Former NBA assistant destroys Magic's offense, process

The more things that change, the more they stay the same for the Orlando Magic.

Even after trading four first-round picks in a three-player swap for Desmond Bane, the Magic have, once again, found themselves among the bottom-11 teams in offense.

They also have the league's fourth-worst effective field goal percentage, ninth-worst true-shooting percentage, second-worst 3-point percentage and have found themselves at the heart of the East at 23-22. And their offense is the biggest culprit, according to current NBA analyst and former Clippers and Spurs video coordinator Mo Dahkil.

“When you look at Orlando they’re just not running a lot of stuff," Dahkil said on the latest episode of The Zach Lowe Show. (1:03:45) “I wanted to see them come into the season with an understanding of, 'This is how we’re gonna attack on offense,' and it didn’t seem like they changed anything. When the defense goes bad, for a team that (defense) was your backbone, you’re really in trouble.

"They didn’t trade for Bane right before training camp, or right before the season, they did it in the offseason. Why weren’t you in the lab, ‘Let’s figure out what we can do offensively?' ... It’s going to require creativity from your offense that I just do not see."

Some quotes from Zach Lowe’s podcast with @MoDakhil_NBA that land where a lot of Magic fans are feeling right now:

“They’re the most disappointing team.” - Mo

“When you look at Orlando they’re just not running a lot of stuff.” - Mo

“I wanted to see them come into the season…
— The Lando (@TheLando__) January 26, 2026

Why Orlando's offensive struggles is a multi-pronged issue:

The "Magic" and "bad offense" has been synonymous with each other for over a dozen years. According to Cleaning The Glass, the Magic have been a bottom-third offense in 13 of the last 14 seasons. They've placed among the bottom-five in eight times, including the bottom-three four times over that span.

This isn't new.

What also isn't new is head coach Jamahl Mosley's lack of creativity offensively. Oftentimes, they don't run Bane -- their best floor spacer -- off of screens to occupy the weakside of a defense; they don't spam the Paolo-Bane two-man game to maximize both of their gravitational pull; they don't use Banchero as a screener to get him going downhill, where he's more lethal.

More often than not, they try to mismatch hunt with three or floor players standing beyond the 3-point line watching Banchero (or Franz Wagner) create advantages.

The Magic's roster is structurally flawed, with the team's two-best players being non-shooters. And injuries have also played a huge part, too. While Bane and Anthony Black, for the most part, have stepped up, Banchero and Wagner have played just 56 of the team's 127 possible games over the last two seasons; Jalen Suggs has been in-and-out of the lineup, too.

When they're all healthy, they're at their best -- both offensively and defensively. But it's on Mosley to mitigate those concerns, a problem he has not been able to solve, even though he helped turn the ship around over the last half-decade.

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