{"id":585190,"date":"2026-02-06T00:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/585190\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T00:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:39:19","slug":"magic-prez-jeff-weltman-not-pleased-with-state-of-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/585190\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic prez Jeff Weltman not pleased with state of Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the Magic<\/a> only made one move ahead of the NBA trade deadline<\/a> \u2014 Orlando<\/a> sent veteran guard Tyus Jones<\/a> and two second-round picks to Charlotte in exchange for cash considerations \u2014 team president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman<\/a> revealed Thursday the franchise considered making other deals in hopes of improving its roster.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, however, the Magic didn\u2019t roll the dice on any other trades beyond moving Jones late Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Weltman doesn\u2019t believe that\u2019s a sign of complacency or due to a lack of aggression by the organization that entered Thursday\u2019s game against Brooklyn 2-8 in its last 10 games and 8th in the East during a season that came with high expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aggressive 365 days a year,\u201d he said at the AdventHealth Training Center. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019re not afraid to make bolds as I think last summer showed. The answer to frustration isn\u2019t just to make a move just for the sake of making a move. One thing to understand is the way that our team is set up right now with contracts and timing, for us to make a significant move means that we have to break into the core.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat core has been excellent when it\u2019s been on the floor together,\u201d he added. \u201c\u2026 So, for us to break up that core, it\u2019s going to have to be a significant move. I will tell you, we had some substantiative talks that I thought could have gone somewhere. Obviously they did not, they didn\u2019t materialize but it wasn\u2019t for a lack of pushing, for a lack of urgency. Our mission is to improve this team. We\u2019re never taking a day off from that. It\u2019s just that we\u2019re not going to do something just for the sake of doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Weltman\u2019s point, Orlando\u2019s opening night lineup of Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. ranked sixth league-wide in net rating (plus-18) among all five-man lineups in the league who had played at least 115 minutes together entering Thursday\u2019s slate of games, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But for the second season in a row, the Magic have been plagued by injuries to key players.<\/p>\n

Suggs has missed 20 games due to injury, including seven (Dec. 18-29) because of a left hip contusion and eight (Jan. 4-22) with a grade 1 right knee MCL bruise. Banchero has missed 10 games (Nov. 14-Dec. 3) due to a left groin strain. Wagner missed his eighth straight Thursday due to left high ankle sprain injury management after he already sat out 16 (Dec. 9-Jan. 11) due because of the original injury.<\/p>\n

Even Carter missed two games due to injury: one (Nov. 23) due to a left ankle sprain and another (Jan. 11) due to a right hip strain.<\/p>\n

Among Orlando\u2019s opening night lineup, only Bane had been available for each of the first 49 games of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s concerning,\u201d Weltman said when the Sentinel asked him how concerning it is to him that the team\u2019s core hasn\u2019t been able to remain healthy this season and last. \u201cEvery team has injuries, but it\u2019s having these prolonged injuries. All I can say is, these are soft tissue injuries. What can you say? It\u2019s the NBA and this is what happens sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel like we\u2019re a little bit \u2018Groundhog Day,\u2019 with this season,\u201d Weltman added. \u201cThe only thing is, I also think we\u2019re better this year because we added Desmond Bane. So, I hate to keep saying it, but when this team has been healthy, it\u2019s been really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Orlando at times this season has fallen away from its defensive identity, which in turn has stumped its offensive output.<\/p>\n

Entering Thursday, the Magic were 16th in defensive rating (114.6) and\u00a020th in offensive rating (113.5), which resulted in a net rating (minus-1.1) that sat 19th, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, the team ended the regular season second in defensive rating league-wide (109.1) and 27th in offensive rating (108.9), which left them with a net rating (minus-0.2) that ended 17th in the NBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After opening this season 13-8, the Magic have gone 12-16 since Dec. 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like the state of the team right now,\u201d Weltman said. \u201cWe\u2019re not playing well and I think it\u2019s been a little while that we haven\u2019t been playing well. I would imagine our fans our frustrated by the way we\u2019re playing and I\u2019m frustrated with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain optimistic about the rest of the season and it\u2019s on us to turn this thing around,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019s still over a third of the season left and we\u2019re right in the thick of the race. We\u2019ve got to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although the Magic only made one move ahead of the NBA trade deadline \u2014 Orlando sent veteran guard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-585190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116020902072362804","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}