Orlando Magic EXPOSED as Championship Dreams Fade Into Doubt
The Orlando Magic entered the season espousing their championship aspirations. More than midway through the season and a 128-92 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, it cannot be clearer how far away this team is from those lofty ambitions.
The Magic struggled again right from the jump, trailing by 25 points after one quarter and making the rest of the game academic. Orlando runs into the same problems every night, leaving one inescapable conclusion: This team has no identity and nothing to lean on to get them through games.
The Magic are at a crossroads as the trade deadline approaches. They lack leadership, perhaps a coach who can get them out of this rut and the answers to a lot of key questions.
00:00 Magic’s Struggles and Lost Identity
06:27 Team Struggling, Not Championship-Ready
15:39 Magic’s Coaching Change Speculation
22:22 Mid-Team Lacking Clear Identity
28:56 Magic’s Paint Struggles Define Loss
33:47 Magic Must-Win Homestand
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37 Comments
Fire Mose ASAP! Dude is absolutely clueless.
New coach needed!
Just not good enough. Bane fouling out of frustration with how the team played.
The <magic are not in the business of family building and maintaining friendships. They are in the basketball and winning basketball games business. Putting butts on the seats. And Iām tired of this fucking team not being a serious organization. This team this year is awful, the players are not committed they donāt give a shit. Yes Franz is really good but heās not LeBron James I donāt understand the logic on waiting for him to return when it so obvious the team is struggling and Franz is not going to change that by himself. We saw it against Memphis.
The Magic need a new Head coach and they need to let go of wealtman.
I think the full picture here is Paolo saw the departures of Fultz and Joe Ingles after the 23-24 season and knew we would need glue guys/table setters. Their absence is still felt here, and Mosely has not been able to coach the offense thru those transitions. For all the moves made thru the draft and free agency to acquire players who āprovide spacingā the collective/connective contributions of Fultz and Ingles have not been adequately replaced/replicated. Offense is a bad as itās ever been. And coach canāt put an offensive game plan together that masks what was lost in their departures. Contextualizes why Paolo is struggling at times, looking frustrated. I think our franchise player has had a good read on the situation w our roster and HC and is waiting to see if the FO can respond accordingly.
Lol definition of insanity
Mosley is not the answer we have no offensive scheme to speak of he doesnāt understand how to get players the ball in spots that fit there skill set Iāve been begging for years for us to use Paolo like jokic he need the ball on the move or at the free throw line and elbow plus we donāt have a starting center and the rotations are horrible if we need shooting can we try to develop players that can shoot I.e.Jett (heās gonna go somewhere else and be a player) other than shai I donāt believe they have better players I think there used better in ways that fit there skillset
LMAO There are no championship dreams. Championship delusions more like!
Black out there trying to split defense instead of move the ball and play defense and not focus losing of the game after getting his shot blocked because he didn't elevate high enough where he could've adjust while in air…they all look lost l and they keep making lazy passes without looking leading to turnovers and instead of realizing what they're doing wrong they keep making the same faulty plays
Championship dreams with Mosley? Is this a joke?? Championship dreams while being the worst 3pt shooting team in the league AGAIN??? Are the media and the front office of this team completely delusional???? Do they watch the games?????
FIRE WELTMAN
FIRE MOSLEY
They need a rim running center who is quick electrifying and reactive on defense…Wendell don't get the picture and seems to not have the energy or tenacity to play aggressively possession and possession he look heavy and slow
OKC fan here, I think Orlando magic just didnāt bring the energy they shouldve.
They will bounce back next game.
New coach maybe a new gm too
Take a chill pill Philip. It was a cold night for the Magic in OKC vs the defending champs.
