NBA New Orleans Pelicans

Eric Gordon’s Early Offensive Woes Are Troublesome

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By @KellanMiller

Eric Gordon

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Repurposing old sports jargon, there are exactly three tiers of what constitutes a “maddening” player.

In tier one, there are the exceptional players on opposing teams that cause heartbreak for you year after year, like what Michael Jordan was to a Utah Jazz or New York Knicks‘  fan in the 90s.

In tier two you have the players who are just inexplicably angry people, like Rasheed Wallace, DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins, or Ron Artest before he adopted a philosophy of “peace” but yet still managed to chunk up ridiculous three-point shots like a madman.

But in tier three, you have players who are so streaky and inconsistent that they cause blood pressure spikes on a nightly basis. A player like J.R. Smith comes to mind, who enjoys tomfoolery much more than the game of basketball. An even worse example is Eric Gordon of the New Orleans Pelicans.

I’ll preface the following brutal onslaught of criticism by saying that Gordon is one of the most gifted athletes in the league. He proved as much as early as his rookie season with the  Los Angeles Clippers, eventually ending the year averaging 16.1 PPG.

Gordon peaked in the 2010-11 season, averaging 22.3 PPG to go along with 4.4 APG. But in the following year, in his first season with New Orleans, he missed most of the season with nagging knee injuries. There is no other way to say it — Gordon is playing absolutely terrible basketball.

In the preseason matchup with the Dallas Mavericks, Gordon had an all-around solid game, but in Saturday’s matchup with the Mavericks (you know, the one that actually counts), he was simply miserable. In 34 minutes of gameplay, Gordon failed to score a point. If this Roy Hibbert-esque performance surprises you, the story only gets worse. Gordon piled on the stats with just one assist and one rebound.

Adding on to the Gordon-bashing, the guard wasn’t too impressive in the Pelicans’ debut matchup with the Orlando Magic either, failing to score double-digits. In his defense, New Orleans has assembled its most imposing roster in years, featuring a constellation of talent that has taken some of the pressure Gordon was subjected to in the past.

He is more of a facilitator these days in Monty Williams‘ scheme. However, in order to land a seed in the Western Conference, Gordon will have to become reminiscent of the player we have witnessed in the past. It will also help if he manages to stay injury-free, which has been his Achilles heel for the majority of his career.

On the bright side, Gordon is well aware that he needs to step his game up. When speaking to John Reid (nola.com) about his new role as facilitator rather than the primary focus of opposing teams, he had this to say, ”Overall, I don’t get a chance to do some of the things that I do best as far as coming off a lot of pick and rolls, catching and shooting. It’s just different for me. But at the same time, I just can’t have a game like [Saturday].”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Hopefully we will see a lot less “maddening” performances by Gordon in the future. The season is early, so there is no point for Pelicans fans to freak out now. But if there is no points on the stat line for Gordon next time, it may be time to press the panic button.

Kellan Miller is a writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @KellanMiller, “like” him on Facebook, or add him on Google Plus.

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