{"id":694177,"date":"2026-04-02T16:18:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694177\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:18:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:18:34","slug":"aaron-gordon-trade-between-nuggets-and-magic-revisited-5-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694177\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Gordon trade between Nuggets and Magic, revisited 5 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before it was arguably the best trade<\/a> in Nuggets history, it broke Nikola Jokic\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

It was March 25, 2021, and he was stuck on a bus at the Tampa Bay airport with his teammates. One of his favorites, Gary Harris<\/a>, was getting traded, and Jokic<\/a> didn\u2019t have it in him to start thinking about the return yet. \u201cI remember saying goodbye to Gary,\u201d he said, \u201cand I cried because I was so sad. We had a little bit (of a) good connection, and we played really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scene feels straight out of a time capsule now, as if it were specifically designed to document an unusual moment in NBA lore. For one, Tampa doesn\u2019t have a team. It never has. But it did have a tenant for one season. Travel regulations between the U.S. and Canada related to COVID-19 had rendered it a logistical nightmare for the Raptors to go back and forth across the border. The Toronto franchise was setting up shop in Florida to wait out the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Then there was the timing. The NBA trade deadline is typically in early February, but the 2020-21 season was running on a different schedule. It started around Christmas. It ended at 72 games, not the usual 82. And it featured a late-March cutoff for swapping players. Down was up, left was right.<\/p>\n

Enough for Aaron Gordon<\/a> to forget his five-year anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week?\u201d he reacted last Friday when approached for an interview about it. \u201cWas it really?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon was home in Orlando in 2021, waiting for news. He had requested a trade from the Magic after playing more than six years for the team that drafted him fourth overall. He knew he was about to have a new home. He just didn\u2019t know where it would be. He had no idea he would find basketball nirvana in Denver, downsizing his game and joining forces with Jokic to deliver a city its first NBA championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic dunks over Stuff the Orlando Magic mascot in the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Weekend 2016 at Air Canada Centre on Feb. 13, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Elsa\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Aaron ever did was win,\u201d said his agent, Calvin Andrews, who has known Gordon for most of his life. \u201cThat\u2019s all he did. So I know how important winning was to him. So when we had the conversation about Denver, the conversation was like, \u2018Don\u2019t you want to get back to winning?\u2019 \u2026 OK. Then you might have to play a certain role with this organization in order for them to win. He\u2019s like, \u2018I get it. I\u2019m all in for that.\u2019 And that\u2019s what happened.\u201d \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u2018Who can defend the monsters of the league?\u2019 <\/p>\n

Five years later, Denver\u2019s acquisition of Gordon has aged like wine, even if Gordon himself has aged into his 30s with rickety hamstrings and calves. For a franchise that has made several consequential blockbuster trades in its 60-year existence \u2014 most recently the infamous Carmelo Anthony saga in 2011<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s this smaller-scale deal that catapulted the Nuggets to new heights.\n<\/p>\n

Their net rating this season is 11 points better per 100 possessions when Gordon is on the court than when he\u2019s off it. Nobody else on the roster has an on-off impact exceeding five points on both offense and defense. Over the years, he\u2019s shape-shifted from power forward to point guard to backup center as needed, while solidifying himself as a fan favorite at Ball Arena. Few in the NBA have occupied the liminal space between stardom and role player-dom as gracefully as him. He\u2019s too good to be considered a supporting cast member, if not decorated enough to have his name on the marquee most nights.<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Gordon (32) of the Denver Nuggets stretches before the game against the Houston Rockets at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