Phillip, this team is not good at all. We are not going anywhere. They need to build it again. Like you said we cant tank because we dont have any picks. We went all in and nothing good has happened. This is as far as we go with this group. I hope im wrong but, i dont see it.
exposed? championship dreams!? we were just supposed to make it out the second round lmfaooo coach buns gotta go, gone, out, thanks for everything
Championship??ššš
Well I guess the run and gun offense idea destroyed our identity. I guess itās time for a new coach, because if guys are constantly say they werenāt ready then my guess is their are no x and oās being given or strategies. Itās time to move on from Mosley
The title is crazy šour championship Dreams this season is dead, OKC smacked there ass and said it levels to this shxt little bro š,we might as well hang bane, sugg , paolo ,franz and AB up for the season and tank so we can get some use off our 2026 pick this season this supposed to be a deep draft i hear š¤·āāļøthank god weltman didn't give that away š¤¦āāļø
Magic doesn't have true real knock down shooter.. PB, or Franz not great shooters.. on offense with the type of players we have , we have to run schemes.. we definitely need a rim protector..
We are still are looking for that superstar that can give you points anytime we really need a basket.. right now we truly don't have that player or just that scheme..
Bout time you got fired up
I've been banging this drum. The Bane trade was a failure. These contracts Weltman gave out were remarkably short-sighted. I begged for you to call out this commitment to a coach's scheme who's never won a playoff series. Here we are one year from today. Bane took 3 3pointers last night, Paolo has no table setter, Mosley still runs random sets that have no decisiveness or fluidity. This was always the outcome, did anyone listen to me ?
This team may not even make the playoffs let alone win a series. They are only 3 games ahead of Cha at 11, and do you trust this team in a play in game?? This season is officially an absolute disaster and heads need to roll, accountability is a minimum requirement.
Mosley and Wendell gotta go otherwise development is linear have patience with everybody else. Paolo clearly needs to lose weight to get burst and lift back but they will come. black/bane are terrible decisions. Makers
Magic fans need to be real. Going into the season there was zero proof this team was even close to competing for a title. They donāt have the roster, they donāt have the coaching and they donāt have the star. And it seems like Groundhog Day every single year is āwell if we were healthyā no the truth is this team is constructed as a middle of the road team
As much as the defense is not in place right now, offensively it's still frustrating, how long everybody needs to make decisions. The ball sticks like hell (and it's not only Paolo), everybody hesitates, dribbles four, five times before driving, passing or shooting. Yes, playing fast can mean going for fastbreaks after winning the ball or even after the opponent scored, but it's much more effective, if everyone gets used to make quick decisions all the time. If the offense stalls this much, you can't afford to play read and react, because nothing is happening at all to react to and all you get are shots of mediocre quality at best – it's no wonder, when you end up not making shots then.
As much as I'm reluctant to call for changing the coach, when something is not working, I fear that is what is truely necessary here.
Definitely need a coaching change mid season. We need to see what another coach can get out of this team prior to off season and further personnel changes are made
The reason for the Magic being stuck in limbo has to be the Florida water.
Philip you are a good guy. A wonderful human being, but a fool thinking we will be 6sixth playing this bad so many times. We ll be 8 if it goes well.
You guys forget OKC is 40-11? Why act like Orlando is on the same level of OKC? Stop acting like Orlando should have won this game.
Until there is at least a coaching change, Iām not spending another dime on this team. This ownership doesnāt care as long as they can sell tickets⦠which they do by selling Magic games as a ātouristā attraction. āBrazil nightā was packed with people who couldnāt have cared who won as a recent example.
That game was really hard to watch. Magic outclassed in every facet of that game.
Smoked again š¬ļøšØ
I dont think im being dramatic saying we need to restart. Hereās why: without trading Paolo, AB or Franz, we have no cards to play. Nobody wants our players, they arenāt good and we over paid them, so no one will want to pay them. And we have no picks. We donāt have the assets to further build this team, unless we completely restart. Perhaps around franz. Sad, I know and maybe a new coach helps but we are way more than a move or two away.
The day after the announcement of Bad Bunny for the SB I was listening to his album in YouTube and got served an ad by ICE and Kristi Gnome to self deport šššš. American citizens getting served ad like this, complete utter waste of tax dollars. Sorry MAGA and Evangelicals, you lost the culture war a long time ago, they just donāt know it.