The Magic desperately need to turn their season around now

No one is happy.

The Orlando Magic are still seeing problems they should’ve stopped having six weeks ago. They are highly talented, but they’ve been unable to put the pieces together and are now at a dangerous point: needing to turn things around before guys mentally check out.

The latest failure came at home on Thursday against the Charlotte Hornets, who were on the second night of a back-to-back set, four days after the Magic got wasted in London by the Memphis Grizzlies. The Magic also got pantsed at home by the Hornets on Dec. 26. Their issue is not unique to them, rather one that has plagued tons of teams: going soft on defense because shots aren’t falling.

“We gotta be on the same page,” Paolo Banchero said. “It sucks that I’m saying that in January, but that’s the reality.”

Perhaps, they are in bad need of the All-Star break to recover, and Jalen Suggs’ return, but if they finish the season this way, the Magic will easily be the most disappointing team of the regular season.

Banchero's comments should be the final wake-up call. The most alarming things he said were about the team not coming in with a plan, and these issues being similar to past seasons. Whether he meant to or not, it’s easy to imagine the decision makers turning their heads and saying, “Is that so?” when hearing about it, and thinking about coach Jamahl Mosley. In year five, the question of him being a gateway coach still hangs over his head.

The coach was also tough on the team post-game, but he’s running out of buttons to press, at least publicly. It’s usually they who fall on the sword when someone has to pay for a failing season. Nobody would say he’s been perfect, but he hasn’t been Doc Rivers, either.

In Mosley's view, the disconnect is "action versus words," meaning they talk about it, but they ain't about it.

In times of dysfunction, it’s easy to think back to the strategy of Cincinnati Royals coach Jack McMahon. According to Phil Jackson in his book The Last Season, McMahon called a team meeting in his hotel room during a West coast trip because of poor performance. He waited for them with two cases of beer, four quarts of whiskey and three prostitutes. He left them to the vices, saying, “Guys, you figure this out.”

A long winning streak followed.

The moral of the story is that it’s on the players to unify by sacrificing for each other. They’ve slipped to the 21st-ranked defense over the last 15 games, and it needs to be top three with how clunky their attack can be for them to have a shot.

Luckily, for the Magic, they are 2.5 games out of the third seed. They can still take this season by the throat to secure a home-court advantage in round one, but it’ll only happen if Banchero’s teammates take him seriously, and if he rises to a level greater than he's given.