With Sean Sweeney as the new head coach of the Orlando Magic, there should be a newfound motivation in the building with his voice alone.

However, all of the onus does not fall solely on Sweeney, who is a first-time head coach, to help the Magic achieve their goals. There is a belief that he will help unlock Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs even more, but the effort he puts into them, and the team in general, must be reciprocated.

Recently, I went on the Full Court Magic Podcast to discuss why the Magic's best players need to provide Sean Sweeney with good, tangible results to demonstrate the efforts of his coaching, as well as the type of player Banchero has proven he can be:

"You know, this is a two-way street with these guys. I do believe that Paolo having a new coach will be beneficial for him, just as it will for Franz and Jalen and Desmond, so on and so forth.

Because, you know, except for Desmond, these other three guys, they've only ever played under Jamal Mosley in their NBA careers, right? And so, this is a really big transition for this group, but it's a two-way street where we need to see the best version of Paolo. We need to see the best version of Franz. We need to see the best version of Jalen in the assistance that they will receive from Coach Sweeney, and then be able to reciprocate that in a way that is beneficial for the team and shows that what Sweeney is trying to do is paying off, you know.

And there were times last season, you know, we've talked about Paolo's numbers. His point-total average dropped, you know, pretty significantly, nearly four points a game, or at least a little over three. You know, his overall field goal percentage went up a tick, you know, a career-high 45.9%, but, you know, he shot 45.5% in his second year.

You know, he was pretty available, much more available than when he had the oblique injury in the 24-25 campaign. He played 72 games last year. The only time that he missed was in that November stretch when he suffered the groin strain, missed 10 games. But when Paolo's on, he's on. I mean, let's not forget, you know, what he was able to accomplish in the postseason when his team really needed it. We're talking about a guy who went head-to-head with Cade Cunningham in that Game 5 loss to the Detroit Pistons: 45 points, right, 6 of 11 from the three-point line, 17 of 31 from the field, played like a superstar, and he's done that before on this stage.

What about the 38 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists in Game 7, right, and just how he took over that game from the jump, but it just, it wasn't enough, right? And so, can Paolo take the next step? Can he do what needs to be done to show that, 'Hey, I can be the face of this franchise, and I can help lead this team to higher places than it's been?’ 

Because this is a Magic team that has not won a playoff series in 16 years, and last year was, you know, the most heartbreaking way it could have gone out. And as, you know, I mentioned earlier, and as I've talked about before, kind of ad nauseam at this point since the beginning of July, is that the Eastern Conference has gotten."