Let me take you back to the 2015-2016 season. The Orlando Magic were in the fourth season of six straight non-playoff seasons and were heading into the all-star break at 23-29. No one was playing in the all-star game but Aaron Gordon, in the middle of his second season, was participating in the slam dunk contest.
In the end, it came down to Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine of the Minnesota Timberwolves. LaVine ended up winning his second consecutive title but it was not without some controversy.
After the all-star weekend, the Magic opened up post-break against the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks are the same opponent the Magic open up with this year.
How did Aaron Gordon fare the rest of the season back in 2016? Well, he started that first game against the Mavericks with seven points in an overtime win but things would not get much better the rest of the way. He had 11 games where he scored less than 10 points and only five games with 20+ while never scoring more than 22. The Magic went on to finish 35-47.
Let's move to 2020. Again, we are dealing with some slam dunk controversy with Aaron Gordon and he's shown that is visibly upset about not winning a potential second title despite some of the best dunks we have ever seen and jumping over Tacko Fall, who stands at 7'5".
There are a lot of similarities between 2020 and 2016. AG finished second in a controversy, the Magic nearly have the same record (24-31 this season, 23-29 in 2016), and the Magic open up with the Mavs just like they did in 2016.
Gordon will look to have a better showing post all-star break than he did in 2016 and I think he will.
The frustration I believe will propel him to perform better during games. The desire to want to be known as a winner after missing out on what probably should be two slam dunk titles has to be great. He may not have played well in 2016 but you can only poke the bear so many times before he wakes up.
Aaron Gordon will show out the rest of the season.