Aaron Gordon’s Rebounding and Passing
We are going to continue the assumption Gordon gets an average of 22.5 minutes per game here. His per-36 rebounding was 7.6, while 2.1 of those came on the offensive glass. He is almost certain to increase these figures this season, and his summer league dominance heavily indicated that is the case.
Gordon has the athleticism to be an elite rebounder, and his being slightly undersized to play power forward really is not much of a factor here. He has the desire and the ability to grab rebounds, and this is one of the areas he can most help the Magic.
If Gordon leaped his per-minute production up about 50 percent to 10 boards per-36, and saw 22 minutes a game, he makes a modest leap to 6.1 rebounds per game. That figure seems very reasonable as a benchmark, actually.
Gordon had just one double-digit rebounding game and one double-double (same game) all of last season, against the Milwaukee Bucks on April 4. It was his best game of the season, as he also knocked down five of six from the floor and the Magic secured victory.
Nugg Love
Gordon grabbed 27.9 percent of the defensive boards and he helped slow the Bucks as Giannis Antetokounmpo shot just 3 of 12 from the floor en route to a meager eight point, three rebound game.
If Gordon is that good consistently, he exceeds both the scoring and rebounding figures thus set forth. But it is usually not prudent to judge players solely on the basis of their best game(s), nor simply on a shining summer league.
Accordingly, we are still left with nothing but a hazy outline of what Gordon can be this season.
He is not much of a distributor nor will he be asked to play a point-forward role this season. Last year that resulted in averaging less than an assist per game, and it is pretty safe to assume he will not be much above a single dime per contest this year, either.
That is fine. That is not Gordon’s role.
The Magic have Elfrid Payton and Victor Oladipo to create looks, and Gordon is far from becoming what Blake Griffin worked to transform himself into as a playmaking power forward (go ahead and dream, it hardly hurts).
Next: What does it all add up to?