The Nuggets got him by sending Orlando a package headlined by Harris, a locker room cornerstone<\/a> who had started 325 games over seven seasons. It also included rookie guard RJ Hampton and Denver\u2019s 2025 first-round draft pick, which was conveyed as the 25th selection last summer. Gary Clark accompanied Gordon to Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kicking it with my homies,\u201d Gordon recalled to The Denver Post about the day he was traded. \u201cAnd Denver wasn\u2019t really on my radar. Well, it was on my radar, but it was like Houston, Boston and Denver. \u2026 Got the call from Denver, and one of my homies was like, \u2018Bro, you guys are gonna win a championship.\u2019 I was like, \u2018What? For real? You think so?\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re about to fit in.\u2019 I said, \u2018OK, cool.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t sure whether to buy it. He hadn\u2019t given as much thought to the Nuggets as he had to the Celtics. He was more familiar with Boston as an opponent. He was intrigued by the potential fit there. But both teams had lost in the conference finals in 2020. Both were pursuing a win-now move to bolster their cores.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets\u2019 search for a glue guy who could raise their defensive ceiling dated back to the previous trade deadline, when they came close to acquiring Jrue Holiday from New Orleans, according to league sources. Their interest in Holiday, a lockdown 6-foot-4 guard, was partially driven by the idea that Steph Curry was still the league\u2019s preeminent offensive threat. Even as Curry recovered from a broken hand during a gap year for Golden State, rival teams felt scarred by the dynasty that had dominated the last half-decade. If the Nuggets were going to take the throne out West, they wondered whether they would need to prioritize adding someone who could chase Curry around screens.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut more often than not, you were gonna face the guys who were 6-6 to 6-9 who could handle, pass, shoot from three levels,\u201d said current Nuggets co-general manager Jon Wallace<\/a>, who was a lower-level front office employee under Tim Connelly<\/a> and Calvin Booth<\/a> at the time. \u201cThat\u2019s what you were gonna see more on a night-to-night basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holiday never got across the finish line in 2020. He went to Milwaukee in the offseason instead, providing the finishing touches on a championship Bucks team. Jerami Grant<\/a> left the Nuggets in free agency, wanting a more prominent role offensively than they could promise him. Their focus had shifted more singularly toward bigger wing defenders by the 2021 deadline. The front office canvassed the league for trade candidates on expiring contracts or rookie-scale deals. Someone who could keep Denver young.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kept saying, \u2018Who can defend the monsters of the league?\u2019 The Kawhis, the LeBrons, the Paul Georges, so forth,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cLuka (Doncic) was first coming into his own. \u2026 It was like, who can thread that needle of that size, that strength, but still having the mobility to move laterally to cut guys off?\u201d<\/p>\n

Internal metrics gathered by then-vice president of analytics Tommy Balcetis<\/a> and the front office suggested Gordon could be the answer. Purely from a basketball standpoint, he made perfect sense. But as the Nuggets closed in on him as a top target, they also dwelled on one wild-card variable. The loss of Grant had left behind a residual sting.<\/p>\n

Would Gordon embrace a smaller role after functioning as the Magic\u2019s primary scoring option? \u201cIt seemed like they were always fighting for, \u2018Who\u2019s the man? Who\u2019s gonna be the man in Orlando?\u2019\u201d former Nuggets assistant coach Popeye Jones told The Post last season. \u201cEverybody wanted the ball.\u201d Those concerns became the focal point of Denver\u2019s internal debates.<\/p>\n

