The more I watch the Magic, the more I think that the “Aaron Gordon at SF” experiment is the dumbest thing ever. Maybe, MAYBE, it helps Orlando win games right now. Maybe. But is winning meaningless regular season games what you want to do when what you should be doing is putting your best player (YEAH I SAID IT) in the best position to succeed?
It does lead to more perimeter-oriented highlights, which is cool, but what you don’t see (unless you’re a Magic fan) is all the bricked jumpers and general ineffectiveness for long stretches of gametime. A couple threes every third game is great. Drastically reduced rebound and block numbers is not great.
Check out the little fadeaway jumper over Chris Paul early in this video. He made it, and it looked sweet, but is that really what he should be doing right now? Shooting fadeaways like he’s prime Dirk? Scott Skiles openly hated Gordon, but the blatant neglect and misuse by Vogel may be worse. Alright, fine, that’s an exaggeration. But it makes a salient point, does it not?