MINNEAPOLIS — Aaron Gordon reached for his leg, but he didn’t request a sub.
It was the third quarter of Denver’s eventual loss to the Timberwolves on Saturday, and Gordon had just dunked after receiving a long outlet pass from Nikola Jokic. Jogging back on defense, he blurted out a swear word. Could it be yet another flare-up of pain in the cursed right calf that has forced Gordon to sit out 21 games already?
“Oh, it wasn’t my calf. It was something else,” he said afterward, playing coy as to what exactly it was. “I’m fine. I’m good.”
In fact, Gordon’s calf isn’t much of a concern to him at all.
“I’m ready,” he said after the 133-104 loss. “I don’t feel my calf anymore. Yeah. I’m ready. So it’s on the training staff and the coaching staff now.”
For seven games, Gordon has been coming off the bench and playing on a minutes restriction since returning from a calf strain. He has not exceeded 25 minutes yet, but he clocked out at 24:38 in Minnesota, his largest portion of playing time so far during the ramp-up process.
“We just need to continue to stay with it,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Bring him off the bench for the time being, and utilize him in any way we can to help us get wins.”
Malone shared earlier this week that when he laid out the playing-time parameters to Gordon before his first game back, Gordon told him: “If you want to bring me off the bench, even when I’m healthy, bring me off the bench.” Denver’s 10th-year coach has maintained that he’s deferring to the team’s medical staff when it comes to decisions regarding the minutes restriction, which started around 20.
“I just want everyone to know how special Aaron Gordon is as a person,” Malone said last Tuesday, lauding the power forward’s selflessness.
Gordon briefly went to the locker room after the first quarter of Denver’s game on Thursday, visibly frustrated after a turnover, but he chalked it up to “aches and pains,” saying “I thought it was something more than what it was.”
He went for 13 points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and two turnovers in the loss to Minnesota. The 29-year-old is averaging 11.6 points on 53% shooting from the field in his seven recent games off the bench.
“Since he came here, he’s probably the guy who (has been) sacrificing himself the most,” Jokic said. “He changed his game. That’s who he is. He just wants to win.”
Malone has also said that all options are on the table for the Nuggets’ starting lineup once Gordon is fully healthy. The team is 18-6 when Russell Westbrook starts this season, an encouraging development that has left the coaching staff to consider whether the backup point guard should remain in the starting five going forward.
In the meantime, the Nuggets’ second unit has excelled with Gordon helping anchor Jokic’s rest stints. Usually, Malone goes to Gordon as a backup center once the playoffs arrive, but lately, Gordon has played in that lineup alongside DeAndre Jordan, a more traditional center. That has freed up Gordon to operate on the perimeter more, knocking down 3s at a high clip and lobbing alley-oops to Jordan.
“It’s a tale as old as time: It’s a point guard playing with a big man, with a center,” Gordon told The Post in Dallas this month. “That’s the relationship. A one playing with a five. Tale as old as time. As old as basketball.”
The Nuggets have a 9.5 net rating when Gordon is on the floor and Jokic is off, an indicator of the second unit’s newfound success. Malone didn’t rule out the possibility of continuing to stagger Gordon once he’s healthy, regardless of whether he’s starting or coming off the bench.
“We still have time to figure out what is best for our team moving forward,” Malone said. “But whether Aaron is out there with starters or the bench unit, I think good things are gonna happen because he’s just so (darn) talented.”
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