The Orlando Magic lost their eight straight game on Sunday night, falling to 13-26 on the season, with the second worst record in the Eastern Conference.
And the team seems quiet and content. They appear to be cool with it.
There is a lack of urgency as the season slips away from coach Steve Clifford. They honestly don’t seem to care.
All of the expensive financial decisions made by the front office on players like Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Issac have all fallen victim to injuries. Again.
And that’s what they’ll point to. Injuries.
The only problem is that there were injuries last year. And the year before. And the year before. Still, no one ever asks any questions.
To their credit, the Magic still are a playoff team. Two straight first round exits.
That might be it. Maybe we already feel like we’re overachieving so we don’t stress about losing what we believe is “house money”. If we make the playoffs, we can consider this a success.
But it doesn’t look like we’re going to make the playoffs this year. And we’ve got veteran players looking at each other, wondering how much longer they’re going to be in town.
Before, we were at least a scrappy team of fighters. Now we’re just fighting for the scraps.
Some changes will need to be made. If the fan base even cares that much anymore.
Really, the problems have been there all along. It’s just last year, the town was too busy saving the NBA from the pandemic to do anything about it.
But now that we’re here with our thoughts, it’s time to take a real look at some hard truths. And decide if we’re serious about competing in this league