Jamahl Mosley Fired by Orlando After Lackluster Season

Let's start in the coaching ranks where the Orlando Magic are on the lookout for a new head coach, Jamal Murray, uh, Jamal Murray.

Jamal Mosley being fired after 5 seasons on the job.

Uh, this was not unexpected.

Uh, I mean, no, but also yes, but also no.

I mean, he went from at the end of the season, everyone's saying, oh, that, that, that's gonna end.

He's gonna get let go to in the middle of this playoff series when they're up 3-1, people saying, oh, Takes down the number one seed, saves his job.

Now, no, no more to Mosley.

Yeah, I, I'm not entirely sure that even beating Detroit would have saved his job.

I'm not.

I, I think he'd have, he probably would have had to have beaten Cleveland.

I don't know, man.

I think you take down the, I think it was going the wrong way.

It was like the front office ownership invested so much money in that team this offseason.

You made the trade involving Desmond Bain.

You gave up a lot of draft picks to go and get him, and you didn't.

Progress in terms of the record, but he didn't improve like they thought they were going to.

And I know like a lot of people say like, uh, there was injuries.

I know Franz Wagner only played 34 games, but if you look at the list of games lost due to injury, like Orlando's not in the top 10.

Like they had some injuries, and they had one notable injury, which obviously hurt them, but lots of teams were crippled by injuries during the regular season.

And it doesn't really excuse how the Magic went from a top 3 defensive team in each of the last 2 years to.

14th in the NBA in defensive efficiency this year.

Like that, that was to me the nail in the coffin when they finished the season outside the top 10 defensively.

Yeah, I mean, look, and I don't want to hear about anyone's injuries in the playoffs.

I've heard a lot of like, oh, well, if Wagner had been able to play in that, you know, game where they couldn't hit a shot, you know, maybe that would have gone differently and then they win the series.

I'm sorry, after Minnesota did what they did against Nikola Jokic's, you know, Denver Nuggets, I, I just, I'm sorry, I, I take no excuses.

On injuries anymore.

You go with who you have and you should have had enough, and that quarter and that half was abysmal, and I'm sorry.

I standing like that.

That was like, I, I had some people joking with me like you could have inserted ex-college basketball team into that game at that same point and they probably would have been able to close out Detroit down the stretch.

I mean, a tanking team trying not to score would have probably accidentally closed out Detroit during that stretch.

I mean, look, this offense is lacking.

Cohesion.

They don't seem united as a locker room or as a group.

We talked about toward the end of the regular season.

There's just a lot of low hanging fruit here for whatever coach comes in.

There's just a lot of things to clean up and to improve that don't even happen on a basketball court that I think, you know, are going to be attractive to whoever wants to take this job.

I also have to look a little bit at the roster construction.

I don't, I'm not blaming the roster construction.

I'm just saying that for whoever walks in, I don't know what's going on with Jalen Suggs.

Was he hurt in some way during this playoff series?

I wasn't aware of.

Couldn't make a shot.

Shot 24% from 3 during the series.

I mean, that's a problem.

Desmond Bains so far has not lived up to the trade.

Um , I definitely have heard, I'll be interested to see what McHale Bridges does in this next series because if he disappoints, I think between him and Bain, you're going to see another sort of evolution or referendum on the way GMs make trades again.

So look, I think a new coach might help Desmond Bain and make that trade look better.

But I do think there's just some pieces on that team that don't quite fit together.

And maybe a good coach can make them fit in a way we just haven't seen over the last 4 or 5 you think it's an appealing head coaching job because I go back and forth with some coaching agents in the NBA.

Um, I think it's a very appealing coaching job, and I'll tell you why after you, you give me your answer there.

But I've heard some people say, not so much, not a great coaching job.

How do you see it?

I mean, compared to what is my, is my question always, you want to.

Fire the coach, well, compared to who, you know, is it a good job?

Well, compared to what, right?

I did have a coach tell me very early in my career, there's only 30 of those jobs, and that has always stuck with me is that if you want to be an NBA head coach, you know, the stars cannot align for you or the stars could not align to give you a second shot at it.

And so if you get a second shot at it, no matter what the job is, you might want to take it.

I think, as I said, there's low hanging fruit to get them more in the middle and maybe, you know, that makes it an attractive job.

It's in a nice part of the country.

And, uh, you know, I, I think, I think there's a lot of people who are gonna be interested.

We've certainly heard Billy Donovan's name a lot.

Yeah, I think it's a great job, um, for a few reasons.

Uh, the roster is pretty good.

Whatever you think about the, the parts and how they fit, it's, it's a good young roster.

They've got a whole bunch of guys under the age of 25 who are all under contract for the long term, um.

Do they need shooting?

Absolutely.

That's got to be a priority this offseason.

Is Paulo Benchero a franchise player?

I don't know anymore after the season.

I think that's something that has to be figured out.

Uh, I think they can get back their defensive identity pretty quickly.

Um, Uh, maybe they need another big there.

