Magic running out of time to resolve issue with severe long-term ramifications

The Orlando Magic's loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night served to accentuate the issues this team has been dealing with in recent weeks. The biggest problem being Orlando's wavering effort on defense. If this area is not improved upon in short order, it's clearly going to have some big long-term ramifications for this team, and that could even include Jamahl Mosley being fired.

From a travel perspective, one can understand why the Magic may have come into this game a little lagged. They just came off playing their two games against Memphis in Europe, and there was plenty of jet lag for the players' bodies to deal with. So while a performance like this might have been understandable to a degree, it still highlighted a growing defensive issue on a team level.

Giving up 124 points to this Hornets offense isn't the worst thing in the world by itself, as Charlotte has one of the most efficient offenses in the league as of late. But when you couple that with the fact that this was the fifth time since the calendar flipped to 2026 that Orlando surrendered at least 120 points, it points to a larger, more ongoing issue.

The Magic's defense has not been nearly as consistent

As Paolo Banchero stated in his postgame interview, the Magic have continued running into some of the same issues on the offensive side of things. But in the past, Orlando was typically able to soften those issues by falling back on their strong, steady defensive output. Now, the defensive rock this team had built itself on is starting to show some major cracks.

"Right now, it feels like we have the same issues as the past," Banchero said. "And now, our defense is slipping, which makes it look worse ... Our defense covered a lot of that in the past, and now that's slipping. And so those problems start to be magnified when you can't lean on your defense."

Of course, plenty among the fanbase are starting to look at Jamahl Mosley. The defensive slippage is at least partly an effort issue, and when a situation like that crops up, the head coach is usually the first suspect, whether that's fair or not.

The Magic have invested heavily in their core and would still like to believe they're close to true contention. But if this downward trend continues defensively, patience is going to run thin that much more. If management believes a change is necessary in order to get Orlando over the hump, Mosley could find himself being shown the door.