The Orlando Magic have had to answer a lot of questions lately.
Following Thursday's loss to the Charlotte Hornets, a group of reporters in the locker room asked Desmond Bane whether he could put his finger on why the Magic have struggled to find their identity at this point in the season.
He said the team is still searching for one. The most discouraging thing of the past two months was the Magic have not hit on the one thing they can rely on.
They were simply gutting out wins and finding ways.
That eventually catches up with teams. It is hard to win on a consistent basis without that calling card, Bane said. And the Magic are searching for one, even if they know what it is supposed to be.
Asked how the team turns its words into action to get out of this rut, Bane said:
"That's a good question. . . . We've just got to be better. Flat out. I've got to be better. We've all got to be better if we want to be the team we want to be."
There has been a lot of soul-searching. The Magic turned in a more energetic effort, derailed by poor shooting and poor defense containing the ball-handler once again in Saturday's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Magic are seeking an identity indeed. But they are not unfamiliar with needing to find themselves at the midpoint of the season. They have rescued themselves from uneven starts to the season.
The question is which direction will the Magic turn? That is entirely within their power. And all the soul-searching needs to lead to the action to tip this thing in the right direction.
The Magic have felt like their season was at a crossroads for a while. Now that they have broken their win-loss pattern with a three-game losing streak, it feels like their season is truly at a turning point.
And it is tipping the wrong way.
Searching for identity
The Orlando Magic are past the midpoint of the season. They are kind of the team they are going to be for the rest of the season.
And that is the concerning part.
They have failed to live up to expectations in so many ways, ranking 14th in defensive rating at 114.1 points allowed per 100 possessions and 20th in offensive rating at 113.9 points per 100 possessions.
This team indeed has struggled to find its identity and that thing it can lean on. The vaunted defense the Magic thought they could build on has completely evaporated. The pace the Magic hoped to play with to boost their offense has also dissipated.
Orlando's season really turned with Franz Wagner's injury on Dec. 7. The Magic were 14-9 entering that game and seemingly picking up momentum with the promise of Paolo Banchero returning from a strained groin on the near horizon.
But in those 21 games -- a quarter of a season -- the Magic are 9-12 and rank 23rd with a 116.6 defensive rating and 25th with a 111.3 offensive rating. It is a credit to the team's top-end talent that the team has stayed afloat near .500.
The Magic, usually strong at protecting the ball, are ninth in turnover rate. And they went from one of the best rebounding teams in the league -- fifthin the league at 71.5 percent defensive rebound rate -- to 15th with a 70.1 percent defensive rebound rate.
It feels like Orlando needs to find the thing it is elite at. It does not quite know what it can lean on. The team has had a major identity crisis.
Nothing else matters in the grand scheme of things besides finding this.
The question is whether the team can come out of it.
Been here before
Perspective is warranted.
At this point in the last two seasons, the Orlando Magic had the exact same 23-21 record. That should be a sign of how much is still possible for this season -- plenty of time to go on a run to get to 47 wins and compete for homecourt advantage even to the last day of the season -- and also how the season can still tip down to 41 wins and a Play-In berth.
After all, it was at this point of the season when the Magic were in a stretch of losing 9 of 10 games that cost the team any hope of getting homecourt advantage and tumbled them into the Play-In tier.
That is what is at risk for the Magic right now. They need to stop this bleeding and find themselves to start making their push up the standings.
That would be the key difference the Magic need to find to match the 24-14 finish to the season they had in 2024.
That season, Orlando ranked sixth in defensive rating at 111.7 points allowed per 100 possessions and 24th in offensive rating at 112.1 points per 100 possessions. The Magic finished the rest of the season second in the league in defensive rating at 109.6 points allowed per 100 possessions and even 20th in offensive rating at 113.8 points per 100 possessions.
Even though Orlando finished the 2025 season 18-20, the team was still third in the league with a 107.7 defensive rating (and 29th in offensive rating at 107.7) to finish the season.
The Magic currently have a -0.1 net rating, suggesting they should be a .500 team. But their defense is nowhere near the elite levels it was at the past two years.
That is the biggest point of discouragement for the Magic. And there is no strong finish to the season without Orlando rediscovering its defensive identity.
That is the challenge as much as anything ahead for Orlando. It is not about where the team is at in the standings -- sitting in eighth, a half-game behind the Miami Heat, and four games behind the Toronto Raptors for third -- it is about the team discovering that identity to make the most of the rest of this season.
Health will undoubtedly help as the Magic wait for Franz Wagner to recover from ankle soreness in his previously injured left ankle. The schedule will be tough too -- the next five games are against teams with winning records.
But the Magic have already shown they can finish their season strong. They can make up for a 23-21 start, as disappointing as it might be. They can still make something of this season. All of their goals are still in front of them.
But it starts with them finding their identity. It will not happen without that.