By John Denton
Dec. 27, 2016
ORLANDO – One particular sequence from Orlando’s throttling of the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday reminded Magic fans and players that the future is now as it relates to blossoming standouts Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon.
After receiving an outlet pass, Payton pushed the ball up court so furiously that his floppy hairdo bent backward. With Memphis’ Troy Daniels and Jarrell Martin back on defense, Payton could have pulled the ball back and played it safe, however he stayed in attack mode and pressured the rim.
As Payton purposefully collected his dribble, both defenders committed to him, giving him just enough space to flick a no-look lob pass out to his right to a streaking Gordon, who went high above the rim for a thunderous dunk. The jam vaulted Orlando’s lead to 24 points, sent the Grizzlies into a timeout and elicited a roar from the Amway Center crowd.
In a game where Orlando’s two young standouts were the offensive stars all night, the fourth-quarter lob play brought their unique skill sets together and reminded those on hand how they continue to elevate their games. Gordon and Payton have been on this basketball journey together for years – the last 2 ½ seasons with the Magic after being fellow first-round picks in 2014 – and now they are enjoying each other’s simultaneous successes.
``It’s cool that we’re doing this together, but if I know Aaron like I think I know him, he’s not content,’’ Payton said following Tuesday’s preparation for Wednesday night’s home game against the rival Charlotte Hornets. ``We’re both just continuing to work. It’s cool to see some of it paying off for us, but we still want more.’’
Payton and Gordon have been giving the Magic (15-18) more and more of late, and they are big reasons why the team has played much better basketball in December than it did in November. The Magic knew, for the most part, what they would be getting out of the veteran players on the roster heading into this season, but it was the 22-year-old Payton and the 21-year-old Gordon who were huge X-factors. If they could grow their games in this their third NBA seasons, then the Magic could potentially make a major leap in the standings, one popular theory suggested in the offseason.
After somewhat slow starts – when both players were removed from the starting lineup for stretches – Payton and Gordon have started to flourish and are making defenses pay for sagging off them. In December alone, Payton is giving the Magic 12.9 points and 6.2 assists a game while shooting 50.3 percent and Gordon is pumping in 12.6 points a night while shooting 49.3 percent in 15 games this month. For the season, Payton is averaging 11.8 points and 5.7 assists and shooting 46.7 percent from the floor, while Gordon is averaging 10.8 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 43.5 percent from the floor.
Also, consider how the two of them have seemingly taken turns of late putting up career nights for the Magic. On Dec. 13 in Atlanta, Payton became just the NBA fourth player in the past 46 years to have at least 26 points and 14 assists in a game off the bench. A night later against the Los Angeles Clippers, Gordon dominated the game in a variety of ways and scored a career-best 33 points. Over the past two Magic games, Payton poured in 25 points and drilled three 3-pointers in Orlando’s defeat of the Lakers, while Gordon scored 30 – including his highlight-worthy alley-oop lob from Payton – in Monday’s whipping of Memphis.
``It’s exciting and encouraging and I’m taking great pride in watching those guys grow and develop,’’ Magic coach Frank Vogel said. ``Those are the two young guys that we kept in the rotation – Mario (Hezonja) will have his time – but those are two of the developing guys around the veterans who we made moves to get last offseason. We knew they were going to be a little up and down as young players, but as I said when I took the job, they’re not rookie young players, they’re third-year guys. Hopefully they have a lot of their growing pains behind them and they are ready to come into their own.
``It seems like either one or the other is having a career night just about every night of late and hopefully that continues,’’ Vogel added.
Payton and Gordon first met each other while they were young basketball stars playing for Team USA’s Under-18 entry in Prague. They came to Orlando together in the 2014 NBA Draft – Gordon as the No. 4 pick and Payton as the No. 10 pick and a trade acquisition from the Philadelphia 76ers.
Though they are both supreme athletes, Gordon and Payton came into the NBA somewhat as projects because of the shaky shots. Often together, and occasionally in the solitude of empty gyms, they have put in hours of work to better their shots so that they make defenses pay for leaving them open.
That was never more apparent than in the past two games. In last Thursday’s game, the Lakers repeatedly went under on screens, daring Payton to shoot and he responded by making 11 of 16 attempts and three of six 3-pointers. On Monday, Memphis attempted to check Gordon with big men Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph and he torched them for 12 straight points during one stretch of the third quarter and 20 of his 30 points in the second half.
``When they have a big on me, it’s isolation on the perimeter and when they have a small on me, it’s isolation in the post,’’ Gordon said of his simplictic strategy. ``You’re either going to double me and I’m going to kick it out or you’re not and I’m going to get a bucket. And if the bigs back up, I’ll shoot it over them and if they are up on me, I’ll go by them. That’s how I’ve kept it really simple.’’
Vogel has had several talks and one-on-one film sessions with Gordon and Payton about knowing which shots are the right ones to take and which ones fall out of their comfort zones. For example, the Magic don’t necessarily want Gordon shooting the fade-away shots following shake-and-bake dribble sessions that he heaved far too often early in the season. Similarly, they want Payton shooting 3-pointers only when he’s left open and he has his balance under him.
``They’re shooting the ball with confidence and they’re recognizing the right shots to take,’’ the coach said. ``Shot selection is so much a part of percentage. It’s not just about, `can you shoot or can you not shoot?’ It’s about recognizing of what shots you can make, and they’re doing a good job with that.’’
Having enduring tough times in their first two NBA seasons and this year’s early-season struggles, Gordon and Payton are taking pride in the fact that they are flourishing at the same time. They have leaned on each other when things looked bleak and they are there to assist one another now – as Payton did on Monday’s signature lob pass – that things are looking up for them.
``That’s my boy, that’s my family, that’s my brother, that’s my teammate,’’ Gordon said of Payton. ``Throughout a career and throughout a season there are tough time and ups and downs, we’ve always tried to keep a level head and keep each other on a level perspective.’’
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