HOT SEAT: Is Jamahl Mosley holding the Orlando Magic back? How does he BRING THEM BACK?

HOT SEAT: Is Jamahl Mosley holding the Orlando Magic back? How does he BRING THEM BACK?

With the Magic struggling to start the season and so many problems to fix, the question has to be asked. The question has to be answered. Is Jamal Mosley on the hot seat? Why? It’s not yet time to panic, but it is time to think about it today on Lockdown Magic. You are Locked on Magic, your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. And you are indeed locked on Magic. Today is November 6th or will be November 6th. It’s November 5th, 2025. My name is Philip Ross. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. credentialed member of the Orlando Magic media since the 2012 season. On today’s episode of Locked On Magic, we’re going to dive into the question that I know every Magic fan is at least thinking about. Even I’m thinking about it. So, we’re going to do an episode on it. We’re going to talk about the big problems the Magic faced, the bets that have gone wrong so far, and what to do and what to think about the future of the Orlando Magic. Is Jamal Mosley on the hot seat? We’re going to get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, we want to thank you again for making lockdown magic part of your day every day. No matter when you listen to us, whether it’s first thing in the morning, whether it’s right when we upload, we truly appreciate you making lockdown magic part of your day every day. You can make lockdown magic even bigger part of your day by being one of our Orlando Magic dailies. That means you are listening five days a week. That means we are in your regular rotation. That means you’re listening to us first in the day. We truly appreciate all of you who have Orlando who have lockdown magic as part of your daily podcast rotation. It’s all part of lockdown podcast network. It’s your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked On Magic is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. I was at the UCF game on Monday. Um, which probably not something I should be saying out loud because it was very, very ugly. UCF won, they beat Hofra. Um, shout out to coach Speedy Claxton over at Hofra. Um really ugly ugly basketball game. The Magic would be very proud of how ugly that game was in a lot of ways. Um but everyone over there knows I’m the Magic Guy. Like like everywhere I go, people know I’m the Magic Gu. I get asked magic questions by my friends, by my family, by everybody, by you guys. And and look, that’s what I’m here for. That’s my job. That’s that’s all good. The number one question I’ve been getting even from like seasoned reporters, you know, who are interested in the magic o over at UCF is, is Jamal Mosley on the hot seat? Is he in trouble? We all see what we’re seeing. We all see how this team has started the year and and how much they’ve struggled. and with the expectations with everything riding on this season. I’ve had some I I’ve I do have a lot of followers who aren’t quite used to the American draft system and how teams are formed in in the NBA and they ask me like you know joke some people will ask me tongue and cheek like is this team tanking? I’ll be like there’s no point. The Magic traded their pick. Everybody is ringing their hands. And the first thing I would say to you is it’s still really really early. And I’ll explain why patience is still the answer uh toward the end of the show. But regardless of that, this season was always going to be about Jamal Mosa. Like yes, like Paulo has to be better, France has to improve, you know, Desmond Bane’s gonna all this stuff. This season was all about Jamal Mosa. Jeff Welman was under pressure to do something. For anyone who’s criticizing Desmond Bane trade so far and saying, “Oh, the Magic gave up too much.” And maybe they did. That was the move. There was no other move if you were considering winning a championship. It may not be the right move. It may be debilitating, and we’re going to find out over the next four years, but that was the move. I I will give Jeff Welman the credit for doing a move that was so just like a Davius schol pope last summer so universally praised that it’s that trying to figure out why it’s not working is baffling. Well, one of the reasons it might not be working is that the magic might have the wrong coach. I am someone who does believe that like players coaches have roles too. Steve Clifford. When the Magic hired Steve Clifford, none of us expected him to carry that team to a championship. But all of us saw what Steve Clifford did with Charlotte and said, “Oh, no. He’s going to bring a level of seriousness to this team that’s going to get them at least to the doorstep of the playoffs. Obviously, they made the playoffs two two years for two years. Honestly, it was the same with Scott Skyles. Scott Sky Skles is excellent at taking young teams and teaching them how to win at a base level. Now, he will great you and you will run out of patience with them and and eventually you outgrow him and the way that he operates his things, but the Magic that season needed a Scott Skyles and obviously Scott Skyles, you know, exposed a lot of issues within that organization. Didn’t do it the right way. didn’t stick it out the way he should have, but exposed a lot of issues within the organization that needed