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Aaron Gordon SL - Holy...

Litany

Litany

Well-Known Member
I was just browsing the Orlando forums on Realgm and came across this gem breaking down Aaron Gordon's SL performance. It's early and he's young, but this is frightening.

That spreadsheet. Sow

Rob Hennigan might have just saved us from a disaster and gifted us a star in the process. Holy....

doct3r dr3 said:
The emerging narratives of Aaron Gordon's summer league have been: (1) he stank/he stinks, (2) he didn't stink, he just didn't hit jumpers or score a lot of points, and (3) he stank, but he'll get better; he's only 18. Many contend that his summer league stats can be ignored altogether, because his impact goes beyond the box score, and historically, good players sometimes struggle in summer league.

Let's assess some of these claims.

We'll look at the first summer league seasons of players similar to AG00 -- energetic perimeter defenders, not known as shooters coming into the league -- and compare their Per 36 numbers to Gordon's summer league this year.

First Summer Leagues
FieZfS9.png


Here we see a number of players whose play is like Aaron's -- tough defense, athleticism, motor, intangibles. Some just as young or younger than Gordon (Josh Smith, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist). And yet, Gordon comes up near the rear in almost every single statistical category. Not only the 0 made threes on a whopping 2.7 attempts per game, or the miserable 47.8% FT%, but also, for a renowned defender, ZERO total steals in 5 games of action. For a lauded ballhandler and passer, ahead of only Luc Mbah a Moute (more of a PF) in assists per 36 min. Very middling among this group in assist-to-turnover ratio.


Assist:Turnover
1.80 - Tony Allen
1.67 - Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
1.44 - Trevor Ariza
1.00 - Kawhi Leonard
0.93 - Josh Smith
0.86 - Aaron Gordon
0.67 - Thabo Sefolosha
0.67 - Draymond Green
0.58 - Andre Iguodala
0.40 - Luc Mbah a Moute


It is not unheard of for good players to struggle in summer league. There are flukes here and there. But typically, if you take a larger sample of similar players that panned out in the league, you would expect to find some on the better end and at least some on the worse end. In this case, it's simply hard to find half-decent NBA players -- even those similar to Aaron Gordon in playing style -- who had as miserable a summer league as he had, statistically.

Now, it is true that box score stats do not tell the whole story. But you would think a player with such a dramatic impact beyond his box score numbers, whose summer league teammates include a summer league MVP candidate and the previous year's runner-up for ROY, would manage to help his team to something higher than a 5th place finish in the Orlando Summer League.
Click to expand...


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Ouch.
 
Lattimer said:
I was just browsing the Orlando forums on Realgm and came across this gem breaking down Aaron Gordon's SL performance. It's early and he's young, but this is frightening.

Rob Hennigan might have just saved us from a disaster and gifted us a star in the process. Holy....
Click to expand...

nothing surprising

listen less cy and you'll be fine
 
As much as everyone wanted to compare him to Shawn Marion, I think he compares more realistically to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Marion has always had an ugly jumper, but it's at least somewhat effective. Marion shot over 80% from the FT line as a rookie. Gordon is going to shoot below 50%. The game is just so much harder when you can't shoot.
 
Yea make a conclusion about a player after a few summer league games. People it is SUMMER LEAGUE!!!!!1
 
Here's what I thought Gordon showed in summer leage:
- good defense on the perimeter, though he's not strong enough to defend the post
- good passing out of the post, though not much post scoring
- adequate, though not outstanding, finishing on the break

He didn't rebound that well. He's clearly not fluid offensively. He went 0 for 14 or something on 3-pt. attempts, many of which were open.

I thought he basicaly looked like Alfouriq Aminu with a little less strength and fluidity.

The thing that scared me the most with him pre-draft was his clunkiness and lack of coordination. Right now, there's just no offense, and his defense away from the perimeter is overrated.

So yeah, at this stage I would have taken Randle and Vonleh ahead of him, not to mention Exum.
 
