Orlando Magic: 3 candidates for a breakout season in 2018-19

1. Aaron Gordon

With a contract extension signed and his future in Orlando secure, the clear favorite here has to be Gordon. The way the roster is constructed now, it is crying out for a player to take the reins and drive them forward.

Gordon was already this player last season, averaging career highs in most statistical categories. He also looked like a much better 3-point shooter, although he tailed off badly to close out the season. Basically he looked like the franchise player the Magic needed on a lot of nights.

The problem for him was consistency, but even more so were the niggling injuries that reduced him to only 58 appearances. It’s a slight concern, although the 32.1 minutes per contest were also by far a career high, as Gordon became more accustomed to having lots of asked of him.

How then can he hope to make even more strides in year five? Easy, he has two young defensive standouts in Bamba and Isaac who will help bolster the defense. This will leave Gordon with more energy to attack the opponent’s basket and make his job easier on the other end.

If he can average 20 points per game (he reached 17.6 last season), and nine rebounds (7.9 last season), while upping the 33.6 percent he shot from deep (again a career high, but the potential for more was clearly there), that would be a great start.

So too would increasing his PER from 16.5, not even his best output in this category, which was 17.0 in year two. It is also not a lot better than the league average of 15 either. An improvement here would highlight how Gordon was doing more to help the team win.

That is the glaring issue presenting itself for Gordon right now: The fear that he could become an “empty stats” kind of player, in the same way Nikola Vucevic has been for a number of years in Orlando. As long as Gordon can stay away from that and continue to improve, fans will be happy.

Gordon is the prime candidate to have a breakout campaign. He’ll keep fans entertained with his highlight dunks, and as he rounds out his offensive game to complement his defense, he could even sniff the All-Star Game in the weaker Eastern Conference.

Actually making that would be the most successful season a player has had in Orlando since 2012, an equally frightening and exciting prospect.