exposing and and you know ultimately led to the team’s collapse. Jamal Mosley has been and and still is an excellent culture builder. The Magic are not in the position that they’re in with the expectations they’re in without Jamal Mosley. And and again, I will give Jamal Mosley a ton of credit over the course of the last four years. He’s always been great at keeping the big picture in mind. sacrificing maybe some short-term gains to help this team be prepared for the big picture. And I would argue he is even doing that today. The readbased system, the magic run works in the playoffs for the most part. There’s a reason why he has scratched every ounce of his team in the playoffs because they’re able to tweak things and still keep their relative structure. But it is also undoubtedly true right now that Jamal Mosley is not getting the most out of this team. They’re 14th in defense, still super early, bad defense. You know, they were 10th before entering the game against Atlanta. They dropped to 14th, one bad performance. Stats aren’t sticky yet, but ultimately we all knew the Magic’s chances of winning a championship went through their offense. We assume the defense would be great and and I think the defense will get back there. Like I I really do. I think there’s just some tweaking that needs to be done. I’ll explain one problem that that may be unavoidable that they have to work through. The Magic the Magic are going to be fine on defense. They may, you know, top five may be tougher now and I’ll explain some reasons for that in a minute, but the Magic could not survive if their offense was in the bottom 10. And it was incumbent and frankly Jamal Mosley’s entire job this year was to make the Magic’s offense competent because we trust the defense will do its thing. And again, I I I still trust him. And again, I I want to stress this too. I believe in what the Magic are trying to do offensively. It’s not perfect yet. It’s not executed well enough yet, but the things they are trying to do and the way they can do them, I believe in the vision. I do. I I am I I’m gonna keep shouting that because when it works, it works. And we’ve seen it work. Even in these games where the Magic League struggled, we’ve seen it work, just not long enough. And some of that is absolutely on Jamal Mosley for not making sure they’re running these pet plays and running these pet sets and continuing to grow to to kind of branch off of them the way that they should. We should not feel like, oh, it’s really special in the Magic Run Apollo being pick and roll. that’s been their best play all season. Run that thing to death. Find variations off of it. Run dummies with it. Why aren’t, you know, again, like everyone’s complaining that Fron Vagner doesn’t touch the ball enough. I agree with that. Everyone’s complaining that Desmond Bay is not getting enough shots. I agree with that, too. Why aren’t the Magic running the same stuff they ran in Memphis? Now, maybe some of that is because John Morant is a singularly different player and the Grizzlies run a different system, but at the end of the day, the offense is on Jamal Mosley. And it’s not for lack of trying. Like again, like not for lack of trying that they’re trying to do something different, but the fact of the matter is Mosley may not be the guy. Now, he’s got he played eight games. He’s got 74 games to prove otherwise. And like I said, Jamal Mosley has always been really good about seeing the big picture. He will sacrifice and and maybe that’s going to be too too penalizing in this instant, but he will sacrifice some short-term gains to build something for the long term, to build something for the marathon. He’s not trying to win the win the the matched quarter pole. He’s trying to win it in April. And the last two years particularly, those seeds that he laid in November and October, we may not have been able to see what that tree would be, but they sprouted pretty well. So, I would I would still argue like give him the chance, like give it a chance. There’s still a lot to work on. But obviously that other side of it different. The short term does matter. The Magic do need to win. They can’t afford to sacrifice games for the sake of growth. They need to win. And the fact that the defense has not come up with the that the defense has not maintained at the level that it was last year, that part is concerning. And so there there needs to be a little bit of a reset. It just to close this segment out. Is Jamal Mosley on the hot seat? No more than he was at the beginning of the season? honestly no more than he was at the at the start of the year when you know I got criticized by people saying like that this is a big season for him and it is because if the offense does not meaningfully improve that’s the thing holding the team back from winning a championship and you do have to ask you know even with the changes Jamal’s tried to to implement is that enough to win a championship and conversely is there someone perhaps better out there I I don’t want to comment too much further. Not because I know anything about this. I don’t I don’t have any inside information here, but it’s just really early. And I want to explain why patience matters and give some real world examples about this, but it’s really early. It’s later than it was two days ago. It’s later than it was last week, but it’s still really early. And