Team: Denver Nuggets · Position: PF · Age during season: 31
Reported baseline
Gordon appeared in only 36 games in 2025-26, averaging 16.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.7 threes on 49.7% FG and 76.7% FT.1 He missed 39 of Denver's first 62 games with a right hamstring injury, then missed most of the first-round series with left-calf trouble.2 ESPN's July snapshot ranked him 99th standard and 132nd roto.3
Encyclopedia projection
| GP | MPG | FG% (FGA) | FT% (FTA) | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 30 | .505 (10.3) | .760 (4.1) | 1.5 | 15.0 | 5.7 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.2 |
9-cat per-game band: 115-155. Points: late middle rounds per game, late rounds in totals. Dynasty: declining veteran whose real-life importance exceeds fantasy scarcity.
Fantasy profile
- Helps: FG%, rebounds, low turnovers, useful points and threes.
- Hurts/neutral: FT volume can be a mild drag; stocks are too low for a defensive-role forward.
- Floor: outside the top 180 in totals with another sub-50-game season.
- Ceiling: top 90 per game if he reaches 32 MPG and restores modest defensive stats.
- Best build: punt-FT or efficiency-forward late-round construction.
Role, health, and transaction uncertainty
Gordon is Denver's irreplaceable big-wing defender and cutter, but team leadership publicly said difficult health conversations were necessary and left roster overhaul on the table.4 Roster confidence medium-high, minutes high when active, rate medium-high, availability low.
Sources
Career record
Pre-NBA: One season at Arizona (2013-14) as a one-and-done freshman, Pac-12 Freshman of the Year on a Sweet 16 team. Draft: 2014, first round, 4th pick, Orlando.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | 19 | ORL | 47 | 17.0 | 5.2 | 3.6 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | .447 | .721 | 0.8 |
| 2015-16 | 20 | ORL | 78 | 23.9 | 9.2 | 6.5 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.5 | .473 | .668 | 0.8 |
| 2016-17 | 21 | ORL | 80 | 28.7 | 12.7 | 5.1 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.0 | .454 | .719 | 1.1 |
| 2017-18 | 22 | ORL | 58 | 32.9 | 17.6 | 7.9 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 2.0 | .434 | .698 | 1.8 |
| 2018-19 | 23 | ORL | 78 | 33.8 | 16.0 | 7.4 | 3.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.6 | .449 | .731 | 2.1 |
| 2019-20 | 24 | ORL | 62 | 32.5 | 14.4 | 7.7 | 3.7 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 1.2 | .437 | .674 | 1.6 |
| 2020-21 | 25 | ORL | 25 | 29.4 | 14.6 | 6.6 | 4.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.7 | .437 | .629 | 2.7 |
| 2020-21 | 25 | DEN | 25 | 25.9 | 10.2 | 4.7 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | .500 | .705 | 1.2 |
| 2021-22 | 26 | DEN | 75 | 31.7 | 15.0 | 5.9 | 2.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.2 | .520 | .743 | 1.8 |
| 2022-23 | 27 | DEN | 68 | 30.2 | 16.3 | 6.6 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.9 | .564 | .608 | 1.4 |
| 2023-24 | 28 | DEN | 73 | 31.5 | 13.9 | 6.5 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.5 | .556 | .658 | 1.4 |
| 2024-25 | 29 | DEN | 51 | 28.4 | 14.7 | 4.8 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.5 | .531 | .810 | 1.4 |
| 2025-26 | 30 | DEN | 36 | 27.9 | 16.2 | 5.8 | 2.7 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.7 | .497 | .767 | 1.1 |
| Career | 756 | 29.2 | 13.7 | 6.2 | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.1 | .485 | .698 | 1.5 |
Durability: Twelve seasons, five of them under 60 games: 47 as a rookie, 58 in 2017-18, 50 across the 2021 trade season, 51 in 2024-25, and a career-low 36 in 2025-26. The recent pattern is soft-tissue and recurring. In 2025-26 hamstring trouble cost him 39 of Denver's first 62 games, and a left calf strain then knocked him out of Games 3, 5 and 6 of the first round against Minnesota — the first playoff games he had missed since joining the Nuggets. Causes for the earlier absences are not verified here. His four healthy Denver seasons (75, 68, 73 games) show the body held up fine through age 28; the last two years are the break in the trend.
Trajectory: The arc is a high-usage, low-efficiency Orlando forward who was recast in Denver as a finisher and defender — field goal percentage jumped from the .430s to the .500s the moment he started playing off Jokić, while usage and turnovers fell. Scoring rate has actually held up: 16.2 per game in 2025-26 was his best since 2022-23, on a career-best three-point volume. What has eroded is availability and the defensive counting stats, with steals and blocks both down near career lows for three straight years. He enters 2026-27 at 31 as Denver's starting power forward and the only wing defender on the roster who can guard up, with Portland, Boston and Miami all reported to have checked in on him. For fantasy he is a per-game late-rounder whose totals value collapses on any repeat of 36 games; the condition that changes his outlook is simply health — a 65-game season at 30 minutes puts him back inside the top 100, and a trade to a team where he is a first or second option would raise the rate but not the risk.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · Nuggets rule Gordon out of Game 3 (NBA.com/AP) · Gordon's injuries persist in Timberwolves series (Colorado Springs Gazette) · 2026 NBA offseason trade tracker (NBA.com)
Open questions
- Is Gordon unrestricted in camp after the hamstring/calf sequence?
- Does Denver trade one expensive starter to fund Peyton Watson?
- Can his regular-season workload be reduced without weakening Denver's defense?
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ESPN, Denver 2025-26 stats, accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/den/denver-nuggets ↩
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Sam Amick, “Aaron Gordon could return this week. The Nuggets’ season depends on him,” The Athletic via NBA.com, March 2026; accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.nba.com/news/the-athletic-aaron-gordon-could-return-nuggets-depend-on-him ; NBA.com/AP, April 2026. https://www.nba.com/news/nuggets-rule-aaron-gordon-out-of-game-3-against-the-timberwolves-with-tightness-in-his-calf ↩
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ESPN Fantasy Basketball, dynamic 2026-27 rank feed, extracted July 18, 2026. https://fantasy.espn.com/basketball/players/projections ↩
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NBA.com/AP, “Denver’s playoff struggle didn’t cost David Adelman. The roster, though, could be wide open,” May 9, 2026; accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.nba.com/news/denvers-playoff-struggle-didnt-cost-david-adelman-the-roster-though-could-be-wide-open ↩