People have labeled Eric Gordon as “injury-prone”, and while this is a fairly well-deserved distinction, his entire injury history has not yet been comprehensively presented.
When making personnel decisions, it is essential to gather all of the facts before reaching a final conclusion. In the case of Eric Gordon, I am not so sure this has been accomplished. Yes, Gordon has missed 142 out of a possible 365 games so far, but apart from the right knee injury that has (directly or indirectly) caused 91 of those 142 missed games, what else has ailed him? More importantly, can we expect those previous injuries to pop up again in the future? Without further adieu, I present to you – Eric Gordon’s detailed injury history.
2008-09 Season (78 out of 82 games)
February 2009 (4 games) – Bruised left shoulder
2009-10 Season (62 out of 82 games)
November 2009 (8 games) – Strained groin
December 2009 (1 game) – Precautionary (hamstring tightness)
January 2010 (3 games) – Sprained left big toe
March 2010 (5 games) – Groin injury
April 2010 (3 games) – Viral infection (final 3 games of the season; Clippers tanking?)
2010-11 Season (56 out of 82 games)
November 2010 (2 games) – Bruised left shoulder
January 2011 (18 games) – Right wrist bone chip fracture (which he played through for 17 minutes after first suffering the injury)
March 2011(6 games) – Re-injury to right wrist
2011-12 Season (9 out of 66 games)
December 2011 (57 games) – Right knee injury
2012-13 Season (18 out of 53 games)
October 2012 (29 games) – Right knee injury
January 2013 (5 games) – Rest (back-to-back games)
February 2013 (1 game) – Sprained right hand (precautionary due to prior wrist injury)
So to break things down, he has missed games because of:
- Hamstring tightness (1)
- Sprained left big toe (2)
- Left shoulder bruise (6)
- Precautionary/rest/sickness (10)
- Strained groin (13)
- Right wrist/hand injury (24)
- Right knee injury (86)
The goal of this outline is not to push fans in one way or the other in regards to their opinions regarding Eric Gordon’s future in New Orleans, but merely to make them aware of what has ailed Gordon throughout his 4 1/2 year NBA career.
While it could certainly be argued that the first three listed injuries indicate some fragility, the only three injuries that stand out to me as cause for concern are the bottom three – his groin, right wrist, and right knee. It is pretty clear that the Hornets feel the same way, evidenced by Gordon’s late scratch from the lineup on Wednesday night. The team held him out with an injured hand despite his desire to play simply because it was near his previous right wrist injury.
Personally, I am not against trading Gordon, but I am against doing so before Thursday’s trade deadline, and I think the Hornets share this stance. As Rohan Cruyff from At the Hive mentioned on Friday, barring another major injury, I fail to see how Gordon’s trade value could sink much lower than it stands right now. Given the data above, I think that the approach of assuming he will sustain another devastating injury over the next 29 games is an overly paranoid one. By not playing Gordon in the second game of back-to-backs as well as holding him out of games purely as a precaution, the Hornets are clearly taking the most conservative approach that they can in order to ensure his long-term health. If team management decides that it would prefer to deal Eric Gordon, that is fine, but unless some unexpectedly great offer presents itself in the next 72 hours, I believe that waiting until the summer (at the earliest) is the team’s best option.
11 responses to “An Outline of Eric Gordon’s Injury History”
Players that get injured that much only hinder the development of their team
just wanted to repost some related comments I had in regards to an older article stating that we should trade ej right now. Since that one may not be read much, I wanted to repost here to see what ya’ll think.
Since the majority says they agree with your premise, let me highlight a few things I disagree on-
– that a gm can easily turn 13m of cap room into a player(s) equal or better than gordon (wouldn’t dell have let him walk if he thought that were the case?) Rhino was the score of the decade, dell’s best move at gm. Being a gm would be a snap if this move were easy to replicate. As for Rolo i seem to remember some writers on this site being completely down on this move saying they would not want him if the money was guaranteed. The point? even 5 m does not buy a sure thing. Gordon is a true closer and there are not many with his ability in this area out there or available. The skill is utterly necessary for a successful team and we don’t have it without him and 13 M does not automatically get you one. 20 M may: see rudy gay
– jsmitty as a the model for all that ej is not. smitty’s avg over a 4yr career, 62 games played and he appears to be heading that way this year. the nba is brutal, most everybody not named karl malone get’s hurt, ej takes the ball to the rim increasing frequency of injury
– the chemistry being sacrificed by missed games thing. What about the win streak we experienced upon his return? Monty is a lineup mix and matcher so there is little consistency already. Anyway I though our endgame this year was getting young players reps over getting w’s. Gordons back to back sits just aid that aim.
– was bout to write about our greatest need being at 3 but I think that was in jason’s articly. obviously if we trade ej our greatest need is at 2. afa and even darius > rivers
– general premise of this article. in all things with this team we are expected to be patient except for ej. from this article: “His value is relatively low now, but can you imagine what it will be if” before continuing to say it could go lower. to me there is much more potential for his value to go up, not to mention the whole trade veto thing. let’s not discount that ej wants to have a basketball career and he must know that he can not afford to sit out tons of games in the near future. I place the chances of his value going way up much higher than the chance they go way down
Appreciate the detailed feedback, enjoyed reading it. So, bottom line – if you had to choose what to do with Gordon and (if applicable) when to do it, what would your choice be?
Thank you, actually my point was it’s better to not have to make that determination now, that a wait and see approach with even two more months of data leaves us in a better position to reposition. This rebuilding process doesn’t need any hasty maneuvers that leave us with pennies on the dollar. As far as trade or keep in the offseason, my heart says keep but if he’s truly not buying into system (I don’t feel qualified to say whether he is or not) a deal has to be made and I’m quite sure we could find a taker
yep. Wait and see for me too. I never wanted him matched, but since we got him, might as well wait.
Teams will gamble on Gordon if he stays healthy, watch. We can’t just throw in the towel on it now. Hornets put their money on EG being healthy enough to play well for some internally designated portion of a five year stretch. They can’t consider it good after bad 1/10th of the way in.
Keep him healthy as you can and explore options once his veto goes away and he has (hopefully) had the chance to take the court consistently, even if for just a short while.
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