The Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets have agreed on a deal to send Aaron Gordon and Gary Clark to Denver, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Gary Harris, R.J. Hampton and a protected 2025 first-round pick will go to the Magic.
How much better are the Nuggets now? Did the Magic get enough in the deal?
Kevin Pelton hands out trade grades for both teams.
The deal
Nuggets get: Aaron Gordon, Gary Clark
Magic get: Gary Harris, R.J. Hampton, 2025 protected first-round pick
Get more trade grades from Pelton here
Denver Nuggets: A-
With the Boston Celtics mired at 21-23, the Nuggets were the first above-.500 team to strike a deal on deadline day. It's a strong one that should solidify Denver's chances of making another deep run after getting to last year's Western Conference finals.
The narrative that the Nuggets were badly missing Jerami Grant, who started in last year's playoff run, was misguided. Denver's plus-4.6 point differential is dramatically better than the team's plus-2.1 mark in 2019-20 and also better than in 2018-19 (plus-4.0), when the Nuggets finished second in the West but were knocked off in the second round of the playoffs. The difference in the standings has entirely been a product of Denver struggling in unpredictable close games: The Nuggets are 6-7 (.462) in games decided by five or fewer points this season after going 12-9 (.571) in 2019-20 and an unsustainable 19-5 (.792) in 2018-19.
Still, Denver did need a more athletic defender to handle the kinds of difficult assignments against the likes of Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James that Grant did in the 2020 playoffs. Enter Gordon, a good match for Grant in terms of size and quickness who should fit nicely into the Nuggets' starting five. Gordon gives Denver coach Michael Malone all sorts of lineup options at forward, where he can pair with any of wing Will Barton, fellow combo forward Michael Porter Jr. and veteran power forward Paul Millsap depending on the opposition.
Denver is giving up something in terms of shooting. Throughout his career, 3-point shooting has been a swing skill for Gordon, and he's hitting a career-high 37.5% of his 3-point attempts after knocking down seven in eight tries during Orlando's upset win over the Brooklyn Nets last weekend. I wouldn't expect those results over just 112 shots to continue, though they do offer hope that Gordon can improve on his career 32% accuracy going forward and be an average 3-point shooter or better.
Still, with Porter presumably a fixture in the starting lineup going forward alongside Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, the Nuggets should have enough shooting to go around. Whoever they put in the fifth spot -- Barton, Millsap, JaMychal Green, Monte Morris -- will also be able to space the court, which opens up intriguing possibilities with Gordon screening for either Jokic or Murray.
As my colleague Zach Lowe has explored, Gordon envisions himself as a ballhandling wing, an idea that never translated into successful offense in Orlando. Because they've been battered by injuries at point guard, the Magic used Gordon as a point forward with second units this season. But pick-and-rolls with Gordon as the ball handler still generated just .89 points per chance, according to Second Spectrum, ranking in the 24th percentile among players who have run at least 100 of them so far.
Ideally, Denver will use Gordon more on the opposite side of the pick-and-roll as a screener who can finish above the rim or make plays with a man advantage when teams trap the ball handler. Despite the Magic's lack of dynamic playmakers, pick-and-rolls with Gordon screening have produced an above-average 0.98 points per chance over the last four seasons, via Second Spectrum. Yet Gordon has set just 12.8 on-ball screens per 100 possessions in that span. I could also see Gordon be effective running inverted pick-and-rolls with Murray as the screener, along the lines of how Malone uses Jokic at times.
The cost of adding Gordon was also quite reasonable for the Nuggets. They surely hated to part with Hampton, acquired in a draft-night trade in exchange for a lottery-protected first-round pick in 2023, though how he fit in long term with Murray remained to be seen. This deal also costs them another first-rounder, which they can send two years after the pick going to Oklahoma City for Hampton, meaning 2025 at the earliest.
The biggest challenge for Denver will be making sure all the salaries fit long term for a franchise that has been reluctant to pay the luxury tax. Gordon's $16.4 million 2021-22 salary actually means the Nuggets will save substantial money relative to the $20.5 million plus incentives Harris was due. But re-signing Gordon could be tricky with Jokic and Murray already on max salaries and Porter due a big extension that would kick in during the 2022-23 season.
Still, given that part of the value for the Nuggers was getting out from under Harris' 2021-22 salary, they're not quite giving up two first-round picks for the upgrade on the court. That's well worth it to add a player who's entering his prime at age 25 and fits ideally with the Nuggets' core talent.
For now, that's an issue for another day. With the Clippers performing at an inconsistent level and the Lakers dealing with injuries to Anthony Davis and LeBron James, Denver surely saw an opportunity to repeat or perhaps even improve on last year's playoff run. Given the depth of the Western Conference, I don't think that's a reasonable expectation. But the Nuggets now have a stronger starting five and rotation than the one that knocked off the Clippers in the bubble, so nothing can be ruled out.
Orlando Magic: C
Without knowing the other offers, it's difficult to say whether the Magic maximized Gordon's value, but this return feels a bit lighter than expected based on Orlando taking back Harris' contract. As the Magic start a rebuilding process, their roster tilts heavily toward shooting guards with Harris joining sixth man Terrence Ross at the position this season and next.
I suppose it's possible that Harris could stay healthy and rebuild his value as an expiring contract ahead of the 2022 trade deadline. The first part of that equation has been the trick. Harris has missed 22 games this season (and counting) with an adductor strain after missing all eight seeding games and the first five playoff games for Denver in the bubble due to a hip strain. And even then, Harris' $20-plus million salary suggests a buyout is a more likely outcome next spring than a trade.
Hampton is an interesting fit for an Orlando team that signed starting point guard Markelle Fultz to a three-year extension before he suffered a season-ending ACL tear earlier this season and drafted point guard Cole Anthony nine picks ahead of Hampton last November.
In the short term, there will be plenty of opportunity for Hampton with Anthony currently alongside Fultz on the sidelines due to a rib fracture. And the 6-foot-4 Hampton and 6-foot-6 Fultz both have enough size to defend either guard spot, though playing them in spot-up roles offensively is not ideal because of their limited shooting. (Hampton is 5-for-18 from 3-point range thus far in his sparse NBA action.)
Ultimately, I wonder how much deciding to trade Nikola Vucevic earlier Thursday and plunge headfirst into rebuilding compelled the Magic to simply take the best offer available for Gordon rather than waiting out a potentially more robust offseason trade market.