With exactly one week left until the deadline for NBA teams to reduce their rosters from 20 to 15, Drew Gordon will soon learn his fate.

The 24-year-old rookie has spent the past three summers trying to break into the league after going undrafted in 2012 out of New Mexico. Since then, he’s appeared on the summer league rosters of four teams, including the Sixers, with stints in Serbia, Italy, and Turkey in between.

Gordon was a late addition to Philadelphia’s preseason roster, joining the team on October 7 along with Malcolm Lee in conjunction with the release of Jarvis Varnado and Keith Bogans. Training camp had already passed and preseason play had already begun, so the 6’9” big man knew he needed to make the most of the team’s remaining seven exhibition games.

In his first game with the team, an October 10 meeting with the Timberwolves in Minnesota, he finished with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting and added five rebounds and a pair of steals in just 20 minutes of action. He played spot minutes in the Sixers’ next two contests, but on Saturday put together his best performance of the preseason. In a neutral-site game against the Orlando Magic in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Gordon led Philadelphia with 16 points (6/9 FG) in just 18 minutes of action while also pulling down six boards and notching two steals.

The fact that the performance came against the Magic, who drafted his 19-year-old brother, Aaron, with the fourth-overall pick in June’s draft, only made it sweeter.

The story of the Gordon brothers is one of disparate paths. Both were defensive standouts at the power forward position at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, California, and earned identical “96 overall” ratings from ESPN’s recruiting service during their senior seasons.

Drew committed to UCLA and was part of a star-studded 2008 Bruins class that featured five players ranked top-50 in the nation, including former Sixer Jrue Holiday. As a freshman, he played limited minutes, but was a solid contributor off the bench for the Bruins. Gordon’s role with the team figured to increase drastically as a sophomore, but after a clash between Gordon and UCLA’s coaching staff that led to a two-day suspension, he chose to transfer to New Mexico just 11 games into the 2009-10 season.

Gordon flourished with the Lobos, maintaining a double-double average for two straight years – 13.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in 61 contests – and earning All-Mountain West honors in both his junior and senior seasons. New Mexico went 56-13 during his two years in Albuquerque as he helped lead the team to two consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

In the weeks leading up the 2012 NBA Draft, experts had projected the senior big man to be selected somewhere between the late first-round and mid second-round. But as Gordon watched the draft unfold alongside Aaron, his sister Elise, his parents, and a handful of close friends at a San Jose-area restaurant, the excitement in the room slowly turned to heartache as his name went uncalled through 60 selections.

"It was real tough," Aaron said in an interview with Yahoo Sports. "Like my brother lives vicariously through me, I live vicariously through him. Me and him are one. To see his dream not deflate but prolonged took a lot out of me."

But Drew Gordon hasn’t given up on his NBA dreams The adversity he’s dealt with throughout his collegiate and professional careers has only fueled his passion further, and it shows when he steps out on the floor.

"Energy, hustle, scratching and clawing to make an NBA roster, that's what I see," Sixers head coach Brett Brown said of the Gordon before his breakout game against the Magic. "He's one of those guys like a bunch of them that are fighting to stay with the 76ers and become an NBA player."

Brown and the Sixers have seven days to determine which 15 players will remain on the roster and advance with the team into the regular season. With two games left before the October 27 deadline, the 24-year-old journeyman knows there’s little time left to make his case.

"I have to capitalize on the minutes I’m given," he said. "I want to do the dirty work in there. I want to do whatever I possibly can to help the team win. I’m hoping that the team needs something like that, sees the value in that, and keeps me around. I like this team, I like the program, and I think things can work out well."