Reading other boards, Orlando fans are having a tough time reconciling the Exum pick. They are more vocal than Jazz fans when it comes to their draft and passing on Exum. So defensive....
 
It's seems like guys performing well in summer league doesn't always translate too success, but guys doing this poorly is a very bad sign.


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Catchall said:
though he's not strong enough to defend the post
Click to expand...

That's the one thing that can be improved the easiest though. He'll be 240 + in a few years, no problem. Add a couple post moves in on top of that, and he might be decent - even if it's just a bench garbage man type role. All the laundry list of things he needs to improve on to be a effective perimeter player on the other hand, are going to be tough to do for him. I think whoever is trying to turn him into a perimeter player is insane. If it's he himself, somebody needs to get his family, friends, and coaches together and stage an intervention before it's too late.
 
One thing that I saw from watching him in SL is that he releases the ball on his jumper on the way down. He'll never be a consistent shooter with that form. Yes, there has been players in this league who have improved their jump shot from their rookie year. But, the bust list is full of players who could never develop a consistent jumper. One player I always keep my eye on is Ben McClemore. He has tremendous athletic talent, but if he can't shoot that jumper, he won't make it in the NBA.
 
Trey Burke sucked in Summer League last year and ended up 3rd in the rookie rankings. Aaron Gordon looks like a man among boys in the summer league so far to me. That is just his athleticism. In spite of that, he doesn't know how to use his body well YET... I predict that he will have a better career than most of the guys on that list.
 
The Jazz Wonderbra said:
Trey Burke sucked in Summer League last year and ended up 3rd in the rookie rankings. Aaron Gordon looks like a man among boys in the summer league so far to me. That is just his athleticism. In spite of that, he doesn't know how to use his body well YET... I predict that he will have a better career than most of the guys on that list.
Click to expand...
LOL. When are we going to acknowledge that last season's rookies just plain out SUCKED. It was a terrible, terrible year. Trey was horrible in SL and didn't shoot any better in the regular season (38%/33%). OK, so he has some good clutch numbers: I'll concede that. So prohibit from shooting until the last five minutes of the game because that's the only time he seems to be able to put the ball in the hole.

Back to Gordon: we dodged a bullet. So he's changed his form and STILL can't shoot FT's. At this point, I think his problems are half psychological. Gordon needs to be the defensive specialist on a team that has four good scoring options. Just have him concentrate on rebounding and putbacks. And hire a "ball whisperer" to try to solve the mental block he has in terms of shooting,
 
If you watched the SL, they used Gordon wrong.

Not sure if that is how they want to use Gordon during the regular season, or if it was just an experiment for the SL.

A smart team would start him off playing a more PF oriented game and give him spot up looks from mid-range/outside. If you try to make him a SF from Day 1 (which was what they seemed to be doing in SL) he is going to fail.

I'm happy we got Exum instead also, but I still think Gordon will be good. Hopefully Orlando knows how to develop him and has patience.

*Anyone who thinks he was going to drastically improve his shooting after a couple of months is a complete clown*
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
If you watched the SL, they used Gordon wrong.

Not sure if that is how they want to use Gordon during the regular season, or if it was just an experiment for the SL.

A smart team would start him off playing a more PF oriented game and give him spot up looks from mid-range/outside. If you try to make him a SF from Day 1 (which was what they seemed to be doing in SL) he is going to fail.

I'm happy we got Exum instead also, but I still think Gordon will be good. Hopefully Orlando knows how to develop him and has patience.

*Anyone who thinks he was going to drastically improve his shooting after a couple of months is a complete clown*
Click to expand...
Nearly impossible to justify that pick. I agree that they should use him more as a PF on offense because he sucks at it, but then it really limits his impact defensively because he will get posted up often. Why would you draft a player like that 4th in a draft like this? Lol
 
His numbers are similar to Iggy's and Ariza's and they were two years older than him at that stage. I could see him having an Iggy type career--athletic, good defender, highlight reel dunks, not much of a jump shot, but still a borderline all star--and that is not so bad at all.
 
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