It's fine to say Gordon isn't a great shooter. I'd agree with that. He's not a great shooter. But you're quoting Gordon's shooting percentages (48% from the field last season and 30% from three), at least point out that Jaylen Brown is coming into this league with a reputation as a terrible shooter. (College: 43% from the field with 29% from three). He just backed up that criticism by shooting 32% from the field and 22% from three against a competition level that Aaron Gordon straight-up dominated (Gordon had arguably the best Summer League of the past decade). If you're expecting Brown to miraculously shoot better as an NBA rookie than he did in College or Summer League, fine... but all signs point to him being worse than Gordon right now.
Go ahead and share more stats about how poor a shooter Aaron Gordon is. Alls I'm saying is, those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones... unless you're Jaylen Brown... in which case, throw all the stones you want, you ain't hitting anything.
Actually if you read scouting reports before draft Gordon was considered a bad shooter. Probably worsh than Brown especially factoring in free throw percentage.
And that has basically nothing to do with Aaron Gordon in year 3. He made leaps between his rookie and sophomore season. Perhaps Jaylen will to. So telling me that Gordon was considered a bad shooter coming into the draft ... while Jaylen is also considered a bad shooter - doesn't really prove anything, right?
Anyways... Gordon was seen as a better prospect. Look no further than the world-famous Chad Ford Draft tier article.
Scouts/experts had Gordon as a tier 2 prospect. "Tier 2 is reserved for players who are projected as potential All-Stars by scouts.". Gordon was in there above Marcus Smart, who Gordon was drafted ahead of and continues to be seen as a better prospect than two years later.
Scouts/experts had Brown as a tier 3 prospect. "This tier is typically reserved for players who are projected as NBA starters". He also mentioned: "Of this group, Bender and Brown were the only players to receive Tier 4 votes."
So Gordon was seen as a future star heading into the draft. Some saw Brown as a projecting as a high-level rotation player.
2014 Draft tiers: http://hawksquawk.net/community/topic/394690-chad-ford-ranking-draft-prospects-by-tiers-2014/
2016 Draft tiers: http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=85249.0
Is what it is.
So now that we've gotten that out of the way and established that yes, Gordon was seen as a superior prospect, we can go back to comparing them right now.
Give me one piece of evidence that suggests any part of Jaylen Brown's game is superior to Aaron Gordon right now. I don't see any. From everything we've seen, Brown isn't as good as Gordon right now. This is understandable, though considering Gordon is heading into his 3rd NBA season and Jaylen, having never played an NBA game, just got done struggling in Summer league.
Naturally, I'll now be labelled a "hater" by some of the more ignorant menaces that fester on this forum. Others will rabblerouse about how I'm a Orlando Magic fan and have Aaron Gordon posters on my wall. But I assure you, I'm firmly on the Jaylen Brown bandwagon. I've been supportive of the pick. I trust Ainge. Brown shows signs of being good some day. I was encouraged by aspects of his summer league performance. I am looking forward very much to watching him develop. But again, I see no reason to believe any part of his game is better than Gordon right now.
Did you seriously just use Chad Ford's tiers? Why not use how many pokemon the guys caught? This is a guy that edits his draft orders after the fact to make himself look smarter, and we are supposed to take his tiers level as gospel? They were both rated very similarly coming out of high school my any site i could find (both within their class and overall) and you choose to come back with Chad Ford tiers.
It's based on his conversations with scouts and front offices. It's not his personal mock. It's supposed to give you a sense of how significant the prospects are seen as they enter the draft. Point is, Gordon was seen as a future star. Opinions on Brown are split between those who think he's going to be a future starter and those who think he projects as a high quality rotation player.
We hope for the best, though.
Lets look at this again and realize it was torn into pieces 3 minutes into most of these guys careers. Maybe don't use this again as something with any value?
Tier 3:
Gary Harris
Doug McDermott
Nik Stauskas
Tier 4
Tyler Ennis
Rodney Hood
Zach LaVine
Jusuf Nurkic
Elfrid Payton
Adreian Payne
Kristaps Porzingis
James Young
Irrelevant. Stop wasting my time, Clay. Tell me something useful.
Gordon was seen as a higher level prospect than Jaylen is seen at right now. It is what it is. Showing me a bunch of irrelevant stuff about how guys have and haven't panned out has nothing to do with whether or not Jaylen is seen as a better prospect than Gordon was in 2014.
And as I said before, that really doesn't matter one way or the other. The key question was, right now, is Jaylen better than Gordon is? No. The answer is no.
Long-term, maybe. But there's no reason to believe Brown is better than Gordon right now.
I stand by my statement that trading Gordon for Brown makes no sense for Orlando. I've addressed the key question this thread has posed. I'm ready to move on. Are you?