Orlando Magic: 2018-19 player grade for Aaron Gordon

Highlights

The easy and obvious answer here is Aaron Gordon’s performance in the playoffs. It cannot be overstated how comfortable he looked squaring off against the same, superior opponent, and the strong performances he put up reflect that as well.

The Magic’s goal going forward now is to make the postseason at a minimum. Having a guy like Gordon who stepped up during his first taste of that kind of basketball and should be able to only improve on that is as good as you can hope for when talking about a young player.

It provides weight to the argument that it is better to make the playoffs at all, instead of hitting the lottery.

During the regular season, Gordon had over 30 points only once and that was the 31 he posted in a home win over the New York Knicks.

Even more impressive was the 4-of-8 he shot from 3-point range, solidifying the notion that he had improvement significantly on his jumper over the offseason.

This was Gordon at his offensive best, showing off all manner of moves as he lead the team in scoring on the way to a win.

Four games later he had zero points in 22 minutes in a road loss to the Golden State Warriors, which again highlights how his consistency needs to improve if he is to take the next step.

Highlights are harder to pick out on the defensive end because they rarely come with flashy moments or impressive numbers, but you can find an excellent breakdown of how good Gordon was on that end, both during the regular season and the playoffs from the guys at Orlando Magic Daily.

Gordon flew under the radar for portions of the year before coming to the fore during the playoffs, but his lack of true highlights (not including the in-game dunks we’ve known about for years and which he has grown to become so much more than) doesn’t mean he wasn’t valuable for the Magic.

Quite the opposite actually.