\"Forward\/guardForward\/guard RJ Barrett (9) of the Toronto Raptors defends forward Aaron Gordon (32) of the Denver Nuggets during the second half of a 121-115 Nuggets win on Friday, March 20, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post)
\nA dirty-work job for a star<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, as Gordon weighed whether or not he wanted to request a trade, he told his agent that he felt like the prime of his career was slipping away in Orlando. That was the red flag to Andrews that it was time for Gordon to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about, \u2018Can I score 20 points a game?\u2019 We tried that, and that didn\u2019t work,\u201d Andrews said. \u201cAnd he was tired of kind of being a hamster, you know? And just spinning and spinning and trying to make things work, and it\u2019s just not working. So maybe we\u2019ve gotta do something a little different. Maybe you\u2019ve gotta play a little differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets, in particular, would demand a stylistic adjustment. They made that clear to Gordon\u2019s camp during the process. There would be less dribbling, less pick-and-roll. More read-and-react offense, more split action, more movement without the ball. It was decided by then: Jokic was Denver\u2019s system. He was about to win his first MVP trophy. He needed a lob threat in the dunker spot and a frontcourt partner who could cover for his deficiencies as a defender. This would be a dirty-work job. \u201cWe went back and forth a million times on, \u2018Is this the right move?’\u201d Wallace remembers. \u201c\u2018Is he going to buy in?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was extremely excited \u2026 just from knowing him in Orlando and knowing what he could bring to our team,\u201d said coach David Adelman, who had overlapped with Gordon as a Magic assistant. \u201cBut you never know if someone\u2019s gonna fit in, leaving a situation where the Magic had kind of given him basically a ball-handling, star role.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Magic had a deal in place with Houston leading up to the trade deadline, a league source told The Post, but the Rockets didn\u2019t get a sense that Gordon would sign a contract extension with them. That caused the deal to fizzle out \u2014 another crossroads that could have altered the course of multiple franchises, like Denver\u2019s pursuit of Holiday. Instead, Houston\u2019s withdrawal from the sweepstakes left the Nuggets and Celtics as Gordon\u2019s main suitors in the end.\n<\/p>\n

It all led to that bus in Tampa, where the Nuggets anxiously waited more than 30 minutes in front of the plane to find out who wouldn\u2019t be boarding their flight to New Orleans. They had lost a blowout to Toronto the night before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all yelling up to the front of the bus, like, \u2018Yo, Tim, who\u2019s getting traded? Tell us!\u2019\u201d Hampton told The Post in 2021<\/a>. Harris recounted later that he and Hampton \u201ckind of looked at each other, like, \u2018I think some (stuff) is going down.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the Nuggets finalized the deal with Orlando, Booth called Andrews seeking reassurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to ask you this one more time, man,\u201d Andrews remembers him saying. \u201cIf we trade for AG, is he gonna buy in?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews gave his word. He felt strongly that Gordon was the piece Denver was missing.<\/p>\n

Connelly went to the back of the bus to give Harris and Hampton the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey held the buses just in case the trade actually happened, out of respect. And when the trade did happen, it was actually the best situation,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cWe got to say goodbye to some important people. Gary was an enormous part of what we did here. So it was pretty emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NikolaNikola Jokic (15) of the Denver Nuggets jogs towards the outstretched hand of Aaron Gordon (32) after scoring against the Portland Trail Blazers during the third quarter at Ball Arena in Denver on Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)
\nThe \u2018perfect match\u2019 for Joker<\/p>\n

Ninety minutes away in Orlando, Gordon didn\u2019t know what to expect from his new team \u2014 especially from playing next to Jokic, who was an enigma to him and many other players outside of Denver at that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so quiet, you know?\u201d Gordon told The Post. \u201cSo like, around the league, he wasn\u2019t the guy you were looking at as the best in the league, because he was so quiet. He was such a silent killer. And when we played him, same thing. He wouldn\u2019t say a word. And he\u2019d dominate the game, and you\u2019d look up and say, \u2018This guy is just really killing us.\u2019 So I didn\u2019t know he was as good as he was when I got here. Then I started watching him in practice, in games, the way he was passing the ball, and I was like, this guy is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their chemistry was instantaneous. Gordon debuted on March 28 with 13 points in 20 minutes. The Nuggets won their first seven games with him in the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I got here and started playing with these guys, the energy that they played with, the talent that was around you, it was incredible,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n

\"DENVER,Aaron Gordon (50) of the Denver Nuggets wraps his hands around the NBA championship trophy on stage after winning the championship against the Miami Heat at Ball Arena June 12, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just was clicking,\u201d Andrews said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything click like this so fast. It just clicked. They were flying all over the court. Joker was throwing lobs. I mean, it was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Murray went down. The Nuggets had looked the part of a serious championship contender for two weeks, only for their star guard to suffer a torn ACL during Gordon\u2019s ninth game with the team.<\/p>\n

