Jamahl Mosley has faced off against his former players before. But he had never been on the opposite side of Moe Wagner.
Wagner, now with the Brooklyn Nets, was something of a secret weapon off the bench for the Orlando Magic for Mosley's five seasons.
He was a skilled scorer -- Mosley often joked he fell out of bed with 10 points. But more than that, Wagner was an irritant. He talked trash for his teammates and was constantly getting under opponents' skin.
Wagner is the kind of player you want on your team, but you hate to face against -- have next Friday's game in Brooklyn circled for the first time that Moe faces off against his brother Franz.
Mosley was experiencing that for the first time on Wednesday night. And it went how you would expect.
Wagner put points up on the Pelicans -- 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting. And he let Mosley know about.
Under normal circumstances, Mosley might have been able to laugh at that. But this was not a normal circumstance. Mosley was already knee deep into crisis with his new team in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Pelicans suffered their worst defeat in franchise history in a 138-87 defeat to the Golden State Warriors on Monday. It immediately brought up comparisons to the Orlando Magic's 52-point defeat to the Toronto Raptors last year (also a franchise worst), which only made the end of his tenure in Orlando clearer.
The Nets were taking it to the Pelicans on Wednesday, ultimately winning 145-111. Mosley was not in the mood for Wagner's antics.
Mosley picked up a technical foul in an apparent back-and-forth with his former player. Wagner downplayed the incident, saying it is all positive between him and his former coach. Magic fans spent Wednesday reading between the lines.
One way or another, Mosley has gone from a contentious situation in his final year in Orlando to a disastrous one in his first year in New Orleans.
After back-to-back 40-point losses, the Pelicans are asking themselves some big questions. Mosley is publicly challenging his team after they had gotten off to an encouraging start.
Mosley truly seems to have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. It is not getting better for the former Magic coach.
Out of the frying pan...
Undoubtedly the pressure was ramped up last year in a way that Jamahl Mosley had not experienced in his five seasons with the Orlando Magic.
Mosley was hired to guide a rebuild and get a young team to learn the basics of winning. At that, he was a resounding success.
But after acquiring Desmond Bane and pushing all of their chips in to win immediately, the pressure was dialed up. Something was rotten from the start of the season, even before injuries hit the team and changed the entire season.
By the time the Orlando Magic got to the end of the season and lost a 3-1 series lead in their loss to the Detroit Pistons, it was clear the team needed to make a change. Mosley had run his course.
"At some point, you just know, right? You just know," Mosley told Marc J. Spears of Andscape in his first extended comments about his time in Orlando since he was let go. "As the rumors start to surface, you listen, you hear them. You’re like, “Yeah, I get it.” And then you also understand that some people have to do their job. We didn’t accomplish what we were supposed to accomplish. We were supposed to be a second-round team or whatever it was when healthy. And you didn’t get the job done."
It ultimately came down to that: The Magic did not get the job done last year.
They entered the season with massive expectations, and they failed to meet them. Losing a 3-1 series lead, even as the 8-seed, only confirmed that the team had reached a ceiling with their coach.
There were flash points throughout the season.
Rumors popped up early of discontent between Paolo Banchero and Jamahl Mosley -- although it never seemed personal, there was a feeling that Banchero was not being maximized and left twisting in the wind to bail out a poor offense.
The blowout losses that happened throughout the season and the drop in defense suggested this was a team that was tuning out its coach.
Dismissal was inevitable. Both sides probably understood it was time to move on.
...Into the Fire
It is not entirely surprising that Jamahl Mosley jumped back into the coaching ranks immediately. There are only 30 of these jobs, after all. It is easy to be forgotten. Jamahl Mosley reportedly had an offer to join Steve Kerr's staff with the Golden State Warriors.
But Mosley jumped right back in taking over an underachieving New Orleans Pelicans team.
This was not a fully rebuilding team. They had some postseason experience. But they were still trying to win consistently. Mosley seemed like a good coach to get them to that level with his focus on individual development and defense.
Through the first eight games and a 4-4 record -- four losses followed by four wins -- the Pelicans looked like a Mosley team. They were 11th in defensive rating at 111.1 points allowed per 100 possessions and 13th in offensive rating.
This seemed like a huge step for the Pelicans.
A four-game losing streak with only one loss by fewer than 10 points and these back-to-back embarrassing blowouts has taken the bloom off the rose.
Zion Williamson called the effort unacceptable, and that seems to be the public statement from everyone. Dejounte Murray has made his discontent clear with some outbursts on the court and even some social media posts that he has posted and quickly deleted.
This is a team searching for answers. Teams do not suffer losses this embarrassing without internal issues. Magic fans know that well with how last season failed to meet expectations in any way.
For however things ended with Mosley in Orlando, he was vital in helping the team establish the identity that made them a playoff team. He is a good coach.
But he has jumped from one contentious situation for a potentially toxic one. Mosley's misery continues.
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