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Halfway to Nowhere: Orlando Magic’s Promising Season Slips Away
Halfway through the Orlando Magic’s season and high hopes are waning. Fans went into the year hoping for a top seed in the Eastern Conference but instead are getting a heaping dose of mediocrity. With defending conference champ Indiana losing Tyrese Haliburton for the year and the same for Boston and Jason Tatum, the thought was that the Magic would rise behind the play of their young superstars. What’s actually happened is that the Magic stars have spent long stretches in street clothes injured, and the team is wallowing as a result.
A team that was supposed to hang its hat on defense is being exposed as bald. A healthy Paolo Banchero was certain to be a second time all-star, instead he seems to have regressed. Internet trolls are posting missives about his dissatisfaction, but I have no knowledge this is true, and Banchero himself claims to be just fine. Franz Wagner’s bad ankle sprain in December is lingering and may force him to miss games through the rest of February. Mo Wagner is finally back from an ACL injury but limited in minutes and games because of the recovery. Jalen Suggs started the season hurt and has missed almost as many games as he’s played in, many of those coming with a minutes restriction. That’s the Big three, the players the Magic must depend on to get them into the playoffs and finally win a series. It’s not going to happen unless all three of these players are healthy contributors.
The problems run much deeper than injuries. A recurring theme is back for the Magic, they cannot shoot the basketball. As of January 27th, the Magic are 22nd in the league in field goal percentage and, gulp, 29th in 3 point field goal percentage. You may have heard this story before. What is it about coming to Orlando that makes its new players shoot the worst percentages of their career? It’s happening again with new shooting guard Desmond Bane, down 5 percentage points from what he shot last year. Yikes! Bane was supposed to be the final piece to put Orlando into the contender category. The team gave up four first round picks to bring him from the team from Memphis. Whether he is the right guy remains a major question halfway through his first season in Orlando.
Moving forward the Magic have to answer some questions before they can be considered a playoff contender. Is Head Coach Jamahl Mosley losing this team? Does his voice still resonate in the locker room? The team has slipped on defense this year, but the coach is signed to a long-term contract and can’t make open shots. It would be out of character for the organization to change coaches in the middle of the season, so I would be very surprised if something happened here.
Will the team do anything to address its problems at the trade deadline? Orlando is over the salary cap and sits just above the luxury tax line by about a million dollars. They may look to shed some salary to get under that luxury tax line and save the owners millions more. The prime candidate is Guard Tyus Jones, making $7 million after being signed as a free agent in the off-season. He has not worked out as well as the team planned, another player shooting the lowest percentage from the three point line in his career. Jonathan Isaac has very little guaranteed money on his contract beyond this season, but he may not have a lot of value on the trade market because of his lengthy injury history. When the Magic call other teams, those teams will certainly try and gauge if third year guard Anthony Black would be available in trade. If Orlando wanted to take a bigger shot at a major player, the deal would most likely cost the Magic the promising Black.
Halfway through a year of high hopes, it is clear without a healthy roster, the Magic are on the road to nowhere.
