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The Orlando Magic are confusing. In February, they traded forward Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons for next to nothing -- Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova are elsewhere now -- and part of the reasoning for that was the emergence of 20-year-old power forward Aaron Gordon. Now, thanks to the arrival of Serge Ibaka and Bismack Biyombo, Gordon will be playing out of position. Weird, right?

From ESPN's Zach Lowe:

"If Serge Ibaka weren't here, Aaron Gordon would be my power forward," Vogel said. "But Serge is here. Aaron is going to be playing [small forward]. We are going to put the ball in his hands a lot. We're going to use him like Paul George."

That would make the Magic huge and mobile -- especially when they have Gordon, Ibaka, and Biyombo on the floor together. Those three can switch on defense, pound the glass on offense, and form a six-armed rim-protecting hydra to fix Orlando's glaring weakness. The Magic are plotting a counter-revolution. "In today's small-ball NBA, we think we can beat the [expletive] out of teams in the paint," Vogel said.

Gordon is stoked to stretch his skill set. "I'm gonna be like a third guard," he said. "I'll have a much bigger ballhandling responsibility, and I'm all for that."

...

There are people within the team who think that by midseason, it will be clear Orlando's best lineups feature Gordon at power forward and Ibaka at center -- sort of a problem given the $30 million per year invested in Vucevic and Biyombo.

Aaron Gordon drives
Aaron Gordon will have the ball in his hands, apparently. USATSI

Some thoughts:

  1. Gordon is a reliable jump shot away from being something close to a star. Ordinarily, a team would try not to complicate anything for a young player like him. Lowe called it "almost shocking" to use Gordon as a wing player, and that's fair. He's 6-foot-10 and he's never been much of a creator off the dribble in the NBA.
  2. Regardless of Gordon's position, Orlando would have wanted him to develop as a shooter and a playmaker. This shift makes extending his range and improving his ball-handling more important, but it shouldn't drastically change his approach. When he says he's excited, it's believable -- most players want more responsibility with the ball in their hands.
  3. On defense, this really isn't a problem. Gordon is one of the best athletes in the NBA, and he moves his feet like a guard. As weird as it is to imagine him playing next to Ibaka and Biyombo on offense, that's a terrifying -- in a good way! -- combination on the other end.
  4. I'm still not sold on all of these pieces fitting together or staying together. Even though the Magic are reportedly "in no rush" to move Nikola Vucevic, it would be weird to pay Biyombo $70 million over four seasons to be strictly a backup. Gordon playing the 3 helps open up minutes for everybody, but it doesn't make it an ideal situation.
  5. Gordon might be a turnover machine next season, and this experiment might be short-lived. It's interesting that Orlando is willing to try this out, though, and I'm curious to see what it looks like. No one knows whether or not this new iteration of the Magic will be good, but they'll be interesting.