Aaron Gordon’s involvement vital to reviving Orlando Magic’s offense

The Orlando Magic can keep their Playoff hopes alive with a couple of minor adjustments to Aaron Gordon’s role within the team’s struggling offense.

The Orlando Magic started off this season as one of the early surprises.

Since then, the Magic have had some impressive wins. The Orlando Magic beat the Toronto Raptors, a team who experts predict could represent the Eastern Conference in the 2019 NBA Finals.

In that victory, Aaron Gordon scored only nine points on six shot attempts, while Jonathan Isaac, Terrence Ross, Wesley Iwundu and D.J. Augustin attempted more shots. That has become a somewhat common refrain as Aaron Gordon’s involvement and shot attempts fluctuate.

Gordon has started to show a more diverse game. He had 10 rebounds and four assists in that game against the Raptors and helped hold Kawhi Leonard to 7-for-19 shooting (21 points). He contributed to that blowout victory, just not on the score sheet.

At least, not as much as many expected before the season.

Before the season, the belief was Gordon would develop into the number two offensive option behind Nikola Vucevic, if not the player the team eventually pushes to become an All-Star.

After all, Gordon was coming off a career year averaging 17.6 points per game and 7.9 rebounds per game. Many fans were looking for his game to take a leap offensively and challenge to be the team’s All-Star.

Especially after seeing all those summer hoops highlight runs against Kevin Durant. Now many people may believe he has better skills in linear editing than jump shooting.

Because that growth spurt offensively did not happen, at least not yet, and the Magic are now looking to get players like Evan Fournier more involved because his game as a catch and shoot type of player is an ideal fit with a post anchor like Nikola Vucevic.

The Magic found a formula and have stuck with it. And netted some pretty good results.

But as many would point out, Aaron Gordon is more likely an important piece to the team’s future over Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier. No matter how much Fournier and Vucevic take the reigns of the team’s offense during this season.

There is an inevitable feeling the team is moving on from those players and want to develop and emphasize some of the team’s other young players.

This year, all of Gordon’s conventional scoring numbers are down. He is averaging 15.1 points per game on 13.0 field goal attempts per game (down from 17.6 points per game and 14.9 field goal attempts per game). His effective field goal percentage is 50.2 percent (up from 50.0 percent last year).

Gordon continues to have his ups and downs offensively as a young player will. But the expectation remained that he would become one of the team’s biggest offensive weapons. And yet his shot volume is inconsistent.

So how do the Orlando Magic get Aaron Gordon to consistently play well on offense and contribute as one of the team’s playmakers? Can he become that secondary scorer the team needs right now?

Ultimately there are two ways the Magic can get Gordon more involved offensively. The first is having him post up more in offensive sets where Vucevic is around the 3-point line and the second is to target him on fast breaks.

The Magic should allow Gordon to play more of a bully ball style of play and find him in the low post so he can draw fouls and get to the charity stripe. This would allow Gordon to attempt more free throws and increase his total points per game by getting to the line.

Gordon is very good at recognizing mismatches and turning to front the ball for post-up opportunities. With the prevalence of switching defenses, the team can certainly look to create the kinds of matchups Gordon can favor in the post.

It also helps Gordon can be fairly effective on post-ups. According to data provided by Second Spectrum on NBA.com, Gordon is scoring 1.1 points per game on 2.7 post-up attempts per game. He is shooting just 33.3 percent, showing that he can still stand to improve on these situations.

But Gordon has still shown an ability to post up smaller defenders and should continue to look for ways to exploit those matchups. If anything, coach Steve Clifford could do a better job creating the mismatches that can get Aaron Gordon working with the ball closer to the basket.

The other way to increase Gordon’s offensive output is, of course, transition baskets.

Orlando Magic

Gordon may be the fastest power forward in the NBA today and it is no question who the most athletic player at this position is. The Magic need to use his skills on the break and take advantage of his athleticism. They need to expose the other team’s weakness of not having someone who can keep up with him.

To do this the Magic will need their point guard to play with more pace on fast breaks and have Gordon sprint to the other side of the court while the point guard finds him in stride running toward the basket.

Orlando has struggled some to create fast-break opportunities — partly because of their inconsistent defense. The Magic are 26th in the league in pace, meaning they play with some of the fewest possessions in the league.

The Magic are 24th in the league in the percentage of points they get on the fast break. Orlando scores only 9.9 percent of its points in transition. Certainly, Orlando could stand to look for more easy baskets.

There may be growing pains and many turnovers considering the Magic do not have an elite passer at the point guard position, but D.J. Augustin can create that type of past first atmosphere.

Clifford and his coaching staff can say the Magic look slightly better than they have his last couple of years, but this is the time of the year where the Magic always falter.

Because the Magic have had some terrible losses. Most recently the 16-point loss to the Sacramento Kings and the debacle at home to the San Antonio Spurs and the ugly loss at the United Center to the Chicago Bulls. The team’s offense has struggled mightily all season and is in a particularly bad rut right now.

A couple more losses like these and it could put the losing spirit back on the backs on these players who know how it feels to lose all too well.

To turn things around, the Magic need a more consistent contribution from one of their better players. Gordon has done a lot to expand his game. He is a far better decisionmaker and playmaker than ever before. But too often he gets lost within the offense and he loses shot attempts in the process.

Gordon’s success tracks the Magic’s success. In wins, Gordon averages 18.0 points per game with a 51.9 percent field goal percentage and 13.5 field goal attempts per game. In losses, Gordon averages 13.0 points per game, shoots 38.5 percent from the floor and takes 12.6 field goal attempts per game.

Really finding Gordon’s offense is about getting him efficient shots he can make.

Because when the Magic are playing well, the ball seems to find Gordon naturally in positions where he can create energy and score. Having Gordon flushing down dunks on fast breaks consistently could bring life into the team.

Getting Gordon more opportunities on the break and finding him mismatches in the post may be the slight adjustment the Magic need to make that can change the season for the better.