The Sixers have been lauded -- nearly unanimously -- for their dramatic offseason that has seen several key players exit and new core pieces enter. But one player the team added within hours of free agency beginning has not been discussed much: veteran sharpshooter Eric Gordon, who agreed to a one-year, veteran's minimum deal with the team that includes a player option for the 2025-26 season.
Gordon, 35, has seen it all during his 16 years of NBA action. But what does the veteran actually have to offer a team at this juncture of his career? Where can he help the Sixers, and will he be a liability in any capacity? I dove into the film and numbers to find out.
Statistical / Athletic Profile
Gordon spent last season with the Phoenix Suns, appearing in 68 games (24 starts) and logging 27.8 minutes per contest. Gordon averaged 11.0 points, 2.0 assists, 1.8 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game, shooting 44.3 percent from the field while knocking down 37.8 percent of his 5.8 three-point attempts per game.
Gordon is a career 37.1 percent three-point shooter on 6.2 long-range attempts per game. He blossomed from a great shooter to one of the game's most willing marksmen when he joined the Houston Rockets in 2016-17 -- the team was then run by Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey -- and fully embraced being ready, willing and able to fire away from deep at all times. Adopting this mentality has often driven down his three-point percentage, but it has greatly improved his impact on winning.
Gordon is listed at just 6-foot-3 -- a bit shorter than ideal for a shooting guard -- but weighs 215 pounds, sports a 6-foot-9 wingspan and has a very strong lower body. All of this has enabled him to compete at a high level on the defensive end of the floor against wing-sized players, though at his advanced age his burden on that end of the floor will likely be scaled back moving forward.
Spot-up shooting
Gordon has a long-standing track record as one of the league's most prolific spot-up shooters -- not just because of his accuracy or his volume, but because of the difficulty of his shot diet. Gordon is comfortable launching from any spot on the floor over any contest with any amount of time left on the shot clock.
Of course, having a player who can reliably knock down three-point shots is a boon for any NBA offense. But when the player can comfortably connect from multiple steps beyond the arc, it can have a massive impact on that offense's floor spacing. Watch what happens when Gordon's defender does not remain attached to him because he is standing 31 feet away from the basket.
According to basketball-reference, Gordon's average shot distance in 2023-24 was 18.4 feet. Only 26 players with at least 1,000 minutes had a larger figure.
Typically when the Sixers add role players, the hope is that they can spend time on the floor with Joel Embiid as much as possible to enhance their abilities. But here, is is the rare inverse: Sixers head coach should try to pair Gordon and Embiid as much as possible, because doing so will make life easier for the former NBA MVP.
Embiid draws constant double teams, every defense he faces is designed specifically to neutralize him. The Sixers' best way to counter that has always been surrounding him with maximum three-point shooting, and make defenses pick their poison: leave an accurate long-range shooter open beyond the arc, or let one of the most dominant one-on-one scorers in recent league history go to work against single coverage. Gordon has made a career out of thriving in similar situations.
On this play during a Suns-Sixers game last season, the Sixers were singularly focused on ensuring that Suns star Kevin Durant did not beat them. Losing track of Gordon for just a split second allowed him to be free and knock down a triple.
Gordon will get plenty of these opportunities in Philadelphia, as the Sixers are a team now built around three All-Stars who are lethal three-level scorers in Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. The priority needs to be maximizing the floor spacing around those three players to allow them to be at their absolute best, and Gordon is about as good as it gets when it comes to stretching out a defense.
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Ball-handling / secondary creation
Everybody knows what Gordon brings to the table as a three-point shooter. What I was most interested in finding out is where he stacks up as a ball-handler and passer at this stage of his career. I was not particularly impressed, but did see some glimpses of how Gordon's reputation as a shooter generates playmaking opportunities for him.
On a per-minute or per-possession basis, Gordon's assists were lower last season than they had been in any full season since he was teaming with the peak version of James Harden in Houston. Part of that was because of the offense he played in which featured Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, but it also stems from his lack of burst as the aging process has accelerated.
