Why Aaron Gordon's 50-point night and 3-point outburst are a sign of things to come for the Nuggets

SAN FRANCISCO -- Aaron Gordon didn't want the game ball. 

That might be a first in basketball history for a player who just scored a career-high 50 points while going 10 for 11 from 3-point range. But because the Denver Nuggets lost a 137-130 overtime thriller to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night, Gordon respectfully declined the honor.

"It sucks," he said with a slight scowl after the loss. "They're asking if I wanted the game ball. No, I don't want the game ball. Take the L home with me. No thank you."

Gordon's demeanor was the total reverse of the elation that he and Denver felt after, about half an hour earlier, he nailed his 10th 3-pointer of the night to put the Nuggets up by three with 25 seconds left in regulation.

Unfortunately, one of the opposing players happened to be Stephen Curry, who did what Stephen Curry does to hand the Nuggets the hard-fought loss.

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Result aside, the Nuggets have to be ecstatic with what they saw from Gordon in the opener. He joined Michael Jordan, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to score at least 50 points in a season opener. His 10 3s were also a career high, and that was obviously the key aspect of the performance.

Two seasons ago, Gordon shot just 29% from beyond the 3-point arc. His value to the 2023 NBA champions came with his defense, his IQ, his cutting, his size and athleticism. Last season, however, he made an eye-popping jump to 43.6% in a decent sample of 51 games. With that came the inevitable questions of whether the uncharacteristic marksmanship was an outlier.

On Thursday night, from his first 3-pointer midway through the first quarter, you could tell that Gordon's mechanics, confidence and concentration were all there. But this kind of thing doesn't happen by accident. It's the culmination of years of work, honing your craft nearly every single day.

"I mean, I've been doing this since I was 18," Gordon said. "So I've had some reps."

David Adelman, who was a longtime Nuggets assistant before assuming the head coaching position at the end of last season, has noticed a significant difference in Gordon's jumper.

"There's a calmness to his shot. I think it's really noticeable," he said of Gordon after the game. "... A guy with that kind of size and that ability to blow by you and dunk the ball, you're gonna take your time closing out to him, so he can take his time to shoot the ball. I think he's figured that out. ... It's been really cool to see him transform as a shooter over the years."

A transformation, indeed. With all the offensive weapons that the Nuggets have, the last thing opponents wanted to see was another knockdown 3-point shooter. It appears that's what Gordon has become, thanks to specific work on speeding up his shot and his balance.

"You shoot 15 minutes before practice. You shoot 15 minutes after practice, and then you have, like, the resolve to shoot it in the game and work on what you practice over and over and over," Gordon said. "Not worry about the misses and shoot the right ones, and you're inevitably going to get better."

He can downplay it all he wants, but every NBA player shoots all the time, and most don't see the kind of improvement that Gordon has experienced over the past two years. Of course, he's not going to go 10 for 11 every night, but he clearly has the confidence to significantly increase his 3.4 attempts per game from a season ago.

Gordon also seems to have an affinity for playing in his native Bay Area. He had a 38-point game at Chase Center last season, and dropped 30 there in 2024. While he can credit his own hard work for his shooting improvement, Gordon needed to give it up to Warriors legend DJ D Sharp for getting his blood flowing when he's back home.

"The DJ was playing slaps. So I'm vibing the whole game," Gordon said. "He's playing just the straight Bay that I grew up with. Just like hyphy music. So I was just out getting hyphy."

Gordon won't be the only one getting "hyphy" if he continues this kind of shooting. Denver's offseason additions of Cameron Johnson, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valančiūnas already have many picking them as the Oklahoma City Thunder's strongest competition out West. Gordon making another leap as a shooter takes an already potent offense into another stratosphere.

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Draymond Green, who has known Gordon since he was young, has tracked his improvement over the years. He noted the variety of Gordon's 3-pointers on Thursday night -- some spot-up, some off the dribble, some off of pin downs -- and understands what an important part of Denver's puzzle the 12-year veteran is.

"Obviously [Nikola Jokić] is who he is, obviously Jamal [Murray] is who he is. But he's been that steady force outside of those two guys for this group," Green said of Gordon. "That's the reason they are champions and continue to be one of the better teams in this league."