Jamahl Mosley among those on NBA GMs' minds

In a recent survey of NBA GMs, they asked the executives, 'Which head coach is the best manager/motivator of people?'

The Top-5 vote-getters were:

1. Erik Spoelstra, Miami – 28%
2. Ime Udoka, Houston – 24%
T-3. Steve Kerr, Golden State – 14%
T-3. Joe Mazzulla, Boston – 14%
5. Tyronn Lue, LA Clippers – 7%

Among those receiving votes were Jamahl Mosley, among others.


In another question, they asked, 'Which team is the most fun to watch?'.

The Magic were a team not quite in the Top-5, but were listed as 'also receiving votes'.

According to these same execs, Orlando has the 5th-most promising young core, the T-2nd best defense, and will be the #1 most improved team next season.

So, just to sum it up for those counting at home, executives around the league consider Jamahl Mosley to be one of the premier head coach managers and motivators of people, for a team with a Top-5 young core, Top-2 Defense, and Top-1 expectations to improve next season, a team that also happens to rate as one of the Top-10 most fun teams to watch.

For a team with an offense that sometimes lacks in shotmaking, these are quite the complements.

Who knew front offices around the league were such big Magic fans?

Last season, I asked Magic guards Anthony Black and Cole Anthony how Jamahl Mosley most impacted the locker room; both raved about one simple thing – his energy.

“Just good energy. He got us believing in ourselves every night out there as we should. He just comes in with a lot of energy towards the gameplan towards the other team. He just instills a lot of confidence in us to just go out there and play aggressive, and just play freely, and really just to have fun.”Anthony Black

“…I told Mose this a couple days ago, this all starts with him. I told him earlier today, ‘I was like, yo Mose, I like your energy today,’ I said, ‘That joint’s contagious! that’s gonna rub off on everybody.’ I told him that, and that’s literally what happened. Everybody was distracted a lil’ bit, yeah we got off to a rough start, but dudes locked back in. I give so much credit to Mose just for keeping us engaged. Yeah, once again, big shout to Mose.”Cole Anthony

Coach Mosley gives Magic players opportunities to step up when the opportunity calls for it, whether its Tristan Da Silva or Trevelin Queen taking down the Boston Celtics.

On my first night doing Orlando Magic credentialed media last year, I asked Jalen Suggs about the opportunity to close a game on the ball spamming pick-and-rolls, something he hasn't done since Gonzaga, but something Coach Mosley trusted him to do to help close the game for the team with Franz and Paolo out due to injury: