This has truly been a bizarre season for the Nuggets, feeling in many ways like one long series of unfortunate events. Maybe the weirdest part has been their usually reliable clutch offense, which has let them down this season. Somehow, the team is just 14-15 in clutch games (games that are within 5 points at any time under 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter) and just 6-13 in games with Nikola Jokic in the lineup.

It’s puzzling and concerning, as closing teams out has been a staple for the Nuggets for almost a decade now. They’ve withstood all kinds of crazy injuries this season that have impacted the team in a variety of ways, but as long as Jokic and Jamal Murray are on the court, you’d expect to see a very good offense in crunch time, at the very least.

Yet that hasn’t been the case, and while the team searches for answers, one of the biggest ones is actually fairly obvious, and that’s the absence of Aaron Gordon. Everyone is quick to point out how vital AG is to the defense and how they fall off a cliff without him, and that’s absolutely true.

But that’s completely dismissive of how good an offensive player Gordon is, and how massive his presence is for the team on that end. The two-man game of Murray and Jokic is a masterpiece, but you don’t hear as much about how Gordon patrolling the dunker spot makes it all work.

Gordon’s absence is being felt on offense

We all remember the incredible Murray shot and Jokic dimes, but what about the Gordon alley-oops and corner threes? Without him, the spacing has gotten muddied, and the Nuggets don’t have a true threat around the rim with the Joker playing on the perimeter or out of the high post. 

He’s either operating with the ball or in actions with Murray, and that leaves them without a true finishing threat near the rim. Bruce Brown and Christian Braun can try to fill that role, but those are smaller guys who don’t threaten defenses as much, not to mention their rim finishing is nothing close to the explosion that AG brings.

That’s not even to mention his improved outside game as Gordon is shooting above 40% from three for the second straight season while being a real threat to take guys off the dribble, or punish them in the paint.

Denver has shooters like Cam Johnson and Tim Hardaway Jr., who can space the floor in crunch time, but that leads to a lot of guys standing around, watching Jamal and Nikola operate. Gordon’s presence changes the gravity of the floor and tilts things in favor of the Nuggets. 

It gives Murray and Jokic more space, it frees up the shooters who are spacing on the outside, and it gives them a viable threat to finish an oop or grab an offensive rebound. So, while everyone is waiting for him to come back and fix the defense, and that’s very important, let’s not undersell the impact he can have on this offense as well.