Post by jhb on May 17, 2021 11:39:12 GMT -5
Aaron Gordon
PF
6'8"
225
19
Arizona
At this stage, Aaron Gordon is more athlete than basketball player...but he is an elite, elite athlete. While he's very lean and enormously quick and a fantastic leaper, he still packs a lot of punch and is very strong for his size. He's got an outstanding first and second jump and is one of the bounciest players we've seen yet in TMBSL, let alone just in this class. He doesn't shy away from contact and is a very high motor player who is always giving tremendous effort. He's smart and decisive and despite being a bit green from a technical perspective on the offensive side of the ball, he's a high IQ player. The mental toughness and physical tools give him one of the highest ceilings of any player in any class, let alone just this one...it's just a matter of overcoming his very low offensive floor as he develops.
At Arizona, Gordon's physical tools overcame his lack of proficiency as a scorer. He was the second leading scorer on a team with a lot of future TMBSL talent. The question is how this translates to being around much more talented players and certainly being defended by them. He's uncomfortable with his back to his basket, he's a putrid free throw shooter, and he has a clunky jump shot. He's not a good handler of the basketball and probably shouldn't be asked to be initiate much offense at all. However, Gordon is a great mover without the ball and does a good job of working off of screens to put himself in position to receive the ball and score in the paint. He's also a good screener who can be deadly as a pick and roll man and attacks the basket with a full head of steam. He does a fairly good job finishing opportunities at the basket once he gets the ball in good scoring position...he just shouldn't be asked to receive the ball with his back to the basket and create something for himself. The struggles with his shot are fairly head-scratching...he shot 42% at the free throw line, but the only offense he consistently showed that he could create for himself was when would hit the step-back jumper in the mid-range of his dribble. He showed he was a very willing shooter from range and made about 36% of his threes in college, but he did it with a very deliberate and slow shooting motion that produced very ugly line drive shots. Hopefully whoever drafts him will make sure they hire him a shot coach. He will likely be an elite offensive rebounder from day one as he is self-aware enough to know his own offensive limitations...so he constantly looking for the easy put-back scoring opportunities and has the athleticism to get to the them on the offensive boards.
Defensively, Gordon has tremendous upside because of his athletic abilities. He showed that he could defend 1-5 at Arizona and did it semi-regularly. He has the lateral quickness and strength to defend just about anyone on the perimeter and keep them out of the paint and he can also slide into the paint and use his strength to body with big men. While he doesn't have elite length, he does have tremendous instincts for defending from the helpside and has the ability to be an adequate shot-blocker and rim protector. Where Gordon is an elite offensive rebounder and generally a very aware and high-motor player, the one place he sometimes shows lapses in concentration is rebounding defensively; occasionally he will allow himself to get out of position or forget to seal his man out of the paint on the box out.