so I I said this yesterday. I’ve been telling this to people who ask me about it. This organization, this franchise, they’re gonna be deliberative about it. Unless Paul Frons Dez, unless players go to Jeff Welman and say, “This isn’t working. We need a change now. Give the keys to to someone else.” The Magic aren’t going to even think about anything until after the Thanksgiving road trip. Magic play their last two NBA Cup games. Um, they play I think it’s at Boston, at Detroit, at Philadelphia or sorry, at Boston, at Philadelphia, at Detroit as a three-game road trip during Thanksgiving week. Um, and then they come and they have two days off. They have the whole weekend off, Saturday, Sunday off. And they play a three-game home stand. I believe it’s Miami, San Antonio, and oh, Chicago, Miami, San Antonio, which looks a lot tougher now than it did at the start of the season. Um, it’s a they play a three-game home stand before they go out west. The Magic aren’t going to touch this this prospect until after that road trip. And that’s game 20. That’s that’s the quarter mark of the season. So, the Magic can give this some time. And I’ll explain why patience is still the answer. But, I want to get into why the defense is struggling a little bit and what Jamal Mosley can do immediately to try and alleviate that pressure. the problem with pace. We’re gonna get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to my friends over at Gusto. Let’s be real. No one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. That’s where Gusto comes in. To take the stress out of payroll benefits and HR so you can focus on running your business and supporting your team. Gusto is the all-in-one remote friendly payroll and HR platform that makes managing your team simple, transparent, and fast. Whether you’re hiring, onboarding, or paying employees, Gusto helps you do it all from one place without the hassle or hidden fees. Unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price, which means no surprise charges at the end of the month. Gusto’s automated tools like offer letters, onboarding materials, and direct deposits save you hours every week. And you can always reach a certified HR expert anytime something anytime to give you real peace of mind. Try Gusto today at gusto.comlockme and get three months free when you run your first barrel. That’s right, three months of free payroll at gusto.comlockme. That’s gusto. One more time. That’s gusto.comlockonba. So, I went to you guys. I went to you, the people, as Bane would say. Um, I went to you guys um and and asked decided to put together a poll. You could still vote on it if it’s before 4 p.m. on at Lockdown Magic. I’m revealing some results here asking like what is the biggest concern for the Magic through the first eight games? You know, we’re roughly 10 games of the season. Um, through the first eight games, what is the biggest concern? And two things, I gave four answers. All of them are fair concerns. Turnovers and execution, poor shooting, defensive lapses, and new player integration. All four of those are problems. The person who said all four of them, you’re right. I I I I they’re all problems. But the two that stood out in the in the voting on Twitter, 40% of my voters said defensive lapses, 36.7% said turnovers and execution. on YouTube at the same poll. 52% said defensive lapses, 26% said turnovers and execution. Of course, these two issues are related. And I want to repeat this. I will Jamal Jamal Mosley. This may be the sword that kills Jamal Mosley’s tenure. Like it it just it it’s it the offense was always going to decide where the Magic move forward with Jamal. And again, he’s got 74 more of these things. So, long way to go. No one’s in danger yet. Maybe the seat warmer is set to low. It’s a light simmer. It’s a slow cooker, but we got a long, long way to go here. A lot’s going to change. And and we’ll talk about that in our here. But I do think while I like the idea of introducing more pace and the Magic, I believe seventh in the league in and pace the last time I checked. Um, and I can check again because I have the stats loaded, right? Oh, I have the stats loaded. Um, I can check here because I have have the stats loaded here. The Magic are currently sixth than Pace, 102.9 possessions per 48 minutes. They were at 97 last year. They’re playing five possessions faster. I think we mentioned this LA, you know, at at the time we were talking a little bit more about Pace. Just from a possession standpoint, that’s 10 more points up for grabs. essentially five more possessions for you to score, five more possessions to give up points. So we look we that’s why we focus on per possession numbers and per 100 possession numbers so we can equalize some of the stuff. But while I like the idea of introducing pace and I think a lot of the problems are just the the team trying to understand and understand tempo a little bit better and being smarter about it. They’ve talked a little bit about this and some of that’s going to come from experience. Some of that’s going to come from the coach giving guidance and I think that is something that needs to happen more because while I think pace has helped the Magic. Remember they were 27th in league in offensive rating last year. They’re sitting at 23rd. Nominally better, not significantly better, but nominally better. They are