By Dan Savage
July 13, 2016
ORLANDO – The Orlando Magic made a number of moves this offseason, including hiring a new head coach, making major trades and signing key free agent acquisitions.
The aggressive offseason not only has the fan base excited, but it also has a number of players on the roster energized as well.
Aaron Gordon recently hopped on Magic Drive Time with Dante Marchitelli and Jeff Turner and expressed his enthusiasm about all the moves. He also touched on his offseason, his outlook for the Magic’s 2016-17 campaign and more.
Here are some of the top excerpts from their conversation:
Dante: This guy has been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. He’s all over social media, crossing over a kid at a basketball camp, putting a dunk on him. Then he finishes up the San Francisco Pro-Am. You just judged your first dunk contest, the Venice Beach basketball league. AG, I don’t think anyone is as busy as you are right now.
AG: (Laughter) That’s not true. Thanks for having me on guys. But it’s fun. I’m making the most of my offseason. But I’m making sure to work out any time that I can.
Dante: I love the reaction by the other campers on the crossover, by the way. I thought that was absolutely fantastic with the little Batman kid there that was trying to defend you.
AG: Yeah, he said he was the best defender in the camp and I liked his confidence.
Jeff: Hopefully, he got a special award for that, right? (Laughter) He got a t-shirt or something, an autograph from Aaron Gordon for the embarrassment.
AG: He walked up to me after and he was like ‘I’m going to go viral, aren’t I?’
Dante: (Laughter) Yep, probably so.
Jeff: It’s been a busy time around here in Orlando. A lot of changes have taken place. Have you had a chance to talk with coach Vogel and how has that gone?
AG: Yeah, I’ve talked to coach Vogel a couple of times. He sent me a clip of me rebounding the ball and pushing it to start the transitory break. So, he’s looking for me to be some type of point forward. And it’s really good. It’s really good. He believes in us. He gives us the confidence. He’s a confident individual himself. He’s a very nice guy. He’s very funny. He’s really exuberant. Me and him, we gel pretty well thus far. With Rob Hennigan and Scott Perry making the moves that they’re making alongside of it, we’re going to be a very, very dangerous team this year.
Dante: I think so. It appears that way to us. I would agree with you. The majority of your games, if not all of them, were at the four last year, AG, I would imagine that changes now going to the three. Are you excited about that? What’s different for you now and your approach in switching positions? You can handle the ball more maybe, like you mentioned, what else changes in your role if that does happen and you’re the starting three?
AG: I’m just so excited guys. I’m so excited. To have these players around me, Serge Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo, Jeff Green, D.J. Augustin, Jodie Meeks, the additions to our team. I think I heard before I came on, you guys talking about the level of competition in practice. Now we’re all going to be pushing each other. There’s no easy ride. There’s no clear-cut starters. That is awesome. That is so great. Just the competitive levels, the intensity, just kind of that grittiness of our team will just rise exponentially because of the players that we’re adding on to our team. For me, it’s making threes with people closing out at me and then making shots off the dribble, which I’m capable of doing and constantly improving on. So I’m so excited just to be playing alongside of all these guys and all of these tenacious defenders and everybody that plays with their heart. It seems like we have an emotional team now. Like very emotional in terms of just playing with their heart and giving everything they have to the game.
Dante: You wear your emotions on your sleeve and leave it all out on the floor and you mentioned Serge, Biyombo, these guys that you’re bringing in, they’re all going to do that. You’re going to have guys – not that the other guys didn’t – but you know going into camp that you’re going to be battling together. I know you have to be excited about that.
AG: Yeah, they’re just so talented. They’re very talented basketball players. It just completely rises the level of our organization … These are guys that give everything they have to the game every single night. And those are the type of people that I like playing with.
Jeff: The thing that I love about Aaron is there’s another part of this that maybe people don’t, that he really works on the mental part of this game … Talk to our listeners a little bit about that part of what you guys work on as far as playing present.
AG: I appreciate the lead in, that’s awesome. I’ve been with basically a mentor, he’s one of my best friends in the entire world, named Graham Betchart. To this day, he’s the best sports psychologist in the world. And I was lucky enough to grow up with him. We’re actually developing an app called Lucid, it’s a mental training app for athletes and it’s basically condensing what Graham and I have been talking about for the past seven to eight years. It talks about meditation, visualization and positive affirmation. It really is cultivating mindfulness and keeping you present. The hardest thing in sports to do is to stay present when you make a mistake or when you make a good play is to stay present to continue on to defense. So basically it’s a mentality to sharpen your mentality. Everybody in the NBA is talented. Everybody is skilled. It’s really the mental aspect that gives you that competitive advantage, that competitive edge that you need to go from good to being great. Once again, the app is called Lucid and it’s a mental training app for athletes.
Dante: I thought it was incredibly important for this team to bring back Evan Fournier. I think everyone would agree with that. Your thoughts on that news and knowing that Evan Fournier will be back with you and continue this journey that you guys are on.
AG: It’s amazing. Evan is a hell of a ballplayer. He can stretch the floor. He’s a threat from pretty much anywhere inside half-court. He’s somebody that we need on our team, that we’ve had and understands what this organization has been through. He understands Elfrid Payton, myself and (Nikola) Vucevic very well. He’s just somebody that, now that he has his contract, even more so, I think that he wants to win not only for himself, but for his team and the organization. Orlando is now his home. Even more so, five years on your contract this your home. The amount of pride that he will be playing with is off the charts, because it was already so high last year.
Jeff: What else is on the horizon. Is there a little Select Team action for you?
AG: Yeah, so I’ll be going to out to Las Vegas on the 17th to play against the best basketball players in the entire world with the USA Select Team. Hopefully, I can make the team and hopefully, there’s a spot for me. So that’s what I’m going to be attempting to do. Go out there and make the team. Go out there and sharpen my spear against some of the best players in the world and just have a good time. Enjoy it, playing basketball against the best players. I can’t stress that enough. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I’m here. I’m ready.
Dante: What are you trying to work on for next season?
AG: Shooting and ball handling. That’s the two main areas that I want to work on. Obviously, I want to have an incredible post-up game as well. But, shooting and ball handling will open up the floor for everybody on the team. It’s going to be the most beneficial for the Orlando Magic if those two aspects of my game are sharp.
Dante: What is your answer to people that say, ‘there may not be enough offense on this team right now?’
AG: We just need to step up. Like you said, I’m going to step up. I’m going to step up this year. I’m going to make sure that I do what needs to be done for us to win the game. As well as Fournier. EP is going to pick up his scoring. Mario is going to pick up scoring. And then with the additions of Serge and Bismack, we don’t have superstars like Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant on the team as of right now. So, they’re going to be able to get more touches. They’re going to be able to get more looks at the basket and picks up some of the scoring that they probably wouldn’t have been able to do with Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan.