According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, we should add Thursday’s Houston Rockets opponent, the Knicks, to the long list of potential suitors for veteran guard Eric Gordon as the Feb. 10 trade deadline for the 2021-22 NBA season gradually draws near.
The widespread interest in Gordon is understandable. He turns 33 years old on Christmas, and Houston is in the middle of a rebuilding movement prioritizing the development of young players like 21-year-old Kevin Porter Jr. and 19-year-olds Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun.
But the Rockets (9-20) value Gordon’s on-court play in helping stabilize the season after a 1-16 start, and they also like his influence on younger teammates and their development. Gordon is already signed for 2022-23 at a reasonable salary of under $20 million annually, and he’s defending at an elite level and shooting well above 40% from 3-point range.
Thus, in a league craving “3&D” wings, Houston knows it can be patient and wait for a team to meet their understandably high asking price (likely involving prospects and/or future draft assets to better match with the timeline of general manager Rafael Stone’s rebuilding plan.
Might the Knicks (13-16) be that team? It’s a huge market team that has largely underachieved to this point in the season after making the 2020-21 Eastern Conference playoffs. Thus, there are high expectations from ownership that are failing to be met. Moreover, as Berman notes, there is a connection between Gordon and veteran Derrick Rose.
Knicks point guard Derrick Rose has had Rockets shooting guard Eric Gordon on his radar. Now, with the Dec. 15 trade marker past, Knicks president Leon Rose does, too.
The Post reported in 2016 — after Rose was traded to the Knicks — that he was trying to recruit the then-free agent Gordon to New York. Gordon eventually signed a deal with New Orleans.
Rose and Gordon go way back. They shared the backcourt for a Chicago-based AAU team, called the Mean Streets Express. They were nicknamed “The Eric and Derrick Show,” and some regard the duo as the best backcourt tandem in AAU history.
Berman notes that Gordon “is on a long list of potentially available players the Knicks have talked about internally, according to a source.”
Gordon struggled to score in Thursday’s loss to Rose and the visiting Knicks, recording just 5 points on 2-of-8 shooting (25.0%). But he did register a game-high 9 assists in his 30 minutes played at Toyota Center.
There is a long way to go until the Feb. 10 deadline, and Stone and the Rockets aren’t likely to rush into a deal. But the presence of an enormous market franchise in the bidding can’t hurt their leverage.
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Audition tonight? #Knicks have some Eric Gordon interest — with a Derrick Rose twist #NBA https://t.co/SO1dtUZbxo via @nypostsportsb
— Marc Berman (@NYPost_Berman) December 16, 2021
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