More injuries in the NBA have become a recurring theme in this opening stretch of the season: Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets power forward, will be out for an extended period with a grade-two hamstring strain.
How long is Aaron Gordon out for the Nuggets?
He will be re-evaluated in four to six weeks, so his return will not come any sooner than that window, another setback for one of the title favorites, who had already lost a starter when Christian Braun went down for several weeks (at least three more) with an ankle injury.
Gordon was hurt last Friday during an NBA Cup game against the Rockets, a game he entered with muscle issues in both legs. They were the same problems that affected him at the end of last season’s series that the Nuggets lost in seven games to the Thunder, who went on to win the championship. It is a major blow for Denver because Gordon, 30, had probably been their second-best player behind the inevitable Nikola Jokic: 18.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game while shooting 44.4% from three. Essential defensively, steadily improving as a shooter and, as always since arriving in Denver, showing excellent offensive chemistry with the Serbian center.
Jokic has never played in his NBA career (since 2015) with an active all-star in a given season – an incredible fact. He has shared the court with players who became all-stars (most recently Russell Westbrook), but in Denver he has always been the team’s lone all-star. That could finally have changed this season, and the strongest candidate was Gordon, who had been performing at a brilliant level, even more than Jamal Murray, a player with a higher talent ceiling but also more inconsistency.
That aside, for many observers the Nuggets are the best team in the league… beyond the champion, an OKC side that has been untouchable so far. And this injury, compounded by Braun’s, is a very serious setback. The Thunder have only one loss and are pulling away from those behind them. Denver already has four – Rockets, Spurs, Lakers and the Nuggets themselves – and will try not to lose pace with the West’s best. That matters for playoff positioning, but also to ensure they don’t demand too much from Jokic, whose workload could become costly later with a weakened starting lineup. He is back in MVP mode (whether he wins it or not): 30.4 points, 13 rebounds, 10.8 assists, 62.8% shooting and 41.8% from three.
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