For Rockets guard and renowned 3-point marksman Eric Gordon, the positive aspect of the NBA’s hiatus due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is that it gives him a chance to finally get healthy.
Gordon has missed 30 of Houston’s 64 games this season due to injury, with most due to a surgical procedure on his right knee in November. When he plays, Gordon is the third-leading scorer on the Rockets (40-24), averaging 14.5 points in 28.6 minutes per game.
The downside to the current situation is that with team facilities closed amid today’s era of social distancing, he no longer has access to a basketball hoop. In a new interview, the 31-year-old told the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen that he isn’t able to shoot around at home.
Gordon’s comments:
I don’t have a basket or a rim at home. But I don’t worry about that too much.
New #Rockets at #TXSN – Hiatus includes no shooting for Rockets’ Eric Gordon https://t.co/cBlX9GU905
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) April 9, 2020
However, Gordon is able to do the workouts sent to him and other Rockets players by director of athletic performance Javair Gillett.
“I’ve been working out, mostly at home,” Gordon told Feigen. … “I feel really good at this point, so when it does kick back in, I don’t have to worry about doing the rehab work I had to do during the season.”
Gordon, who says he’s open to the idea of resuming the 2019-20 season in a sequestered environment such as Las Vegas, explained that the nature of an in-season surgery made his return difficult. He told Feigen:
It’s always tough when you have a surgery during the season, and you try to get back as soon as you can. When you’re balancing trying to work through an injury, trying to get back healthy — all-the-way healthy — and as a team trying to figure out things, we just were kind of inconsistent. We dealt with a lot of inconsistencies: me not being able to play as many games as I wanted, and as a team going on winning streaks and then losing streaks. We know how good and capable we are when the season gets back going.
Gordon’s shooting percentages have dipped from 40.9% overall and 36.0% on 3-pointers last season to 37.0% and 31.9%, respectively, in his injury plagued 2019-20 campaign to date.
At face value, it might seem that not having access to a basketball goal would be harmful to a 3-point gunner seeking to rediscover his shooting accuracy. But considering the role of injuries in Gordon’s decline, perhaps total time off is what he needs most to recapture his old form.
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