shooting better. But the increased pace, the Cavs actually have a worse offense than the Magic right now. That’s that’s how early in the season we are. I want to mention that. Um, but the increased pace that the Magic are playing at also means teams have the opportunity to run back at them. It is worth mentioning that frankly pace is up around the league. Um, I don’t think the numbers show that the slowest team in the league or the lowest possession team in the league is the Celtics at 96.7 possessions per 48 minutes. The Magic last year at like 97.2. gonna be interesting to watch because the Magic will play the Celtics two times. How the Magic react to maybe playing at a slower pace. But I think the biggest issue that the Magic have is because they’re playing faster, because they’re getting up more shots, because of the way that they’ve had to play, because of the way they’re struggling to shoot, teams are running at them a little bit more, and the Magic are struggling in transition. I can actually pull up those numbers. If you give me a second to to stall, I could tell you the difference in transition between the Magic this year and the Magic last year. This season, the Orlando Magic in transition. So, they’re they’re great offensively in transition. They’re still doing fine in transition defensively. According to our friends at Synergy, the Magic giving up 1.09 points per possession in transition. That is nearly the top quarter of the league. They’re in this they’re uh se 7 73rd percentiles very rated very good. Um and actually if you look at their defense most of their defense is pretty good. They’re struggling a little bit on post ups, struggling on cuts, struggling on handoffs, but mostly and giving up some spot up threes. They’re giving up a lot of dribble penetration. Um that’s that’s the big thing. But still mostly okay on defense. Um again using the eye beholder. But let’s 1.09 09 points per possession. In transition, they had 189 transition possessions, which um 23.6 transition possessions. That’s the big thing. Transition possessions are up. Last year, the Magic gave up 1.109. So, they were still pretty good, but not they’re better this year in transition defensively, but they go from they have 23.6 transition possessions against them. This year, they’re last year, they were at 19.6. So again, you have more possessions. Transition is just an easier place to score. And so because the Magic are turning the ball over, because they’re playing more possessions, because they’re playing faster, because they have to drive to the rim so much, frankly, I think the biggest thing hurting this team’s defense is that they’re constantly having to track back. They’re just giving up too many of these transition points. And then you add on top that yes, like Desmond Bane is not the defender Contavius Calvo Pope is. He’s struggling to navigate screens. He’s digging in too deep, giving up giving up spot up threes in the corner. He’s not rotating properly. He’s maybe trying to feed guys. Think of Jire I’ve seen people say he’s trying to feed guys with Jiren Jackson Jr. behind him that Wendle Carter is not Jiren Jackson Jr. despite those numbers suggesting he’s the best defensive center in the league. Um there is at least defending field goal field goal percentage to rim. There are a lot of little problems to clean up. I don’t know if slowing down completely they they should not go back to what they were last year. Let’s be clear about that. The Magic are better offensively and the pace is a big reason why. So I if if what we’re experiencing now are growing pains to learn how to play at this pace and and make right decisions. Again, I respect Jamal Mosley a ton. I’m willing to give some benefit of the doubt because he has always been good at the big picture. Whatever criticism you have of him, he’s always good at getting the big picture, having the team playing its best basketball at the end of the season. That’s been consistent. They’ve they they’ve beaten their overall win percentage after the All-Star break every single year of his tenure. They played a great playoff series against Cleveland. Jamal Mosley’s teams outperformed themselves in the playoffs. So I I have every confidence that that this is going to get fixed that the m it’s going to click at some point and again like I don’t think you move on from Mosley this season un unless it is clear that the team has quit on him and that is certainly not the case. I think this team is trying to figure it out. I think that they maybe expected it to be easier than it was and they’re getting a little bit of a wakeup call and look it’s not going to change until they change it. coaches coach can’t control effort to a certain extent. Um I think there are tweaks that Mosley has to do. I think he has to simplify his offense. I think they should slow down in the half court a little bit. Um make it a rule like no quick shots unless they are wide open. Um they need to simplify their passing and their reads. I think that’s a big big thing. And again that’s on Mosley. I think a little bit more structure. I’ve always said this about Mosley. A little bit more structure would go a long way to helping the offense. And conversely, lowering those turnovers will help the defense sign because I think that I mean I don’t think the Magic’s defense is as good as it was last year, and I didn’t expect