Eric Gordon Having Another Disappointing Season for New Orleans Hornets

When the New Orleans Hornets signed Eric Gordon to a long-term deal, they obviously had high hopes for the now 24-year-old guard. They were hoping that he could develop into the scorer that he had shown the promise of one day becoming and that he could stay relatively healthy. Now in his second season with the Hornets it seems like the team may have made a bad call.

In the two seasons that he has been in New Orleans Gordon has appeared in just 40 games out of a total of 137 that the team has played. That’s not a good ratio for a player that was supposed to be a key contributor to the team. His prolonged absences have almost all been due to various injuries, most of them relating to his knees.

However, the really troubling part about Gordon, particularly in the 31 games that he’s appeared in this season, is that he hasn’t even been effective when he’s been on the court. This year he is averaging just 16.5 points, 3.1 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.5 rebounds per game. Even more troubling, Gordon is only shooting 40.3 percent from the floor and 34.4 percent from deep this season.

Gordon has never been an efficient scorer, shooting just 44.5 percent from the field for his career. Some of his troubles also have to be attributed to the fact that he hasn’t been healthy for long periods of time this year and is still limited in what he can do, like not playing in back-to-back games to help him regain strength in his knee.

With his injuries and his lack of production this season, though, it really seems as if Gordon may have been a bad investment on the part of the Hornets. They are in the process of rebuilding their franchise around young players that they can develop. Gordon is still young, but it also feels like he may have reached the pinnacle of his talents in the NBA. If that’s the case his value is limited in regards to what the Hornets are trying to do.

If Gordon is able to stay healthy, something that doesn’t exactly seem likely at this point and given his history, there’s no doubt that he can be a quality scorer if he’s allowed to dominate the ball a good bit of the time. His place with New Orleans, though, seems to be an uneasy one. If the Hornets could move him, it’d probably be in their best interest if they did so.

 

Cody Williams is a Senior NBA Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20 and like his Facebook page.