I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player of Aaron Gordon’s size and build do those stepback jumpers that he does. He’s so SPRINGY on those, and he jumps WAY back. It’s starting to seem like that’s his go to move; he even does it from behind the arc. Stepback threes are an iffy proposition unless your name is Stephen Curry but he makes it work at least some of the time.
Gordon had been a pretty gnarly slump lately, and I’m not sure if this game will get him out of it. He didn’t score at all in the fourth quarter as the Magic gave up a big lead and ended up losing. His three-point shooting, which we all knew was not sustainable at the beginning of the season but DAMMIT can’t we just believe???, has been cratering. Before long, he’ll be back at 33-ish percent where he belongs.
Still, he’s developed into a pretty nice go-to scorer, something I wasn’t sure was going to happen after his first few years in the league. It’s a good thing that the Magic bringing in Serge Ibaka to stifle his development last year didn’t cost him in the long run.