After their season ended in disheartening fashion, the Orlando Magic’s first big offseason move occurred on May 4 when the organization fired coach Jamahl Mosley one day after being eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs.

Naturally, Mosley’s dismissal sparked reactions and conversations among media personalities within the NBA space, and two such personalities who gave their takes on the topic were Rachel Nichols and Chris Mannix.

On a recent episode of the Open Floor NBA Show presented by Sports Illustrated, Nichols and Mannix provided opposing views on whether or not Mosley could have saved his position.

"I mean, he went from, at the end of the season, everyone's saying, ‘oh, that's going to end, he's going to get let go, to in the middle of this playoff series, when they're up 3-1, people saying, oh, takes down the number one seed, saves his job,'" Nichols said. "Now, nope, no more Jamahl Mosley."

"I'm not entirely sure that even beating Detroit would have saved his job," Mannix countered. "I think he'd have, he probably would have had to have beaten Cleveland."

"I don't know, man," Nichols added. "I think you take down the number one seed…"

After stealing Game 1 on the road against the Pistons and then gutting out wins in Games 3 and 4, the Magic seemed to be in control of their own destiny and were on the precipice of their first playoff series win in 16 years. Then, it fell apart.

However, Mannix points out that Orlando's issues preceded its playoff collapse.

"It was like the front office ownership invested so much money in that team this off season," he said. You made the trade involving Desmond Bane, gave up a lot of draft picks to go and get him. And you didn't regress in terms of the record, but you didn't improve like they thought they were going to.

"And I know a lot of people say, ‘there was injuries,'" he added. I know Franz Wagner only played 34 games. But if you look at the list of games lost due to injury, Orlando's not in the top 10. They had some injuries and they had one notable injury, which obviously hurt them. But lots of teams were crippled by injuries during the regular season."

After the Magic lost Franz Wagner to a right calf strain in Game 4, speculation and 'what-if’ scenarios began popping up, and the health of the roster is something that President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman pointed to repeatedly. Yet Nichols is not buying it.

"I mean, look, and I don't want to hear about anyone's injuries in the playoffs," Nichols said. "I've heard a lot of like, ‘oh, well, if Wagner had been able to play in that game where they couldn't hit a shot, maybe that would have gone differently. And then they win the series.’ 

"I'm sorry, after Minnesota did what they did against Nikola Jokic's Denver Nuggets. I take no excuses on injuries anymore. You go with who you have and you should have had enough."

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