Orlando Magic 2021 Playoff Lessons: Disunity undid the Dallas Mavericks

Former Orlando Magic coaches Stan Van Gundy and Steve Clifford often had the same view about chemistry.

Players do not have to like each other or hang out with each other off the court to have good chemistry on it. They have both cited how teams that had a lot of friends off the court just had no chemistry on it and teams that hated each other off the court just worked.

When things do not work on both ends, that is when teams have a lot of problems.

The Magic, by all accounts, do not have any issues off the court.

The heartwarming video of the day this week came from Cole Anthony pestering Chuma Okeke to sing his song as it played in the Magic weight room. The other heartwarming video came with Cole Anthony taking a tour of Terrence Ross’ study/podcast room/game room. Cole Anthony is good friends with Mohamed Bamba from their days in New York City.

No one should worry that these guys will not get along when they hit the road with fewer health and safety protocols next season. Even the group before the trades had a fairly good relationship off the court.

The Orlando Magic in their likely hire of Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley are seeking a coach who can foster that chemistry on the court and develop players off it. That was part of his task during an often frustrating season with the Mavericks this year. And in the end, that chemistry hit a breaking point.

Dallas was not pulling in the same direction by the end of the season. The team fell well short of its expectations and the team ultimately fell apart because things were not working throughout the organization.

The Dallas Mavericks are a talented team more than capable of winning at a high level. But organizational disunity derailed those hopes and left the franchise in turmoil.

Talent is really important in the NBA. It is ultimately what determines wins and losses. But that talent can easily go to waste if the organization behind them is not united in its vision.

As the Magic get set to rebuild, they need to heed this lesson and make sure everything is in good alignment.

Luka Doncic is a truly special talent. And he was incredible throughout the season (27.7 points per game, 8.0 rebounds per game, 8.6 assists per game) and in the Playoffs (35.7 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game and 10.3 assists per game against the LA Clippers). But it was not enough. And the frustration and lack of cohesion and chemistry on the court was apparent.

The lack of organizational unity ultimately undid the team.

Unraveling the Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks as a team are incredibly talented. Their offense is one of the best in the league with Luka Doncic driving the train.  They had an incredible coach in Rick Carlisle who is a master of building disciplined teams.

But the disfunction became apparent as the team fell apart in the playoffs.

Kristaps Porzingis is not the same player he was before his torn ACL. He averaged 20.1 points per game during the season but saw those numbers drop to 13.1 points per game.

Dallas is an offensive team, a rarity for Rick Carlisle-coached teams. The Mavericks were more than capable of overwhelming teams with their 3-point shooting. But so much ended up revolving around Doncic and the frustration was clear.

And that does not even get into the reporting about the push-and-pull going on in the front office. If the Mavericks teach the Magic any lessons, it is the importance of everyone pulling in the same direction.

Ultimately that dysfunction cost the team their coach. Carlisle chose to step down amid the firestorm of reporting that was brewing around the team.

Further signaling some of the issues within the organization he almost immediately supported Jason Kidd, who played point guard for him on the 2012 title team, rather than his top assistant in Jamahl Mosley. Some of the issues reportedly stemmed from Mosley’s close relationship with Doncic.

Again, sure signs the organization was not perfectly aligned. Those results played themselves out on the court.

The Magic’s disunity

The Orlando Magic should know exactly what happens when the franchise’s vision throughout the roster does not align.

During the Rob Hennigan era, the team hoped to cash in on Lottery luck to build a juggernaut team. But there were very clear problems throughout the process.

Orlando Magic

The Lottery luck did not pan out for the team. They hired a coach that was more of a babysitter rather than a teacher in those early years. And young players were competing with each other for stats and attention. They did not have a coach to tie the whole group together.

After three seasons of scuttling by, ownership stepped in and forced some action. They pointed management in the direction of a coach with ties to the franchise. While Scott Skiles’ disciplined approach helped the team win, it was clear there were cracks in the foundation.

Skiles did not relate well to the players on the team and had different visions for players management drafted for him. There were always hints of management trying to push coaches to play certain players even if they were struggling or would not help the team win. Even under Jacque Vaughn, there was some pushback to this.

Eventually, Skiles reached a breaking point with management and resigned from the team. Before doing that, ownership’s push to win immediately and save a sinking season led to a sell-off at the deadline to create cap space.

Whatever plan Hennigan had was both poorly executed and scrapped in desperation to save his own job.

This was a franchise that did not have a clear vision of itself and did not have buy-in or alignment throughout.

Finding alignment

While it was certainly bad to have to search for a coach at this moment after Steve Clifford’s relative success, it was good to let Clifford off the bus if he was not willing to go through the plan management had. Especially with this young team, they need someone with complete buy-in for the team’s overall vision to get the most out of this group.

The Orlando Magic understand how the unity of vision is critical to a team’s success. Whether the team can maintain that vision will be a different story. It is easy to believe the guy you hired is fully bought in at the press conference. It is much more difficult to maintain it through the heat of battle.

Jeff Weltman to this point has shown flexibility to conditions on the ground, so to speak. Clifford said he had a great working relationship with the Magic’s front office. There was certainly no acrimony in their split. It was merely a difference of vision.

The Dallas Mavericks are trying to realign themselves right now. They have a new general manager and a new coach. They are hoping that they can rebuild their roster to support the superstar player they have in Luka Doncic.

But things can fall apart quickly. And once that alignment is lost, it can snowball and lead to ruin for a franchise.

Orlando should know and learn that keeping this alignment and adjusting together is the only way to build a franchise and organization.