Orlando Magic front office still debating the Aaron Gordon question
Many Orlando Magic observers have spent the season debating where Aaron Gordon fits best. That debate rages on in the front office too.
The biggest debate for the Orlando Magic throughout this season has been centered on one player.
Aaron Gordon and where he belongs on the floor.
With the acquisition of Serge Ibaka and then the double-down on size with Bismack Biyombo, it was clear the Magic were going to move Gordon to the small forward and out on the perimeter more and more.
This was a puzzling move. Gordon has spent the majority of his playing time to that point in his career at power forward, but he has split time at small forward too. With his poor shooting, it seemed moving him to the perimeter was a huge risk. And then Frank Vogel said he wanted to put the ball in his hands more.
Some of the experimentation with Gordon at the 3 has failed — his pick and roll game is shaky and that is putting it kindly — and some of it has worked well. Gordon’s perimeter on-ball defense has emerged as perhaps his best NBA skill. And his shooting has slowly improved. He is averaging 12.9 points per game and shooting 46.1 percent from the floor in the last 30 games.
As much as fans are still debating where Gordon fits best, the front office is too as Rob Hennigan said in an interview with Mike Bianchi of Open Mike on 740 The Game:
“As it relates to Aaron, we are sort of in constant debate in the office about where is the best place to play Aaron,” Rob Hennigan said. “We don’t really see Aaron as a stone-cold 3 or a stone-cold 4, we see him as just a forward. He is just a unique basketball player. This year, we’ve asked him to guard on the perimeter, which he has done really well at. We’ve put the ball in his hands a little more. His jump shot has really improved. I think the situation he has been put in this year and what we’ve asked him to do has really helped his development as a forward nad someone who can play both positions. We’ll see. Maybe we keep him there, maybe we slot him back. That is something we are really evaluating.”
This was similar to comments Hennigan made about Gordon in his interview with Scott Anez of ESPN Orlando earlier this week. This is still something the front office is debating.
For now, Gordon is likely to remain playing largely at small forward. He has played 92 percent of his minutes at small forward according to Basketball-Reference. It is, as Hennigan described to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, a “developmental opportunity” for Gordon.
It feels similar to when the Magic played Victor Oladipo at point guard his rookie year.
Of course, the situation was different then. If there is criticism for this move — and it is very fair — it is that the Magic promised the Playoffs and talked up the Playoff push, yet they opted to run an experiment with one of their most important players rather than putting him in a position to help the team most.
For now, the debate rages on when it comes to Gordon and his future in the league. He may end up playing a mix of both forward positions for his career. It will be up to the Magic to determine how to use him best and make their team better in the future.
Like fans, they are still trying to get a clearer sense of where he belongs.
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