Jamahl Mosley on Magic adding Desmond Bane & Tyus Jones, developing winning culture | NBA Today

Jamahl Mosley on Magic adding Desmond Bane & Tyus Jones, developing winning culture | NBA Today

We are so incredibly happy to have the head coach of the Orlando Magic, Jamal Mosley, joining us now. I mean, that dab, I don’t think I’ve ever connected on anything that in that good. That’s that’s a good dab. The dab around the world, if you willit with Desmond Bane, obviously great to have him on your squad. How how has it been having a vet like him on? It’s been fantastic. Uh just talking to people throughout the league that have coached him, been around him. uh his ability to reach out to the guys has been good so far. He was in the gym the other day with Fron and Anthony Black already. Just his work ethic, his character, his care factor. Uh just leadership that that he brings to the table is going to be so special for us. I mean, for me, I I I look at you guys as a connected group. You guys really understand the power of connection. You guys, it’s really you understand who the two main guys are, but everybody stars in their role in that team. So when you bring a guy in from outside and you have a connected group, how do you see him fitting? I know you already reached out to guys and all that, but once you get in high intensity situations and tempers get the flaring, some of that stuff goes out the window. I’m a true believer in building those relationships and those connections off the basketball court and that just helps you when you’re playing next to a brother as a teammate. It’s different. How are those guys building that? And how are you encouraging it? They’re doing things throughout the summer. Like I said, Jaylen’s over in the other gym working out right now. Uh Anthony Black’s with him. These guys stay connected throughout the summer. They’ve reached out. They’re text messaging each other. They’re they’re staying connected that way and I think that’s so important for this group. Uh just to continue the chemistry of what our core guys have already built up until this point and adding Desmond who is someone that fits that. He knows about that. He understands what it takes in order to win at a high level that it’s the chemistry and the camaraderie you have as well as the the real live conversations that you have to have on a daily basis. Coach, every year we see that under the radar transaction that people really aren’t talking about. And last year we saw Alex Crusoe go to Oklahoma City. This year Tyus Jones comes to the Magic. How about his impact as far as certainly from locker room presence as far as a veteran, but also a guy that can run the offense for you? Well, it’s so important. I mean, Tyus is connected more than people just see from the outside what he’s able to do on the court. You got to think he played with Desmond for years. Uh he knows Paulo because of the Duke connection. He’s from Minnesota where Jaylen Suggs is from Minnesota. he’s the the old head in Minnesota to say. Uh and then there’s Wendell who’s also at Duke. So those connections go, you know, farther than the court. So that ability to have that in the locker room is huge. I mean, first and foremost for me, let me just give you credit. I think y’all got the most two-way players in the league. When I look at your roster and I play against y’all, you run 17 pick and rolls and you still don’t have a matchup you want to attack. So kudos to that, the guys that want to defend. But I’m going to get on the offensive end of it. Desmond Bang had a lot of experience handling the ball with J out. He got better at it. I saw it. They were able to win a couple games. He got comfortable doing it. Getting Suggs back. He’s a guy who’s able to handle the ball. You just also brought up Titus. You’re gonna have a lot of different options out there to play with. Are you Is your wheels already turning about how we going to maneuver this and keep guys engaged and involved? The wheels have been turning and I think that’s the great part about it. I talked to Dez’s, you know, college coach Jamie. He played point in Selman College. So, when he got the ball in his hands when Memphis when Jaw was out, he was able to control that offense and understand what he needed to do. And the biggest part for our guys is you want decision makers. You want guys that can make the right play at the right time uh for their teammates. And when you have that point guard mentality, you’re able to get others involved the right way. And that’s what we have. I mean, I this my last so many people complain about the trade and say you gave up too much. What I tell people is when you have guys like Vagner and you have guys like Paulo. These are guys that can dominate their one-on-one match. If you can give them just an inch more space offensively, it makes all the difference for these offensively talented guys. So people saying what you gave up for Desmond Bane, but they don’t understand the impact that that’s going to have for you guys offensively. And he’s a dog defensively as well. Two-way player. Two-way player. And you said