it to be, but in the half court, I think they’re fine. I think they’ll mostly hold their own in the half court defensively. Atlanta killed them in transition on on Tuesday night. And then like Atlanta hit a lot of open threes. Um Orlando looked small, looked a little flatfooted. It there’s a lot of work, don’t get me wrong. But I think we’re seeing the problem with the pace is that when it’s out of control, when it’s too much, you don’t get the chance to set your defense up and and that puts you on your back foot. When this, you know, the the games that the Magic have played well in and and when they’ve controlled the games, it’s because they’re allowed to get their defense set and they’re allowed to be physical. They’re not playing retreat. They’re not playing catch-up. They’re not playing frenetic. So, there’s a difference between playing fast and playing frenetic. And I think too often the Magic dig into playing frenetic. Like Charlotte plays frenetic. Like that’s how they want to play, but they’re all over the place. Washington, they were all over the place. It’s about calm and poise. And I think figuring out how to get that out of this team, that’s the trick right now. Again, I am a believer in what the Magic are trying to do. Um, and again, like I I don’t know what’s going to end up happening this year. You know, maybe they get it, maybe they don’t. Maybe Jamal makes it the end of the year, maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he’s the coach next year, maybe he’s not. I want to give Jamal Mosley the credit of saying he looked at his team’s offense and said, “This isn’t good enough. We need to change something.” And they didn’t change like the overall principles and the over idea of that’s the basis of this offense. And again, maybe that’s the problem. It might be. I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s not. I think a little more structure would would be good for them. And that’s not what Jamal Mosley’s done for this team. Um, but they needed to change something. And you know, Jamal Mosley essentially staked his entire coaching tenure with the Magic on this something. That’s and and and that’s the bet of the season. Like that is the season. If the Magic can get an halfway decent offense, they’re going to be fine. If the Magic continue to be a bottom 10 offense and have these long lulls where they just look completely lost and disconnected, they’re going to be in trouble. And because they’re playing faster, the defense isn’t quite the backs stop it was last year. And again, to me, that’s the thing we got to fix. Like before we fix anything offensively, the offense, let it do what it’s going to do. Put your defense in the best position to succeed because that a your best offense comes from transition and getting stops. So do that. Um, do that first and foremost. That’s that’s the that’s the secret sauce. That’s the formula. Do that first and first and foremost. Magic have work to do. Just let’s just put it that way. I am an optimist. I don’t think Jamal Mosley seat is as hot as fans want to think it is. So, let me explain why patience is still the answer. Some history lessons for you kids to coming up next on Lockdown Magic. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of a game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. I’ve said this a few times today. I want to repeat this. We are eight games into an 82 game season. And and 10% sounds like a lot. But a little dose of perspective, just a few just a few things I want to note. If you win 50 games, you still lose 32. And 32 games sounds like a lot of losses. Now granted, like the Magic have to go now 47 in uh god, what’s the record? 47 in 27 to get to 50 wins. So certainly a little bit more of a challenge, but if this team is as good as we think it is, like they’re going to have that kind of a stretch anyway. Another point of reminder, the Magic last year started three and six and they ended at 41 and 41, but the Magic started three and six last year. They lost five games. They lost all five games on an early season fivegame road trip. Obviously, because Paulo Beno’s injury happened, they were still kind of shell shocked from it. Took them a few games to kind of get their footing back and figure out how to play play again, but they figured it out. And after that fivegame losing streak, what happened? They won six straight and won 12 of their next 13. They got to the NBA Cup final or the NBA Cup quarterfinals. This is to say that things changed very quickly in the NBA. The line of magic in 2021 started 4-0 obviously and injury to Marl Folultz. They won what 17 games the rest of the season. Shorten season, but the rest 17 18 games the rest of the season. things change very very fast and the games come. You know, best part about the NBA is there’s always another game. There’s always another opportunity. As high as we were riding on Saturday night is as low as we’re feeling now after the Atlanta game is as high as we might be feeling after Friday’s Friday’s game against Boston. And look, Boston, decent defensive team, uh struggling to offensive rebound, slow paced team, very different challenge, can get hot from three, can be cold from three. They’re the Boston Celtics. um will be an interesting challenge and and we’ll see if the Magic are up to it. It’s a game that that is going to be a bellweather game for