Like Wendell Carter's good, but do you need someone a little bit like physically bigger?

Somebody that's like a seven-footer that's playing in that spot if you want to beat some of these teams like a Philadelphia or New York or forget the Western Conference side of the bracket, maybe that has to be revisited.

But I, I look at this team, and I know other coaches look at this team as a team with a pretty high ceiling.

Like it's, it's made to win.

Like if you go in there, And if you just fix the defense, you're probably a lot better in the standings.

And if you can make it work with Paolo, with Franz, with Suggs, uh, with Carter , with some of the other pieces that they've got.

You might be able to be a top 4 team as early as next year.

Well, that's what I was gonna say.

Any job in the East becomes a somewhat attractive job.

So when you say is it an attractive job, is it more attractive than coaching the San Antonio Spurs for the next 5 years?

No, it is not.

Is it more attractive than a lot of jobs in the West that are.

Sort of this same level of team.

Absolutely.

Is it more attractive, do you think than Chicago?

Oh, well, yeah, just because Chicago has been such a confounding, you know, sort of directional team.

I, I just think it must be so frustrating to coach given, and I know they just, you know, they're changing front office also, but Until I see it, I, I wouldn't want to coach there, uh, right now it's an attractive job because it's in Chicago and it's the Chicago Bulls and if you again compared to what if your choice is being an assistant somewhere else, yes, damn straight it's an attractive job.

If you're Billy Donovan and you've purposely left Chicago and they clearly were OK with him staying and you want to go to Orlando, I certainly understand that also.

And again, it's an attractive job because it's in the East and I just.

Think right now if you're in the West, if you're one of the, I mean, Portland job is open I guess.

I mean I'm so confused about what's going on there, um, but any of these teams we talk about in the West that aren't named Oklahoma City or San Antonio, if you're a coach going into one of those jobs , you have to feel like there's some sort of built-in ceiling where in the East there kind of isn't one right now no matter who comes out of the East this year.

Yeah, um, a couple of names I would keep an eye on.

You mentioned one of them, Billy Donovan, um, who's got a history with the Magic, coached the University of Florida.

He was almost hired there a generation ago, it feels like when he was still coaching in college basketball.

That didn't work out, you know, and you know, Billy, based on, Where he's maneuvered himself in the pro ranks, he's looking to go to a contender and the magic on the surface looked like a contender.

He could make some sense there.

They could go in a different direction though.

They could look at the assistant ranks and look at the player development guys.

And in that sense , I think Sean Sweeney is a pretty strong candidate for that job.

Sean Sweeney, uh, the associate head coach in San Antonio.

Uh, has played a big role in the development of some big names over the years.

Working in Milwaukee with Giannis early on in his career, working with Luka Doncic during his formative years in Dallas.

Now he's in San Antonio, helping to develop Steph Cassel, helping to develop Dylan Harper.

Certainly along for Ride with Victor Wabayama.

Like he's, he's, he's a special one, but Sean has a, a great developmental track record.

He's also one of those coaches that is not just a defensive coordinator, and offensive coordinator.

He has worked on both ends for multiple teams over the years.

And if you talk to Executives, his name just comes up all the time.

He's getting a job this summer.

That's how it feels like if he wants, if he wants it, like what you said earlier is a good point.

Like, compared to what?

Compared to what?

Like he's got a great situation in San Antonio , a situation that's not gonna get worse anytime soon, that's only gonna get better.

So if I'm Sean Sweeney, and I'm imagining he's thinking the same thing, but if I'm Sean Sweeney, I've got like a short list of teams that I would want to coach, um, and other than that, I'm staying in San Antonio coaching Victor Wembayama, being the associated coach, making good money the next couple of years.

Also, there's a difference between coaches and coaches and players.

There's always time.

You could stick in San Antonio and with Wemby and whatever for 58, 10 years, and you'll still be, you'll still be the guy who helped develop Giannis.

You'll still be the guy who helped develop Luca.

You'll still be the guy who then will have even a more impressive track record with Wemby.

So I don't think his attractiveness as a candidate is expiring anytime.

Um, and so yeah, he may want to be like, OK, before I step in, let me win some rings here in San Antonio, which I think is inevitable with Wemby, you know, injuries aside.

Yeah, he is really well respected within that Spurs organization.

I've, I've worked some Spurs games on the TV side, a chance to sit down with Mitch Johnson and, and talk to him about kind of the, the evolution of his bench, and he's repeatedly praised Sean, uh, the other veterans, Corlis Williamson is on that staff.

Like they've got some guys there that have made a big impact.

I, I think that.

Like when I look at Orlando and the youth of that team, getting a coach that has experience developing young talent, maximizing young talent, that would make a lot of sense to me because you want to win now in Orlando, but you've also got a runway.

Like you've got, you know, 3 or 4 years where you can try to build this thing out, develop these guys, add little ancillary pieces around the, uh, the edges and build something now.

So those are the two names I would keep my eye on, uh, with Orlando, but not surprised that Jamal was let go.

It was, this was always trending in this direction.