Aaron Gordon's career trajectory is a fascinating one.
He was drafted by the Orlando Magic fourth overall in the 2014 NBA draft after piecing together one of the finest high school and college resumes in the nation.
Gordon was almost immediately given the reigns of Orlando's offense and did a more than serviceable job as a main option, advancing to the postseason in 2019. Then, when Orlando went into a rebuild, Gordon was sent to Denver in a blockbuster deal.
His role in Denver has been much narrower, and he's been asked to do more specific things. Guard the opposition's best player like his life depends on it. Crash the offensive glass relentlessly. Cut. Always stay moving. Set screens for Denver's ball handlers, roll to the rim with a purpose, and utilize his ridiculous hops to slam home monstrous dunks where no defender can reach him.
Gordon's excelled in that role since first touching down in the Mile High City. It's like he was born to do it. He's been the ultimate high-level glue guy for the franchise. No stretch better emblematized his tremendous value to the team than the 2023 postseason.
In the playoffs, Gordon took on the opposition's best players like he had all season. LeBron James. Kevin Durant. Jimmy Butler. Karl-Anthony Towns. Collectively, he held those four players to just 42.6 percent shooting, well below the league's average shooting percentage of 47.5 percent.
Durant, one of the most efficient players in the league, made just 38.2 percent of his shots when guarded by Gordon. Towns was even less successful at 37 percent with Gordon as the primary defender. Both stars tower over Gordon by 2-to-3 inches, but 'AG' used his physicality to push them off their spots and make them uncomfortable.
He was the lynchpin of Denver's 4th-ranked playoff defense, but in the Finals, Gordon was asked to expand outside of that role. Yes, he continued to guard the opposition's best player, Miami's Jimmy Butler, but Denver brandished Gordon's freakish athleticism and size on offense to build an early 1-0 lead.
Most will point to Gordon's 27-point Game 4 performance as his keystone Finals moment, but Game 1 was when he really put his stamp on the series.
Miami's roster was loaded with talent and top-notch three-point shooting, and it's how they advanced to the NBA Finals as the first 8-seed in more than two decades.
But they had one key weakness. The roster was fairly small across the board. Its center, Bam Adebayo, is just 6'9, and three of its remaining five starters were 6'5 or shorter.
Knowing this, Denver devised a very specific game plan. They used Gordon as a 6'9 battering ram to attack Miami's fatal flaw of size with post-ups.
To do so, they had Gordon streak ahead of the pack after rebounds, find a smaller HEAT player, burrow his way underneath the basket, and seal that player off for unopposed buckets at the cup. It was an excellent way to attack Miami's transition defense, which had previously been near-unpenetrable heading into the Finals.
Denver also utilized Gordon as a screener against Miami's switch-heavy defense, especially when Jamal Murray handled the ball. Gordon would set a screen, his defender (typically Butler) would switch onto Murray, and then Gordon would be served up the switch against Murray's defender. He was especially dogged about attacking 6'2 Gabe Vincent this way.
Overwhelming Miami's guards allowed Gordon to build a rhythm, and he began to start backing down his primary matchups. On paper, Caleb Martin and Butler could at least hope to match AG with size and strength, but Gordon looked utterly unphased and bombarded Miami's wings on overpowering drives to the rim. The HEAT had no answers in single coverage.
So, Miami started to send a second defender on Gordon's post-ups, and the Arizona product responded by zipping a dime to a completely unguarded Michael Porter Jr. in the corner, the regular season's best wide-open three-point shooter according to percentage.
"I felt Aaron really kind of set the tone on both ends of the floor for us," said head coach Michael Malone after Denver's 104-93 victory in Game 1. "He's done that all year long, whether it's in transition versus a cross-match, sitting down, posting up a smaller guy, sealing him in the paint, (and) going up strong."
You could make a pretty strong case that Gordon was one of Denver's three most important players throughout the championship run. He played his role to a tee by guarding some of the best players on the planet while filling the necessary gaps on offense.
Then, when his team needed it most, Gordon tapped into what made him a lead option in Orlando with his vicious back-to-the-basket game. Gordon's post-ups generated 1.48 points per possession in the 2023 postseason, a 96th-percentile ranking. This was a massive jump from the 0.99 points per possession his post-ups produced in the regular season, a 57th-percentile ranking.
That aspect of his expansive skillset handed Denver its inaugural NBA Finals victory and gave the Nuggets a head start on capturing the first championship in franchise history.