Anthony Davis is back and healthy. Greivis Vasquez finally got some love, winning Western Conference Player of the Week today (check out his numbers from the past three games: 21 points, 10 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals a night). Ryan Anderson is putting up even better numbers than he did last year next to Dwight Howard. Outside of Austin Rivers and his historically bad start to his rookie season, everything is looking up in New Orleans. Eric Gordon‘s presence is merely icing on the cake.
Before returning to throw up 24 points and seven dimes in 25 minutes off the bench on Saturday night, Gordon hadn’t played since April 22 because of knee issues. He had offended New Orleans fans, hurt his own reputation, watched players like James Harden and O.J. Mayo vault above him in league rankings, and screwed over like 1,453 fantasy teams. Yet he looked fantastic in his season debut, and suddenly, along with the other positives mentioned above, it doesn’t hurt so much to be a Hornets/Pelicans fan (even if the team is still only 7-23).
HOOPSWORLD reports that the Hornets aren’t planning on trading Gordon anytime soon, and instead hope that now that he’s on the court playing with his teammates, his stance on the organization will soften. While reports differ on whether EG actually wants to be there, the Hornets believe trading him anytime soon would be bad business. They’d rather wait until he proves his knee is healthy so they can count on better value once trade restrictions lift this summer (Gordon can currently veto any trade).
Whether or not the reports coming out of New Orleans concerning Gordon’s love/hate relationship with the team are true, it sounds like they won’t matter. He’ll be with the team at least through this season. If he can stay healthy, Gordon’s talent could help make the Hornets one of the most exciting League Pass teams to watch the rest of the way.
We wouldn’t really enjoy playing for a team soon to be called the Pelicans (this is still a terrible name, no other way around it). But, we would love to play for a squad that already features Davis, Anderson, Vasquez and Robin Lopez. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Do you think Gordon will be with New Orleans for the long haul?
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