Preseason Game #6 Orlando Magic vs Cleveland Cavs 10/13 7PM ET

[Skybox]

AG per 36 this preseason:
29 ppg
11 rpg
53% fg
42% 3's
60% ft

Yes let's focus on the assists... if he averages 29 and 11, and we go .500 like we did in PS, he can average a negative amount of assists for all I care..

In the same vein...If Elf averages 12 ppg, 11 assists and 7 rebounds...I'll be ok with mediocre 3pt %

especially if Vogel (and Simmons ) gets them all playing D

[fklt]

I agree that it would be great to have him become a scorer AND playmaker--why not?

My point is that not long ago, there was talk of him being a tweener bust, we have no star, etc. We have just now possibly seen a bit of a breakout that he may become a star, so give it some time. We have Elfrid and Fournier to facilitate the offense for now. If AG is a PF, possibly a star PF, he can be great without also being a playmaker.

AG's career has endured a lot of radical and sudden change as well. We aren't really even sure yet what he is, what to expect, what he can or cannot do simply due to constant change.

Well, this context is missing from my original post but I had very high expectations from aaron even much before the draft. I thought he had a very high floor and a ceiling as evident by his very unique combination of skills, which included the ability to make plays. So I never thought he would be a bust, but I expected at least average assist numbers from the get-go.

So for the past 3 seasons plus a preseason, he has been disappointing me. In an age where ability to make plays from 4-5 has tremendous value, this is an ugly chart.




I don't expect him to be playmaker per se, but swimming in the bottom of the league and being the worst on the team in terms of assists is definitely not what I hoped.

[EAS Law]

I agree that it would be great to have him become a scorer AND playmaker--why not?

My point is that not long ago, there was talk of him being a tweener bust, we have no star, etc. We have just now possibly seen a bit of a breakout that he may become a star, so give it some time. We have Elfrid and Fournier to facilitate the offense for now. If AG is a PF, possibly a star PF, he can be great without also being a playmaker.

AG's career has endured a lot of radical and sudden change as well. We aren't really even sure yet what he is, what to expect, what he can or cannot do simply due to constant change.

Well, this context is missing from my original post but I had very high expectations from aaron even much before the draft. I thought he had a very high floor and a ceiling as evident by his very unique combination of skills, which included the ability to make plays. So I never thought he would be a bust, but I expected at least average assist numbers from the get-go.

So for the past 3 seasons plus a preseason, he has been disappointing me. In an age where ability to make plays from 4-5 has tremendous value, this is an ugly chart.




I don't expect him to be playmaker per se, but swimming in the bottom of the league and being the worst on the team in terms of assists is definitely not what I hoped.

Those stats are painful to see for sure. I didn't realize the numbers were quite that low. I believe that if AG sees more defensive attention on the perimeter due to an increased shooting threat, we will see those numbers go up. Before, most of AG's offensive attempts were right at the rim, and it would take a tremendous playmaker to rack up assists in that position.

I agree with your central point more than I did a few moments ago though. We aren't calling for him to go bananas racking up assists, but just not worst on the team--correct? I'm on board with that. I think it will come as teams consider him more an offensive threat and want to collapse on him or play him closer on the perimeter.

[MagicStarwipe]

Dude's just happy we're letting him do things with the ball now rather than just stand in the corner and watch Vuc and Fournier like he did for 3 years. He has passing skills. He'll put it all together in time .

[fklt]

Here are the some of the facts I gathered up from nba stats pages. this was fun but be aware that advanced stats mean less with only handful of games.

• evan has effective field goal rating of 70.0% and true shooting of 69.6% (followed by birch)
• our starting 5 is consisting of top 5 guys in terms of offensive rating (ross, evan, aaron, elf and vuc in order)
• aaron has the lowest turnover rate of starters which is awesome for a guy of his age and usage rate (simmons and afflalo ahead of him)
• aaron was close to having the highest usage with 29% (only second though)
• speights has the unbelievable usage rate of 39% dude is the blackest of black holes.
• our wing rotation did an amazing job of taking care of the ball. top 3 assist/turnover ratios: afflalo 4, simmons 3.6 and fournier 3.25
• vuc has the highest PACE on the team (followed by fournier)

• terrence ross had the highest offensive rating in the team (110)
• he also had the highest net rating with +21.3, which means he coupled it with good defense.
• gordon has the worst defensive rating on the team followed by the other starters (vuc, evan, elf)
• birch has the best defensive rating
• khem birch is an outstanding offensive rebounder. he outrebounded everybody.

