“Summer League Aaron Gordon” is a figure which has attained legendary, almost mythical status in my mind. Summer League Aaron Gordon (or SLAG, since I’m too lazy to type out all those words) was a player who could hit jumpshots from anywhere on the floor with smoothness and poise that “Regular Season Aaron Gordon” (RSAG) could never quite match. Sure, RSAG gave us glimpses of SLAG at times last season (who would forget those forty point games and Gordon telling the media “if teams take us lightly we’ll blow them out”?), but SLAG has always been the pinnacle of the Aaron Gordon experience, never matched or equaled.
Until now. Maybe. Aaron Gordon hit a lot of jumpers in this contest. In fact, most of his scoring output consisted of three-pointers and tough midrangers. It reminded me of prime SLAG, honestly. And I’m ready for SLAG and RSAG to be one in the same. Please don’t let me down, man. If Evan Fournier starts hogging the ball, tell him you’re the face of the franchise. If D.J. Augustin isn’t being a pure enough PG and finding you all the time, call him out in front of the media. If Jonathan Isaac invites you to hear him preach, don’t go and ignore his texts because you’re the alpha dog now and you’re the one who tells people what to do, not the other way around. If coach tells you to pass the ball, shoot instead. Channel your inner SLAG that we all know is in there.