We Watched It So You Didn’t Have To: Orlando Magic vs Brooklyn Nets
Aaron Gordon soars, D’Angelo Russell scores, and Allen Crabbe snores
We’re trying something new today, watching bad basketball in hopes of finding some good players and trends. Good teams can have bad players (just ask James Michael McAdoo) so it stands to reason that bad teams can have good players, too. Neither the Orlando Magic nor the Brooklyn Nets look like 2018 playoff contenders, and neither is threatening to shoot up the League Pass rankings anytime soon.
Still, every game is a data point and there’s always something to learn. So we watched the Magic and Nets so you didn’t have to. Here’s what we learned…
1. Aaron Gordon is finally coming around
Gordon was the star of the night with a monster 41/14 line and the game-winning three. Those 41 points are a career high and included a career-best five threes, perfect from behind the arc.
Gordon got it going early with a couple long stop-and-pop jumpers right out of the gates that looked good. His shot is confident and his form looked greatall game, the biggest reason for his big game. Gordon’s a career 29% three-point shooter but he’s shooting 86% so far on the young season, so this is clearly an outlier but the question is how much.
Gordon had 24 at the half and most of them came within the flow of the game, but the second half saw him force things a bit and take on a few more iso possessions. Gordon’s offensive IQ has grown a ton. Multiple times he got a guard switched onto him and immediately posted up and bullied the smaller player into an easy bucket, and he bullied bigger guys on the boards and with a couple put-back dunks. That’s the value of Gordon’s elite athleticism, and playing him at the four really lets him use that to his advantage.
His athleticism should be a huge boon defensively, but he’s not a big difference maker there yet. But the offense is really coming around and Gordon’s still just 22. He looks like someone who is going to get a max offer next summer.
2. D’Angelo Russell is a go-to scorer but needs to round out his game
Russell is nothing if not confident. He looks and acts like the best player on this team and it’s clear he’s been given the green light to attack and put up shots. That’s a good thing, for now, as long as the coaches know it’s something they can pull back the reins on later.
It looks like Russell had a big game with 29 points, but the stat line flattered him. The 29 points came on just 9-for-24 shooting — compare that to Gordon’s 41 on 18 shots — and he had only one assist, fewer than seven teammates. Russell’s shot looked much better on catch-and-shoot possessions than when he dribbled into it, and there were far too many of the latter. Russell’s shot has a funky release and a strangely high arc. DLo hit four threes in the first five minutes but never made another, finishing 4-for-9.
Russell was in attack mode all game and he has a good dribble and can get into the lane and get to his spot. He’s benefiting in a huge way from Brooklyn spacing that has Mozgov, Acy, and Booker shooting threes and leaving plenty of room in the paint for Russell. He’s got a decent floater but definitely needs to work on his finishing. Russell drew a number of fouls but finished only 5-for-15 on twos. Still, that 15 is important. Russell’s averaging 13 two-point attempts per game, almost double his first two seasons. He’s getting into space and getting to spots, just has to make them count now.
Russell feels like more of a sixth man scorer than a lead point guard for now. One assist in 29 minutes from your point guard isn’t going to cut it, especially when your team scores 121. Russell is a good self-creator but didn’t read the roll man particularly well on PNRs and has a lazy side-arm cross-court pass he uses often that doesn’t do much for his teammates.
Russell is much much better than he was as a Laker, playing with a confidence he never had in Los Angeles, and he looks like someone who will put up the numbers of a Most Improved Player candidate. The next step is for the rest of his game to catch up to his improved point total.
3. Brooklyn nailed two late first-round draft picks in Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen
Brooklyn gave away most of their draft picks the last few years, but they did keep a couple late picks and it looks like they made them count. Brooklyn took Caris LeVert at №20 in last year’s draft and Jarrett Allen at №22 this year, and both look like steals.
LeVert looks like an NBA player, with a much more filled-out body after some offseason conditioning. He’s really strong with the ball and has a strong finish at the rim. LeVert started at the two but often felt like the point guard, especially when Russell was off the court. He has a great feel for the game and a strong IQ, reading the defense well and taking the available play without forcing it.
LeVert finished with a tidy 15/8/5 line and did it within the flow of the offense. Of every player in this game, LeVert feels like the one a contending NBA team could most use in their rotation this season. He’s already 23 so he has less time to develop than most other sophomores but looks like a good building block.
Allen, on the other hand, was one of the youngest players in his draft. He didn’t get into the game until midway through the 2nd, the fourth big in the Brooklyn rotation, but he impressed when he was out there. Allen was my favorite true big man in the draft. He has a huge frame and works hard on the glass and on defense, using his 7'5 reach to affect opponents in the paint. Allen goes straight up using verticality and lets his length do the work.
On offense, Allen knows his role, or perhaps his “roll.” He’s got that JaVale McGee pick-and-roll down and puts his hands up available for the lob rolling to the rim. A couple times he would’ve had an easy dunk if he were playing with a point guard that actually recognized the lob. Allen is a big man built for 2017, a guy you can see logging minutes for Golden State. He’ll be a nuisance on defense and can do a job on offense. Both Allen and LeVert look like potential NBA starters for the right team.
Ten other parting shots…
- The Magic really missed Elfrid Payton (out with a hamstring injury). The offense felt stagnant, with very little passing or off-ball movement and way too much iso. The bench was atrocious and got crushed with D.J. Augustin moved up into the starting lineup. Orlando felt like a collection of players that don’t know how to play together. No one made anyone else better.
- Brooklyn is kinda fun! They put up shots in a hurry, play modern offense, and have a bunch of young players worth keeping an eye on. The dark period of Brooklyn basketball is over. The dawn is a long ways away but the Nets have turned the corner.
- I was excited to see the Nik Vucevic revolution everyone had been talking about but was unimpressed. Vooch put up 41 Friday and hit seven threes his first three games, but he never got it going. He was 0-for-5 beyond the arc and seemed outside the flow of the offense away from the basket.
- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson surprised. He has a herky-jerky start-stop dribble that just works. He got into the lane and finished well enough while drawing a few fouls, scoring 18 points on eight shots.
- Allen Crabbe played 25 minutes but I barely even noticed him on the court until almost halftime. He shot just 2-for-11 and wasn’t affecting the game when he couldn’t hit shots.
- Evan Fournier put up a nice-looking 28/6/4 line but feels like just a fine two-guard. He has a loose dribble and, though he tried to lead at times including down the stretch, doesn’t seem like he should play in the creator role. He’s just a nice streak shooter.
- Jon Isaac was the third man off the bench for the Magic. The good news is that he came in for Gordon which means that he’s playing the four, which is good long-term. He needs to add strength and defensive know-how.
- Terrence Ross and Jonathon Simmons feel like athletes more than basketball players. Ross did not score in 27 minutes.
- Timofey Mozgov sure can set a hard screen. His pick-and-roll finish was D’Angelo Russell’s only assist of the game.
- Mario Hezonja and Bismack Biyombo look like sunk costs. They were the 9th and 10th men in a game without Elfrid Payton, Arron Afflalo, and Mo Speights. Biyombo made a couple defensive plays, but Hezonja was a lone assist away from a 6 trillion.
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