for Nuggets
That’s the Gordon we see now with the Nuggets, about to play Thursday night to keep their season alive in Game 6 of the NBA Western Conference semifinal against the Thunder. He already owns a championship ring from his stellar play in the 2022-23 season, when he was one of the essential contributors in support of teammate Nikola Jokic’s dominance. And still he has fought ferociously to improve every possible skill – and to function as an extraordinary teammate.
Consider how, at 29, he has increased his efficacy in key statistical categories:
– Free throw percentage. In 2023, he was at 60.8 percent. In 2025, it’s 81.0.
– Assists. In 2023, he was at 3.0 per game. In 2025, it’s 3.2.
– 3-point percentage. In 2023, he shot 34.7 percent from deep. In 2025, it’s a career-best 43.6.
The guy who made only 13 3-pointers as an NBA rookie was 75-of-172 in his 11th season. And he has made big shots, including the three that provided the winning margin as Denver won the opener of this series and another from the right corner that put Game 3 of this series into overtime, where the Nuggets won to take a 2-1 lead.
“It’s like any other kid counting down five, four, three, two, one and letting it go,” he told reporters afterward, which would have been accurate if that kid once had been disregarded as a shooter by at least one (but probably not just one) pro scout.
AARON GORDON TIES IT UP FOR THE NUGGETS WITH SECONDS TO GO 😱
OVERTIME ON ESPN 🍿 pic.twitter.com/cYIeLnv0Ga
— ESPN (@espn) May 10, 2025
He frequently was compared during his college season to Blake Griffin because of their shared degree of dynamism. Gordon, while flattered by the comparison to an All-Star, always believed he possessed skills that made him a different player. “I think I can play point guard and he can’t,” Gordon told SN in 2014, and we see that reflected in games now, with Gordon occasionally advancing the basketball and initiating the attack.
Part of scouting is recognizing who might be willing to pursue the almost maniacal level of work the greatest NBA players will invest into their games. I’ve seen firsthand daily workouts by Kevin Durant and LeBron James, even after they were established superstars and multimillionaires. Gordon’s college coaches were quite open at the time about Gordon’s appetite for improvement.
We’ve seen that reflected not only in his jumpshot but, perhaps even more so his free throw shooting. Only good for 42.2 percent in his one season at Arizona – he came close to leading the team in attempts but ranked only fourth in conversions – he hit 81 percent in the 2024-25 NBA regular season and is at 85.1 percent in the playoffs.
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Aaron Gordon-Russell Westbrook controversy
Gordon has been described as “the soul” of the Nuggets by interim coach David Adelman. He has been an excellent teammate going back to his Arizona days, and he showed again how important his contributions beyond points and rebounds can be as the team approached the playoffs while processing the sudden dismissals of head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth and the perpetual challenge of assimilating veteran guard Russell Westbrook.
ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne reported, citing multiple team sources, there was a “heated” locker room discussion between Gordon and Westbrook following a Game 2 loss to the Clippers in the opening round. And she quoted another Denver player as providing a simple explanation for why Westbrook was the target of Gordon’s criticism.
“He’s so immature,” the player told her.
The article appeared Tuesday, in advance of Game 5 against OKC.
In front of his locker after the Nuggets lost, Gordon changed the subject from that game’s outcome to the substance of the ESPN piece, including calling it “pointless and unnecessary.”
“Russ is one of the most talented basketball players that has ever played the game of basketball. And quite frankly, he’s been great for us all year long,” Gordon said. “We’re brothers. We spend more time with our team than we do with our family. Of course, there’s going to be disagreements. But that conversation wasn’t for anybody other than our own group and the internal workings of our locker room.
“That article is just so arbitrary and so far from the truth. Russ has been amazing for us. Not only is he a great basketball player, but he’s an even better human being.”
Gordon showed how complex a leader’s job can be within the team-sport dynamic. In the first instance, he privately but openly challenged Westbrook to perform as a veteran should in pursuit of team success. In the second, he publicly assured Westbrook he remained very much a part of this team as the Nuggets continue toward the championship goal.
It may not work; no one’s yet won a title with Westbrook on the roster. If it does, though, it will be at least in part due to Gordon’s deft contributions to team chemistry.
Westbrook has averaged 12.5 points in 25 minutes a game. He will play his 12th playoff game Thursday, the first time since 2016 he’s gotten to double figures in postseason appearances. His teams averaged only a half-dozen playoff games per year since, or the equivalent of one failed series.
Aaron Gordon steps up for family
This has been a heavy time for Gordon. It has not been quite one year since his brother, Drew, was killed in a vehicle accident in Oregon. Drew was only 34 and left behind three children, and Aaron has taken on additional responsibility by establishing himself as a presence in their lives. He asked Drew’s wife Angela to move with their two kids to the Denver area so they could be closer.
He brought Brody and Zayne to the press conference following his heroics in Game 1 and they listened as he explained what the moment meant.
“I worked on my jumper a lot – a lot – over the years. You guys have seen the maturation of that,” Gordon told reporters. “It’s nice to culminate with a game-winner. But it really comes down to my teammates, like Russ making a great play and finding me in transition, in rhythm, on time, on target. It helps to have a Hall of Fame passer passing to you.”
This is the player Gordon has been all along, from his days with the Oakland Soldiers in summer tournaments to Arizona and through to him finding his NBA home with the Nuggets. It wasn’t that hard to notice, if you were willing to look – or understood what to look for in a developing talent.