In Houston, Gordon often served as a secondary ball-handler with decent enough playmaking chops to help initiate offense for brief periods when Harden needed a breather. Gordon has never been a natural point guard, though, so losing much of the burst he once had has made it much more difficult for him to masquerade as one.
In watching all of Gordon's assists from 2023-24, it becomes clear that he was very rarely asked to do anything as a passer beyond making a simple swing pass to the open man. In his rare opportunities to be a true creator on a team lacking a traditional point guard, Gordon often made predetermined passes that the defense could take advantage of like this:
The Sixers -- armed with Maxey, George and Embiid in their starting lineup, plus Kyle Lowry off their bench -- will also not ask much of Gordon as a creator. But the beauty of a lethal shooter is that just their reputation alone creates chances for them to free up a teammate.
Perhaps the most underrated skill of any player considered a three-point marksman is their ability to attack closeouts: if the defensive players runs them off the three-point line, will they just give up the ball and float back to the perimeter, or can they actually make something happen?
Every opposing defender should know that Gordon is happy to fire away from well beyond the arc. So, if he catches the ball within upwards of 30 feet of the basket and some space in front of him, Gordon can count on his defender running at him at full speed hoping to contest his shot.
Gordon can absolutely still knock down a three over a late contest, but on plays like this, he has a better option: pump fake and send the defender flying by, head toward the rim and make a snap decision from there. Watch this example, where Gordon leaves his man in the dust, draws the attention of Beal's defender with one dribble and then sets up Beal for an open triple:
If the Sixers fall into a position where they need Gordon to create or initiate offense for them on a remotely consistent basis, they will be in a rough spot. They would be better off not only playing Reggie Jackson, but perhaps even two-way point guard Jeff Dowtin Jr., as both players are much more capable of breaking down a defender off the dribble to create an advantage. But the threat of his three-point stroke will enable Gordon to make easy passing reads on occasion.
Defense
Gordon lacks the requisite athleticism and height to be a real stopper on the perimeter -- and there will be possessions where he is in trouble if left on an island against a dynamic, explosive ball-handler -- but even at his age, he is more than passable on the defensive end of the floor.
A few factors work in Gordon's favor here: the strength of his lower body, the quickness of his hands, his length and, perhaps most of all, the fact that he competes.
Gordon spent part of the Suns' first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves defending seven-footer Karl-Anthony Towns. This was largely sparked by Phoenix's horrid frontcourt depth, but the fact that it was even considered does speak to Gordon's strength. Defending bigs certainly should not be a regular occurrence for Gordon, but he is absolutely viable against wings who have several inches and dozens of pounds on him because of his hands, length and motor.
Here, Gordon stands his ground and refuses to be bumped off his spot by a much bigger and stronger wing in transition (one you might be familiar with), then uses his hands to knock the ball free:
Gordon occasionally gets in trouble with fouling because of how aggressive he is in using his hands on defense, but they generally give him positive results.
Guards with a quick first step have a relatively easy time getting downhill against Gordon, and ones with length are able to neutralize Gordon's primary defensive strength and, as a result, avoid being blocked from behind.
All in all, Gordon will likely be a roughly neutral-impact defensive player with the Sixers -- barring a severe athletic decline from 2023-24 to 2024-25 -- particularly considering many of his minutes may come with Embiid, one of the league's most feared rim protectors, on the back line.
Conclusion
For a player signed to a minimum contract, I have little to no doubt that Gordon will give the Sixers a strong return on investment should he stay healthy. This is a player whose floor is that of someone who will knock down open threes, help create improved floor spacing around the team's three stars and not be a significant hindrance to the team's defensive output when he is in the game. It is likely not a move that comes with a ton of upside, but it seems like a safe bet that he will continue to be a nightly rotation piece as he joins his fifth NBA organization.
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