the Magic, not only because it’s an NBA Cup game and and I think those are important. Um but it’s going to be import and we’ll talk NBA Cup stuff tomorrow. Um but it’s going to be important just to beat a decent team. You know, Celtics are also three and five. They’re they’re not super happy with where they’re at. They’ve given up they’ve taken some bad losses as much as they’ve scored some nice wins. They’re inconsistent. So, everyone’s kind of inconsistent right now. And the best part is it’s so early in the season at like three and five. Still has you in the playin tournament. The Magic are 10th place in the playin tournament. They’re game back of the two teams at 500. The Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks and the Knicks are playing the Timberwolves as I’m recording this. They’re four and three. They’re only a game and a half up. There’s a lot of basketball left to play. The Charlotte Hornets are three and five. There is a lot of basketball left to play. And so we can’t overreact to anything quite yet. I mentioned it. Stats aren’t sticky. Stats change drastically game to game. So I do think it’s important to take a deep breath. Let me tell a little story here. One of the easy comparisons that a lot of people have made between for the Magic and what they gave up for Desmond Bane is what the New York Knicks gave up for Muel Bridges. And and I will note what the Knicks went got did last year was very different. The Knicks acquired Carlanthy Towns the day training camp was beginning. So they completely shifted and changed everything they were doing from the very start. Those Knicks teams never were as down as the Magic are now. They’re four and four through eight games, but they kind of scuttled around 500 until late November. The Magic were or the the Knicks last year were six and six in on November 15th. On November 5th last year, they were three and three. Um then turned three and four and then four and four. They did not really start picking up steam until then. They went won four game four games in a row to get to nine and six. They were at 14-8 December 5th and then they burned off a nine-game win streak to get to 24-1. Uh, and 24-1 or 24-10, excuse me, on January 1st. So again, like I think that I think we’ll we need to wait before we talk or do anything until the Thanksgiving road trip. That’s 12 games from now. 12 games. The Magic go seven and five in those games. That puts them at what? 10 and now 10 and 10 back to 500. You go eight and four in those games and and those games aren’t going to be easy. There there’s some tricky games in there. It’s Boston, Boston, Portland. Um then you go on the road to New York next Wednesday. Then you’re home for Brooklyn. Then you’re home for New York on that Saturday. Then you go to Boston. I’m missing games. I’m missing games somewhere. But the 14 games I can’t I can’t add. Um yeah, 12 games. Yeah, I can’t have um we got a long long way to go. That that that that is the point I want to keep making. There is a long long way to go. And even Macau Bridges is a great example of how long we have to go. Macau Bridges came to the Knicks last year as one of the best shooters in the league. Shot 42 and a half% in 2021, 36.9% from three in 2022. Um 38.2% 2% in 2023 splitting between Phoenix and Brooklyn, you know, high volume stuff. 37.2% in 2024, 35.4%. He ended and then 35.4% his first year at the Knicks. He struggled a lot. His three-point attempts went from 37.2% on 7.2 attempts per game in 2024 down to 35.4 and 5.6 attempts in his first first year with with the Knicks. And this year, 48.6% on five attempts per game. again entering Wednesday’s games. So, it might just be that, you know, again, you coach with Mike Brown, too, so maybe there’s a parallel there, too. But it might just be that it’s going to take a little longer for Desmond Bane to acclimate than we anticipated. And and you got to have a little patience. Macau Bridges over his first eight games with the Knicks last season. Again, just for comparison’s sake, 35.1% shooting on 7.1 attempts per game. Now, Desmond Bane is obviously not at that level. He’s he’s really struggling. Um, but Bridg’s shooting did not really come around until a little bit later in the season. And obviously now it’s working. And obviously he had a really solid playoffs. He he shot um 33 he only shot 33% in the playoffs. So, it it takes some time to integrate new players and it takes some time to get your ideas down on how to get those players evolv involved, especially when you have some established guys and and have an established way of doing things. I I I still see so many of the Magic’s problems as one of cohesion. The turnovers get fixed when these guys learn how to play again, play with each other and how to play off of each other and and what their reads are in this system. And again, we see how devastating the Magic system can be when they play it well. Honestly, like I looked it up, looked it up. I I previewed it yesterday. Magic went eight for 22 on wide open threes threes in the game in the game on Tuesday night. The Atlanta Hawks were 10 for 16. Like they made their shots. The Hawks made shots. That was the difference in the game. The Magic got their open looks, they missed them, and then they got, you know, the battle scars like like this team has a very much, oh, here we go again feeling about. And again, maybe