Aaron Gordon will be back for the Orlando Magic on Tuesday as their preseason continues. The bigger issue is finding consistency as time runs out.
The Orlando Magic will have Aaron Gordon available to play Tuesday after he participated fully in his first practice Monday, Scott Skiles said following Monday’s practice. Skiles said pending how he responds to the morning workout and some light 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 games, Gordon will get some minutes Tuesday against the Heat.
The sophomore forward has only been able to participate in non-contact drills to this point in camp after fracturing his jaw in July.
“It’s cool,” Aaron Gordon said of his return. “You can do as much conditioning as you want, but there is no conditioning like actually playing. It’s going to take me a while to get my basketball wind back. I’m in really good shape. It’s just fun to be out there.”
His return is welcome news for the Magic as they prepare for the regular season to begin. He figures to be a major player and compete for spot in the starting lineup and help set their defense with his versatility on the perimeter. It will be good to have such an important player back.
Gordon’s return though will not solve all of Orlando’s problems however. This is still a team that has shown stretches of fantastic play against stretches of lethargic play. Sunday’s win over Houston was a perfect example of that.
Aaron Gordon might be the kind of player to add energy to the team with his athleticism and defense, but he is not going to change the team’s overall attention to detail and some of the struggles the team has had for stretches this preseason.
As good as the Magic have played on occasion in building leads and getting stops for stretches, the stretches where the team has been sloppy and lethargic have been just as prevalent.
As Skiles showed Sunday as the Rockets continued pouring it on the Magic, he is not always going to be there to call a timeout.
The lack of consistency from the team in the preseason has been the pervasive story.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Skiles said. “We’ve got to get better at a lot of things. We’ve had stretches in every game where we’ve played really well. And then stretches where we’ve played really poorly. We’ve been inconsistent, but encouraged by the stretches that we’ve played well. We have a tendency to turn around and give it right back or start a game poorly or whatever it is. We have to get way more consistent.”
The reason of the inconsistency is many.
Skiles said part of the reason is certainly the different lineups he has thrown out there. The Magic have not run anything resembling a consistent rotation to this point. Adding Gordon to the mix new is not going to help add to player comfort in the rotations. And set rotations may not come until the regular season begins.
Another part is certainly the Magic learning a new offense and defense. Skiles said the Magic lost leads against the Heat and the Pacers on the road last week not because of a lack of effort but because of general sloppiness in their execution.
Skiles said the new system they are running relies more on passing than dribbling and so the change in mindframe will take longer than four preseason games to set in perfectly. The team just has to continue to remain consistent and let go of some of the habits built up from the previous offensive system.
Gordon has had time to study the offense, but he knows it will take time for him to get the nuances of the offense down. His teammates are still going through that process too.
Another factor is learning how to prepare for a game properly. Skiles said the team has to continue to get better at preparing for games and taking and retaining the work put in during shootarounds once games begin. That is generally a problem young teams around the league have to fight through.
Searching for consistency is something the Magic continue to do.
“We just have to feel it within a game,” Victor Oladipo said. “See when they go on their runs, we have to get great shots. No matter what happens on the offensive end, we can’t let it affect us on the other end.”
It is all a work in progress. As everything should be at this point for the Magic at the midway point of the preseason. The young team is going to have to continue to learn to play the way Skiles wants at all times. The expectation has clearly risen a few notches.
The Magic have some time to continue working on this mentality and their schemes before the games start counting. While there have been concerning signs, there is no reason to panic quite yet. The urgency to get back on the right track remains.
“You have to keep working hard and keep working at it,” Oladipo said. “It isn’t something that comes overnight. I think it all starts with our mindset and our minds and telling yourself you’re going to be consistent and then consistent things will happen.”
Orlando is running out of time but gets another opportunity Tuesday to make progress and show more, longer flashes and build toward consistency. Once the Magic are consistent, then they can really begin cooking toward their goals.
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