The Magic's Lost Season Still Matters for Aaron Gordon's Future

A few weeks after he was hired to coach the Orlando Magic last summer, Frank Vogel compared the team's young franchise player, Aaron Gordon, to a certain two-way stud he had helped shepherd to stardom as head coach of the Indiana Pacers. "We are going to put the ball in his hands a lot," Vogel told ESPN's Zach Lowe. "We're going to use him like Paul George."

Gordon was working out in Santa Barbara when he first heard about Vogel's comments, and he immediately appreciated his new head coach trusting him with such critical responsibilities in only his third NBA season. A six-foot-nine, 220-pound Super Ball, the versatile 21-year-old is a pole-vaulting human hyphen whose regular assaults on gravity have encouraged expectations that land somewhere around Jupiter's fourth moon. (Gordon couldn't care less: "I've never been big on comparisons," he told VICE Sports. "I want to grow to be myself. I really don't care what [George] is doing.")

But while Vogel was comparing Gordon to a four-time All-Star, Magic general manager Rob Hennigan was sabotaging his development by building a roster that makes no sense. He traded critical assets for Serge Ibaka and then signed Bismack Biyombo to a massive four-year, $72 million contract. With Nikola Vucevic already in tow, there would be no room for Gordon at power forward, his natural position.

According to Basketball-Reference, 63 percent of Gordon's minutes in his first two seasons were at power forward. So far this year, it's down to 7.0 percent; the vast majority of his minutes (90 percent) have come at small forward in cramped lineups that couldn't score. Now, heading into the second half of what feels like a lost season for his team—and just over a week after one of the most deflating dunk-contest performances in recent memory—the next couple months may be pivotal for the rest of Gordon's career.

Credit Hennigan for refusing to compound his initial mistake: before the trade deadline, he shipped Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors for Terrence Ross and a first-round pick. Not only did he grab a future asset (one that could look even better than originally expected thanks to Kyle Lowry's wrist surgery), but the Magic also added a player who complements Gordon's game and allows him to slide back up into the frontcourt.

It's a step in the right direction, and positive results should be around the corner. Even when trapped inside clogged units, Gordon was still one of the NBA's most reliable finishers. Only a handful of forwards are more accurate in the restricted area (a short list that includes Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and Giannis Antetokounmpo). And it's a tiny sample size, but Gordon's True Shooting percentage is an incredible 65.8 percent (in 43 minutes) when he shares the court with Ross.

All is not sunny, though. Despite making 38.6 percent of his wide-open threes this season, Gordon is still ignored by defenses on the perimeter, where he's shooting 28.6 percent beyond the arc and 32.2 percent on all catch-and-shoot attempts. But his coaches remain optimistic.

"He's shot the ball, overall, far better than most of us thought he'd be able to," Vogel said. "I believe when his feet are set that the ball's gonna go in."

And when Gordon plays up a position, it forces most opponents to throw a slower big on him, someone he can blow by on soft closeouts. Gordon is not a stretch four, not yet, but he's rapidly adopting different ways to punish opponents who leave him alone.

Here he is in a four-on-three situation after the Atlanta Hawks slap two defenders on the ball off a high pick-and-roll:

Gordon catches Payton's pass with options: he can kick it out to a wide-open Evan Fournier in the weak-side corner, flick it to Vucevic down low, or attempt an uncontested push shot in the paint. It's an unteachable read-and-react sequence, where Gordon has a split second to identify what the Hawks are offering before he takes what he can.

Even as he trudged along in outdated lineups, Gordon flashed enough vision during the season's opening months to indicate growth as a playmaker. Orlando averages 7.2 more points per 100 possessions when he's on the floor this season. Their offense is never worse than when he sits.

"I'm just seeing the game differently," Gordon said. "I'm able to pick apart and dissect what the other players on the court are doing and what they should be doing. You know, my first year, my rookie year, I was only able to see what was in front of me. Now I can anticipate a little bit better and see the rhythm of the game more."

Considering Gordon was doing this as a small forward in lineups that have no place in today's game, the rest of the league should be on notice.

The dexterous parts of Gordon's game still rest in a slow cooker. He's improved as a pick-and-roll ball handler and is already someone who can create space whenever he feels like it. Think Blake Griffin mixed with Scottie Pippen. "He's made a lot of strides in terms of making pocket passes," Vogel says. "When he's making plays off the bounce he's helped us."

But he's not a primary scoring option. For now, his main contributions are off the ball, streaking up the floor in transition, crashing the glass, defending multiple positions, and darting into open space to bail out teammates who are desperate to find an open man.

Gordon is already the most efficient cutter in the entire league, per Synergy Sports, and life in this area may get even easier thanks to Orlando's decision to join the rest of the basketball world in understanding how important space can be. Watch what happens when Payton looks like he's going to throw a skip pass to Ross, and how fast Hawks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. scurries back to the perimeter after he slides in to tag the rolling Gordon:

Watching plays like this creates some optimism for a franchise that can open up about $16 million in cap space this summer. Orlando can also play with a pair of first-round picks in this year's draft. Rebuilding around a young core feels like a safe enough path with Gordon leading the way.

His defensive upside is borderline unparalleled. When Orlando had him on the wing, Gordon's primary responsibility each night was to slow down the other team's top scorer. Now at power forward on a full-time basis, Gordon will have to size up and defend members of the opposing frontcourt more often than not. He can handle that, certainly, and gives Orlando plenty of options to unlock his versatility—Gordon's natural gifts may someday give birth to a completely new position, something that resembles all five rolled into one.

"That's a guy that can switch one through five, and how many guys in the league can do that?" Celtics head coach Brad Stevens said. "That's a hard thing to find in this league, and so certainly he's a guy that's young, he's got a lot of good days ahead."

Even if the Magic don't currently have the personnel to execute a switch-happy scheme—they've tried this a bit with Ross, who gets pulverized by larger defenders in the post—this is incredibly valuable as the NBA becomes less and less position-oriented.

"Every night, he's going to take the other team's best perimeter player. Whether it's a six-nine guy or a six-four guy, he's gonna draw that assignment," Vogel said before the trade deadline. But even now, when Orlando needs a stop in a late-game situation, or wants to snuff out a red-hot scorer with a different look, Gordon is found money:

Gordon entered the league as a block of wet clay, and three years later it isn't even close to dry. The trajectory of his career is entirely unpredictable, with multiple All-Star and All-NBA teams as likely as him maxing out as an energetic role player. His outside shot needs to improve if he wants to reach the former, but he can still have tons of success as a two-way thrill ride whose athleticism stands out in an environment that regularly features the most athletic humans in the world.

Gordon shakes his head and squeezes a dismissive chuckle from his lips when asked if Defensive Player of the Year is a realistic possibility. It's not that he doesn't believe he can win that and other awards—he knows he will. Being the best defender in the league, or the most reliable stopper at his position, is an achievable goal, but what happens after that?

"I don't put a ceiling on myself," he said. "Offensively, defensively, existentially. I don't put a ceiling on myself at all."

Every decision Orlando makes over the next 12 months should revolve around one question: Does this nudge Gordon toward his full potential? It took a little while for the Magic to realize how valuable his evolution is, but better late than never.

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