ORLANDO — After a disappointing ending to the 2025-26 season for the Orlando Magic was finalized by blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, the organization chose to move on from coach Jamahl Mosley.

The team announced its decision to fire Mosley on Monday, and within a few hours, president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman stood in front of the media to explain and defend the decision by the front office to go in a different direction regarding Orlando’s leadership on the sideline.

"Well, obviously, the first thing is that's a gut punch, and that's going to remain with our team this summer," Weltman said about squandering the series to Detroit. "We know that a lot of our season will be filtered through that lens. 

"What happened? I can point to a lot of things, and you guys have heard this before, but I think what happened is we were up 3-1 against the number one seed in the East that won 60 games, and Franz [Wagner] got hurt, and it altered the series."

During the Magic’s Game 4 win to put them up 3-1, Wagner exited the game due to what was initially deemed as tightness in his right calf. However, an MRI the following day indicated that he had suffered a right calf strain.

The injury compelled Wagner to the bench, and the Magic proceeded to lose the next three games without him. Instead of toppling the giants of the Eastern Conference and advancing to the semifinals for the first time in 16 years, the franchise replicated a 23-year-old result of blowing a 3-1 lead as the eighth seed in the conference to top-seeded Detroit.

"We still had two chances to put them away in Games 5 and 6," Weltman said. "And I think that there's a lot to be taken away from that, and I don't want to overreact to the second half of Game 6 the same way I don't want to overreact to the first half of Game 6 when we were up 22 points."

Now, Weltman and his staff are retracting in order to evaluate the best option to fill the head coaching vacancy.

"I think that it's our job to step back and look at the big picture of what works, what doesn't work, and to not throw the baby out with the bathwater," he said.

While the Magic were able to demonstrate a brief resurgence in the playoffs, it did not overshadow a year that was otherwise underwhelming. After acquiring Desmond Bane in June 2025, Orlando was expected to be one of the top teams in the conference. Instead, the Magic went 45-37 and barely survived the NBA Play-In tournament to reach the postseason for the third-straight year.

As to why the team did not respond to Mosley in a way that could have warranted greater success in recent years, Weltman could not produce an answer. Instead, he reverted back to health as a defining factor.

"I don't know," Weltman said. "There's a lot that goes into that, and I think that when we talk about making that leap again, we were up 3-1. I think we were feeling pretty good about where we were in the series.We had taken home court advantage. We had a commanding lead in the series, and obviously injuries change the dynamics of what happens. 

"And even with that, we had a couple of real opportunities to close the series," he added. "So when we say we fell short, I think we need to evaluate what happened and not just say, ‘well, that's the third time in a row.' It's like, every series is different, every game is different, every situation is different."

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