it’s it’s a difference between a step of Apollo getting down the lane and then guy helping off the strong side corner or him staying hugged up and that’s the difference maker for us. Obviously the Eastern Conference is kind of up in the air. When you think about all the pieces and the roster that you have is currently constructed. How do you feel like you guys stack up in the East? You know, I like where our team is. I I like the moves we’ve made. you know, the Devos family going in, our front office going in, understanding what we’re capable of doing when we’re healthy. I think that plays a big part in it. We talked about being top four, top five last year, and I think our guys are hungry enough to understand that we got to, you know, you got to play the year. You got to the training camp’s going to be a great level line of competition uh for each one of these guys. But I like where we stack up in the East. Well, and I’m I’m going to back uh double up on what UD said as far as when you go and and it’s not even really in trade when you trade draft picks that are in 2028 or 2030 because coach you know this your roster is young. It’s not like they’re you’re adding Desmond to a group of players in their mid30s and this is last the last run or you have a two-year window. But when you have you just signed Paulo to that that max contract uh Fron was signed last year. You have Jaylen who was sung signed to an ext signed to an extension like this group could be together for the next three or four years in a world where we live in this world of like two-year windows right and we never want to say the windows always open but this group could be together for a long period of time and like UD said that that chemistry and that camaraderie goes so far and when you have it with a young core group of guys that have gotten paid uh the next step is to how do you create championship culture? How do you create the it’s about winning now, not about trying to get the check? You’ve done that. So, now what’s about the the important part for the team and how can we build and keep growing and going there? All right, so we’re here at Summer League, obviously. Let’s talk about what your guys were able to do last night uh against the Kings. Uh four minutes left is where we start this one off. Tristan Dilva. Yes. His ability to step up and play this year is going to be big for us. Very big. Another guy who’s not bad defensively as well. his length, his size, his his basketball IQ. Jace Richardson, his his speed, his basketball IQ. That’s that we we keep talking about the IQ of guys. That’s so important. You want guys that can just continue to make the right play. Just like that whip baseline. That’s exactly right. Baseline drive, baseline drift. Make sure we got that corner field. What did you like? Good pass. What did you like out of what they were able to do last night against the Kings? Well, they started off a little bit slow and I think that’s first game jitters, but their ability to come back and what we talk about us as a team is we’re we’re going to keep fighting no matter the score, no matter the time. And then now that they they got comfortable within that first game under their belt, knowing what they’re able to do, the quick passes, the quick decisions, uh making their teammates better, the energy that we have to bring every single night, both offensively and defensively is going to be big for this group. What do you think are the biggest things that they need to work on in order to get to the team to where you want them to be in the Eastern Conference next season? I really think it’s a mindset. I mean, our guys all work. They all work whether they’re together in the gym or they’re out on their own getting their work in. They all work. So, the mindset of understanding what it takes to to build and be a champion. Uh, and I think that’s just championship habits, championship focus, understand the the ability to communicate with each other at a high level and push each other to a different degree. Uh, coaches can put us put them in the best situation to be successful. We do that. But again, on that court, they’ve got to be able to push each other willingly and hold each other accountable at that high level. Beautiful. Anything else, guys? I’m happy you said that. I mean, as great as you guys are, there were times where there was on the basketball court and Dwayne the Brown would look at us and say, “Don’t look at them. They can’t help us right now. What are we going to do?” And and that’s why to the point of the chemistry and the camaraderie, when you can hold your brothers on that court accountable, it changes levels for a team. Yes. All right, coach. Well, good luck the way for joining us on NBA today. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley joins NBA Today at the Summer League in Las Vegas to discuss the additions of Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones to Orlando’s roster. Mosley also gives his thoughts on the Summer League team’s performance in their opener against the Kings.

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