that’s something that only changes when you change coaches and change you maybe the team does need to like rethink and more completely reshift what it’s doing offensively and get new ideas in offensively that Jamal Mosley isn’t going to do. So, you know, again, I think that is an offseason question more than a now question because I think right now the issue is still everybody is learning to play with each other. This isn’t 2K. I play my team on 2K. I put together random lineups and everybody works perfectly. They’re all in the right spots and, you know, I know where the computer’s going to put them. They’re not doing anything crazy. That’s not how real life works. This isn’t a fantasy team on 2K. These are real people, real human beings trying to figure out how to make this work. And right now there’s some growing pains and we’re seeing it on both ends of the floor. And it is frustrating, especially with the expectations this team has. But if it, you know, when it clicks, I don’t think it’s if when it clicks, it’s going it’s going to be fine. Now, is it going to be everything we hope it can be? That’s that’s what we’re going to find out. And and I think the problems we’re seeing now are a little bit inherent. The Magic struggle with turnovers last year didn’t matter as much because they didn’t play as many possessions. The turnover issues that have played this team for the last two, three years, they matter more now because the Magic play more possessions. They they get they they give defenses they give opposing teams more opportunities. Um the missed free throws like those hurt like like that that’s completely preventable. I still think so many of the problems are just this team learning to play together and cementing the thoughts and trusting each other. And the only way that’s going to happen is to play through them. And so there are hiccups. The Magic need to be better and need to win while they’re going through these hiccups. I think Jamal Mosley needs to be more consistent with his rotations and playing groups and not tinker as much as he has been. Um, and obviously some of it you can’t prevent, you can’t do anything about because of Jaylen Suggs minute restrictions. Um, I’m a little bit worried about reintroducing Mo Vagner and and this team not being settled, you know, we’re probably three, four, five weeks away from Mo Vagner returning. Um, that’s not reporting anything. I’m just saying that um this team just needs a few more guard rails, I think, to get those thought processes down to get comfortable with each other and then once that happens, we’ll see this team take off. I I’m still a believer in this team. Like again, if there’s any takeaway from this, it’s we may be approaching Jamal Mosley ceiling. That may be the conclusion of the season, but this group still has a lot of room to grow, and they’ve shown us they can do it, and it’s just about going out there and doing it and and being more consistent. That’s going to do it for me today, though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Locked On Match. Of course, find me on Twitter, phipr_om, and on blue sky, philipr. You can subscribe to the podcast, Apple podcast, search, tune, and Google Play, Spotify, Odyssey, and all the film podcast to your podcast enabled listening device. You can find me uh you can find us on YouTube as well. Just search for locked on magic. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out orlandomagicdaily.com. You can find us on Twitter, Omagic Daily. And for even more Orlando Magic content, be sure to check out my Patreon page, Orlando Magicub, at patreon.com/orlandomagicub. As always, thank you for your support. That’s patreon.comlandomagichub. Now that you’re done making Lockdown Magic your first lesson of the day, go make your next lesson. The Locked on Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Josh Lloyd hosts the number one fantasy basketball podcast giving you daily tips and helping you win your league all while making you a smarter NBA fan. Find Lockdown Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. All part of Lockdown Podcast Network. It’s your team every day. That’s going to do it for me today though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lock the Magic. We’ll be back tomorrow to talk a little bit about Paulo Benurro and his secret evolution. why he’s still the star that everybody wants him to be, even if he’s not the star everybody wants him to be. We’ll talk about that on tomorrow’s episode of Lockdown Magic. But until then, for Orlando Magic Daily and Lockdown Magic, this has been Phil Prosman. We’ll see you again next time for another episode of Lockdown Magic.

The Orlando Magic face mounting pressure as they struggle to start the season. Jamahl Mosley’s future is under fire among fans as the team fails to meet expectations.

This season was always going to focus on Jamahl Mosley and his ability to help the offense grow. The team’s emphasis on pace has had some positives for the team, but also some major drawbacks, as the team has struggled to re-establish its defense.

Mosley needs to find a way to get the team to start clicking and come together quickly to not only advance this season but save his job.

0:00 – Mosley’s Job Security
14:00 – Defensive & Offensive Issues
25:28 – Patience & Perspective

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