Orlando Magic: Grading Aaron Gordon’s 2019-20 NBA season
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic were once again competitive in 2019-20, but as has so often been the case Aaron Gordon was usually on the periphery.
For the Orlando Magic, the 2019-20 season represented more of the same for them. Given where they had been as an organization in the seven years preceding that, out in the wilderness, simply being competitive again and making the postseason should not be taken for granted. Getting to the bubble and winning a game against the Milwaukee Bucks was a decent end to the year.
It just feels like the manner in which it was done so was all a bit underwhelming. Whereas last season, when the Magic did the same thing in making the playoffs and taking a game of the eventual champion Toronto Raptors, was seen as finally getting back into the mix, this year was different.
Despite starting well and with continuity throughout the roster clearly benefiting them, the Magic limped to the regular season finish line once inside the bubble. They lost potential franchise cornerstone Jonathan Isaac to an ACL tear along the way, putting a dark cloud over the future of the franchise.
Forward Aaron Gordon has, for better or worse, come to personify who the Magic are as a team right now. On some nights he looks great, and is capable of carrying them to a victory. Then he will go weeks at a time without doing much of anything, posting pedestrian numbers while not having an impact on the result of games.
Throw in a couple of minor injuries that always seem to surface, and the career of Gordon to this point has been stop-start to say the least. What we can say however is that he is one of the better players on this roster, and he is somebody who clearly wants the franchise to do well, even if we didn’t always see this type of play throughout 2019-20.