Report: Magic excited about progress of Aaron Gordon, Mario Hezonja

There's no reason to put too much faith in summer league results, but nevertheless, the Orlando Magic are very pleased with how Aaron Gordon and Mario Hezonja performed in their limited appearances last week, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Gordon played in three games for the Orlando Blue team and averaged 21.7 points and 11.7 rebounds per game. He also chipped in eight assists, five blocks and four steals across the three contests.

Hezonja played in just two games, averaging 13 points per game, but the skill that made him a top-five pick in June shined through with some highlight-reel plays. The 20-year-old Croatian rookie swished a game-winning 3-pointer late in overtime against the Clippers and then let loose with a monster dunk against the Thunder two days later.

The Magic were pleased enough with what they saw to sit the pair, along with point guard Elfrid Payton, for the final two summer league games. New head coach Scott Skiles spoke highly of both players on Friday.

From Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel:

    "To be sure, any player's success during summer exhibitions needs to be taken with some skepticism; after all, the vast majority of players who stepped onto Amway Center's practice court in recent days are not bona fide NBA players. Still, the differences between the Aaron Gordon of a year ago and the Aaron Gordon of this past week were stark. 'He played very well, and he's worked a lot on his shot,' coach Scott Skiles said. 'Obviously, that's getting better. He wants to do well so badly that sometimes he speeds up and gets a little bit out of control, and he's really worked on that. You could see that he really slowed down, particularly early in each of the games he played.' From the Magic's perspective, perhaps nothing about this past week was more encouraging than Gordon's play. But Skiles and general manager Rob Hennigan identified other positives, too, including the way Croatian swingman Mario Hezonja, the fifth pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, acclimated to his new team. Hezonja hit a go-ahead 3-pointer late in overtime of the Magic's summer-league opener and made SportsCenter highlight reels with an emphatic driving dunk in the second game. 'He's as athletic as any of the guys he's going to play against, so that's good,' Skiles said. 'He has that in his pocket. ... He's going to go home, get some rest, come back in August and get back after it. But you've got to be blind not to see the positives and the things he can do. It's just a matter of kind of getting used to the NBA.'"