Aaron Gordon targeting return this week, but Nuggets won’t rush

The Denver Nuggets are badly in need of size in their frontcourt and they have it on their injury list — but that won’t be the case for long.

The Athletic reports that star power forward Aaron Gordon is targeting a Friday return from his right hamstring injury when the Nuggets host the New York Knicks. The same story notes that it’s not known if the Nuggets will give him clearance to return after suffering a setback to the same injury earlier this season, just six weeks ago.

Gordon has been out since Jan. 23, his second long absence of the season with the same injury. He missed 19 games with that issue earlier in the season after initially going down Nov. 21 in Houston. He only returned for 10 games before succumbing to the injury again in Milwaukee while playing the second night of a back-to-back. Friday’s game is the second night of a back-to-back for the team, with games against the Lakers and Knicks coming in the next two days.

“They did some drills today, no contact today but it was good to see them out there,” David Adelman said of the team’s injuries after Wednesday’s practice. “No (updates). Peyton didn’t do much today, AG did more.”

The Nuggets no longer have any wiggle room left to play with as the playoffs are little more than a month away. But the team has been teetering for quite a while now at 38-24, dropping to fifth in the Western Conference, with 11 losses in their last 20 games. Gordon’s current issue has come at the same time Peyton Watson’s breakout season has also been derailed by a hamstring.

The Nuggets are 17-6 in the 23 games Gordon has played, including the tough stretch of play when Nikola Jokic was out with a knee injury and when Gordon was just coming back from his first hamstring injury. Denver’s defensive rating is 9.6 points better with Gordon on the court than with him off it. That means the choices the Nuggets make in handling Gordon’s comeback carry the weight of the entire season. They might have to push Gordon to play sooner because they need him or they might play it slow because they can’t risk losing him for the playoffs.

“The longer you can wait the better with a soft tissue injury,” Adelman said. “The more stress you can put on it daily to find the comfort level, allow us to have more confidence he can come back. He has to play full speed, we’re trying to win as many games as we can. It’s a high-stress thing on his body and we’re just making sure he’s ready for it.”

It’s the tightrope every team dreads. Gordon has now dealt with three hamstring strains in the last nine months — he first injured his left hamstring in Game 6 of Denver’s second-round playoff series against the Thunder last May, then suffered the Grade 2 right hamstring strain that started this whole mess in November.

When he returned in early January, the Nuggets eased him back on a minutes restriction and even brought him off the bench before he reaggravated the injury logging 33 minutes against the Wizards — the most he’d played in over two months — then playing the next night in Milwaukee.

David Adelman defended the decision to play Gordon in Milwaukee afterward, saying “nobody made a mistake” and that Gordon was cleared because he passed a stress test. But the result was a four-to-six-week setback that has now stretched their playoff margin thinner than anyone in Denver is comfortable with.

“We have to make sure he’s right,” Adelman said earlier this season. “I said that before. He came back. He got hurt. I’m gonna say it again. We’ve just gotta do everything we can to get him right for that last stretch to make him feel comfortable going into some huge games.”

And there it is — the impossible math. The Nuggets need Gordon on the court right now to stop the bleeding, but they need him healthy in April and May even more. This is a team that watched Gordon drop 50 on opening night against the Warriors, a reminder of just how good he can be when he’s right. He’s been that force all season when available, averaging 17.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.

Friday against the Knicks would be the best-case scenario for Gordon’s quickest return. But given how this season has gone, the Nuggets need to do what gives Gordon the best shot to be himself come Round 1.

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