The Orlando Magic are working through an important summer after an underwhelming regular season led to another first-round playoff exit during the 2025-26 campaign.

Recently, I joined my colleagues on the Heat Wave Podcast to discuss the Magic’s season overall.

"I had been in the building here and there with another outlet during the 2024 season, and last year was really my first time being there all the time, and so I got to see firsthand this team in its highs and its lows, and I think that Jamal Mosley had gotten them to a point that was good 

He had built a good culture and he had built a defensive identity. But for whatever reason,  injuries aside, I think the message had worn thin going into the year, because this was a team that still struggled offensively, and its defense fell off a cliff. I mean we were talking about a top-three team in defensive rating over the last two seasons preceding this one, and then they fall out of the top ten.

And so, I think that a lot of that — Yeah injuries were catastrophic for this group again, but I think that there is more to it than that. I think that what Mosley had instilled, that was its ceiling and he wasn't gonna break the ceiling, and so it was time to move on.

You know, the injuries were a big thing, but I want to caution against being like Jeff Weltman, the president of basketball operations. Like, that is his number one excuse, just ad nauseam all the time talking about injuries, injuries, injuries. And I think that it was the right thing to move off of Mosley, because my hot take before the season even ended was that there's a chance they keep him. I mean, that's just how this franchise operates."

"I don't think that they were really realistic to begin with. I mean, even last season, I think that this was a team that could have gone deeper than it did, but they're still very young. There's still just too many core flaws, and it was gonna take more significant moves this offseason that, realistically, they just couldn't afford to make unless they were willing to part with key guys, and this is just not a front office that deals in seismic transactions.

The Desmond Bane trade was the largest move made in the Jeff Weltman era, and he's been at his position since 2017, right, and so, there's no more draft capital left. Like, you don't have money, and so you're kind of in this situation where like, the [Nikola] Vucevic signing, that was a steal, because he could have commanded a little bit more on the market. 

I don't know if he's quite a mid-level exception player anymore, but to sign for the minimum, like, that shows that he wanted to come back, and that was good on their end because now, they have a legitimate backup big that can space the floor can go and get you a double-double on any given night, and that's a bench upgrade."

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