• hezonja still sucks, which we know at this point with net rating of -7 (second worst)
• shelvin mack really really sucked, which we may not know, with the net rating of -16.6
• gordon had the worst assist ratio on team (this was in my previous post)

gordon having lowest assist rate coupled with lowest turnover rates might mean he is playing with a sharp singular focus right now, which seems to be working out for him.

[OrlandO]

AG averaged nearly 2 ast barely touching the ball last season... I doubt he'll average less than 1 ast in a significantly increased role.

[fklt]

AG averaged nearly 2 ast barely touching the ball last season... I doubt he'll average less than 1 ast in a significantly increased role.

no he didn't. he averaged 1.5, with a good usage of 23%.

[OrlandO]

AG averaged nearly 2 ast barely touching the ball last season... I doubt he'll average less than 1 ast in a significantly increased role.

no he didn't. he averaged 1.5, with a good usage of 23%.

He averaged 1.9 apg and 20 usg% last season. His points were mostly fast breaks, putbacks and other hustle plays. Of course, he also took catch and shoot 3s. He was not used as a handler at all outside of the failed attempts to make him into Paul George at SF early in the season. It appears he's going to do all that this season with added handling responsibilities. I see no reason why he won't average at least 2 apg. If Tobias Harris could do it back when he was chucking up shots when he first arrived, Gordon should be able to as well.

[fklt]

AG averaged nearly 2 ast barely touching the ball last season... I doubt he'll average less than 1 ast in a significantly increased role.

no he didn't. he averaged 1.5, with a good usage of 23%.

He averaged 1.9 apg and 20 usg% last season. His points were mostly fast breaks, putbacks and other hustle plays. Of course, he also took catch and shoot 3s. He was not used as a handler at all outside of the failed attempts to make him into Paul George at SF early in the season. It appears he's going to do all that this season with added handling responsibilities. I see no reason why he won't average at least 2 apg. If Tobias Harris could do it, Gordon can.

where are you getting your stats mate? check this page out; http://stats.nba.com/player/203932/
oh, I definitely believe he can, which adds to my frustration.

[OrlandO]

no he didn't. he averaged 1.5, with a good usage of 23%.

He averaged 1.9 apg and 20 usg% last season. His points were mostly fast breaks, putbacks and other hustle plays. Of course, he also took catch and shoot 3s. He was not used as a handler at all outside of the failed attempts to make him into Paul George at SF early in the season. It appears he's going to do all that this season with added handling responsibilities. I see no reason why he won't average at least 2 apg. If Tobias Harris could do it, Gordon can.

where are you getting your stats mate? check this page out; http://stats.nba.com/player/203932/
oh, I definitely believe he can, which adds to my frustration.

That's preseason. I'm talking about regular season. He averaged 1.9 in a lesser role in regular season last season... so why worry that he's averaging .9 per36 in preseason? That would be Biyombo or Ibaka level... two bigs who can't dribble or pass.. no way he's that bad.

[OrlandO]

Watch on YouTube

[j-ragg]

We need a preseason AG highlight reel to go with the Summer League legendary highlights. Next stop regular season.

[Bensational]

I’ve probably only caught the tail end of a conversation, but after all the doubt that’s been thrown AGs way the past couple seasons about how capable he’ll be as a scorer, he’s finally showing he can do it and now people are upset he’s not playing like Giannis and throwing assists, too? Give the kid a break and just let him play and develop. He’s finally looking comfortable and confident, and been given the room to operate, so let him show some consistency there, start drawing defenders in, and then he’ll be able to start handing the ball off.

[fendilim]

Here are the some of the facts I gathered up from nba stats pages. this was fun but be aware that advanced stats mean less with only handful of games.


gordon having lowest assist rate coupled with lowest turnover rates might mean he is playing with a sharp singular focus right now, which seems to be working out for him.

Or he is simply scoring based on catch and shoot.

[Blue_and_Whte]

I’ve probably only caught the tail end of a conversation, but after all the doubt that’s been thrown AGs way the past couple seasons about how capable he’ll be as a scorer, he’s finally showing he can do it and now people are upset he’s not playing like Giannis and throwing assists, too? Give the kid a break and just let him play and develop. He’s finally looking comfortable and confident, and been given the room to operate, so let him show some consistency there, start drawing defenders in, and then he’ll be able to start handing the ball off.

Assuming that his preseason performance translates consistently into the regular season, Imo he has a good feel for the game and we'll see him make plays as teams adjust to him defensively. I agree though, this is new territory for him and for us as fans so we need to be patient.