The season has quickly devolved into a plan for the future. At least that future has some focus. Aaron Gordon continued his ascendance in the second quarter.
When the Orlando Magic ended the first quarter of their season, they were 8-13 and on a nine-game losing streak. The strong start had already faded away. But there was still hope things would right itself eventually. The Playoff dream was not dead, although it was fading.
The second quarter of the season put all those wishes to rest. The Magic are searching for hope because they are not coming in the games. Orlando went 4-16 in the second quarter of the season.
Injuries ravaged the team. Jonathan Isaac remained out. Evan Fournier turned his ankle. Terrence Ross fractured his tibial plateau and sprained his MCL. Aaron Gordon suffered a concussion. Nikola Vucevic broke his hand.
It was hit after hit after hit for the team. And it only buried the team further.
There were not many wins to be had. There was not much for the Magic to write home about. And there was not much to believe in. The team had hit rock bottom.
And so the question now for the Magic at the midpoint of the season is what is their left to build around? How does this team move forward?
This is the reason why Gordon is once again the Magic’s MVP for the second quarter.
His first quarter felt like something special. He burst onto the scene and made the leap everyone was waiting from someone on this Magic team.
It felt sustainable and real. But everyone waited for that fall. And the rest of the league was going to catch up. The question remained whether Gordon could maintain that level of play.
The second quarter of the season put that to rest. Gordon averaged 21.7 points per game, shooting 45.6 percent from the floor and 33.0 percent from beyond the arc. He added 8.2 rebounds per game for good measure.
There was that inevitable crash back to earth. His 3-point shooting started to fall. But his scoring production remained. Even with the added attention defenses were surely giving him, Gordon kept up his production. If the Magic had a better record, we could certainly talk in hushed tones about an All-Star bid or some other awards at the end of the season.
The next piece for Gordon is learning how to play more efficiently and taking on that responsibility even more. But it is always a slow process to learn that. No player can skip steps and there are going to be growing pains on the way to stardom. Few players are able to play at a high level in an instant.
The second quarter of the season saw Gordon dealing with some of these struggles. On top of his injury, he saw his shot leave him a bit. The lower shooting percentages suggested how much Gordon was trying to force things at times. In seven of his 13 games in the second half of the season, Gordon shot worse than 50 percent.
His best games were still the ones where he played within the offense and did not try to force too much. That helped him find his rhythm and create efficiency.
Gordon is not always going to be that way. He still has a penchant for trying to go at players in isolation. He tries to play the star instead of being the star. This season, Gordon is scoring 0.81 points per possession on isolation plays. That is not a good play for him.
Gordon will still have to learn how to keep others involved and use his newfound scoring ability to make others better. Learning how to pick his spots is still critical.
And, of course, Gordon is still best in transition. When the Magic are able to turn their defense into transition opportunities, the Magic are by far at their best. And Gordon is at his best then too.
What the second quarter of the season proved is that Gordon can play at this level sustainably. He has that potential in him. The first 20-plus games were not a flash in the pan.
Even after missing seven of eight games with a concussion and then a strained hamstring, he came back as if he had never left. Gordon scored 14 points in his return in a win over the Detroit Pistons. And then dropped 39 on the Miami Heat in a loss. If anything, everyone was complaining Gordon was not involved enough late in that game despite his 22 field goal attempts.
Indeed, the rest of this season is all about Gordon. The Magic are likely to give him a massive new contract this summer, matching whatever offer he might get in restricted free agency. The second quarter of the season cemented that investment.
There is plenty to see in Gordon. He has improved so much in a short amount of time. And it still feels like he has a lot more improvement to go.
The Magic’s job now is to create an environment where he can grow and become the leader and star player the team needs. That is all that seems to matter this year — aside from getting Jonathan Isaac out on the floor.
Orlando Magic
Gordon has earned that right. He has kept his play going and seemingly cashed in on that vast potential he always had. It continues to come through.
It would not be surprising to see Gordon be the third quarter MVP and the fourth quarter MVP for a clean sweep. At this point, he is clearly the best player on the team and the one the Magic should be trying to build around.
It would be difficult to close this out without mentioning the gargantuan effort from Nikola Vucevic for a good chunk of the second quarter of the season. He was the second-leading scorer with 18.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
Like everyone else, he saw his 3-point shooting dip. But Vucevic stepped his game up in a major way with the team racked by injuries. He averaged 4.0 assists per game, but he had a stretch where he had to do everything for the team. And he largely delivered on both ends. The team just never had enough.
In a season that has seen so much frustration and hopelessness, Vucevic has been a stalwart for the team. He wants to win and win in Orlando. He may not be what the Magic need in the long term, but he was fighting for his team for a good chunk of this season.
Gordon’s emergence is just such a huge story and is the focus of this season, that it merits the award over Vucevic. This is Gordon’s year and Gordon’s team. He made that clear throughout the second quarter of the 2018 season.
Next: How the Orlando Magic rebuild will play out
Gordon is the hope the Magic need the rest of this season.