Plans were delayed two years. Gordon passed the time by reexamining his game, simplifying it to mesh with Jokic\u2019s surgical style. He trimmed the fat out, the occasional proclivity for poor shot selection<\/a>. He mastered the short corner. He turned a Denver warehouse into a personal gym and refined his 3-point shot. By the time Murray returned and the stars aligned for a championship run in 2023, he was a carefully crafted blend of athleticism, skill and creativity. He swears by Jokic now. He has journeyed to Serbia in the offseason to experience the big man\u2019s lifestyle. He recruited Jokic to 361, the company that now makes Jokic\u2019s signature sneakers. He has bought Jokic gifts out of gratitude over the years, from a customized saddle to a car<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has also signed two contract extensions with Denver<\/a>. The only uncertainty that looms over his current deal is his soft-tissue health, which keeps resurfacing as an irritant after more than a decade of highlight dunks. The Nuggets are holding their breath as another playoff run nears. They\u2019ve long since recognized he is their championship X-factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just turned out to be the perfect match for (Jokic and Murray), and it has been for all these years,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cObviously, it led to the ultimate success, winning a championship. So Aaron\u2019s been incredible from that trade, and Gary\u2019s time here was so impactful as well. So that was pretty crazy to have Gary, what he did, and then get Aaron on the back end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019s playing time and production dropped in Orlando, where he spent four full seasons before signing with the Bucks in 2025. Hampton played 145 more games in the NBA. He\u2019s out of the league now, playing in China. Orlando used the 2025 pick on Michigan State\u2019s Jase Richardson, who\u2019s averaging 11 minutes this season in the early stages of his development. The Magic hasn\u2019t won a playoff series since 2010.<\/p>\n

\"DenverDenver Nuggets players Aaron Gordon, left, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, sit on the ladder of a Denver Fire Department fire engine and wave to fans as they take part in the parade for the NBA champions in Denver, Colorado on June 15, 2023. The Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in five games to with their first ever NBA championship. Players, coaches and their families rode fire engines from Ball Arena, past Union Station up 17th Street to Broadway and to the Civic Center where a rally was held in their honor. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

The Nuggets clinched their eighth consecutive playoff appearance this week. Their trade history has long been highlighted by their 1980 swap of George McGinnis for Alex English, who became Denver\u2019s most celebrated hooper until Jokic. They\u2019ve exchanged Kiki Vandeweghe for Fat Lever. They\u2019ve traded away franchise stars, from David Thompson to Anthony. The latter turned into a pick swap, which years later became Murray \u2014 a chain reaction to introduce a championship window.\n<\/p>\n

When they traded for Gordon, they aggressively pried that window open. By the five-year anniversary last week, Jokic had wiped away the tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy we have AG, of course,\u201d he relented. \u201cHe\u2019s a unique player and a special player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before it was arguably the best trade in Nuggets history, it broke Nikola Jokic\u2019s heart. It was March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,4284,350,2276,7,4187,3628,765,250,30150,301,187,3943,766,404,5673,24313,2038,165,252,6,2828,253,302,3171,66,3994,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-694177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-alex-english","10":"tag-analytics","11":"tag-ball-arena","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-calvin-booth","14":"tag-carmelo-anthony","15":"tag-colorado","16":"tag-david-adelman","17":"tag-david-thompson","18":"tag-denver","19":"tag-denver-nuggets","20":"tag-denvernuggets","21":"tag-front-range","22":"tag-gary-harris","23":"tag-jerami-grant","24":"tag-jon-wallace","25":"tag-jrue-holiday","26":"tag-latest-headlines","27":"tag-more-nuggets-news","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-nba-trade-deadline","30":"tag-nikola-jokic","31":"tag-nuggets","32":"tag-serbia","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-tim-connelly","35":"tag-trade"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116336023656794903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}