NBA Summer Workout SZN: Kevin Durant vs Aaron Gordon Edition

Now this is a summer workout video I can get behind. We already know Durant is ridiculous and the second best player in the league, so I’m not going to focus on him in this blog. Instead, this is for the loyal Magic fans out there because as far as I can tell this is the first we’ve seen this summer from their franchise player, Aaron Gordon. Fresh off his new 4/$80M extension, the Magic have made it clear that they are committing to Gordon long term and believe he can be their main guy moving forward. At just 22 years old, I’m of the line of thinking that we haven’t seen Gordon even scratch the surface of his potential, and this workout video gives us a great glimpse into what that future may look like. I’ll tell you right off the bat I was wildly impressed with his shooting/scoring ability because as we saw last season Gordon is doing everything he can to show us he’s more than just an outrageous dunker. Going head to head with a guy like Durant is no joke, even if it’s in this sort of environment, you can see the confidence and offensive development is coming along nicely.

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If I’m a Magic fan, I’m loving this because Gordon is coming off a career year, and even though he got paid, is clearly not settling. A career high in points, rebounds, 3PM, 3P%, assists, FTA, and blocks, the biggest thing moving forward for Gordon will be his ability to stay healthy. He played just 58 games last year, but did you know he made 2.0 3PM a night? His outside shooting is turning into a legit weapon, and if that is sustainable he becomes that much more of a dynamic player. Coming into the league his jump shot was always the knock everyone went to, and it’s clear he’s putting in the work over the summer to eliminate that weakness from his game. The Magic frontcourt is intriguing as hell with Gordon/Isaac/Mamba/Vucevic, and while it may seem weird they are choosing to go big at a time where every team in the league is looking to go small and spread the floor, other than Vucevic we’ve see all three of those young guys improve their outside shooting so they can stay on the floor. I still think the Magic will mostly stink and not win many games, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in your League Pass rotation, especially if Gordon is going to take yet another leap.

So expect more of this, with a whole new bag of tricks up his sleeve if this video above tells us anything