Jamahl Mosley's Magic Are Still Sleeping Giants

The Magic's Stars have barely played together... until now

The Magic's young stars have barely been on the court at the same time.

Until now.

Orlando has +10.7 Net Rating with Franz, Paolo, Jalen on the floor in 205 minutes this season, much of that time coming with Bane and Carter, (176 MIN, +9.2) one of the strongest NBA starting lineups.

Orlando enters the final game of the regular season on a 5-game winning streak. In addition to needing to win Sunday night in Boston, they need the Basketball Gods to do them a favor and help the lowly Nets who technically have no reason to tank anymore to beat the strong Raptors, which in tandem is the only way Orlando ends up skipping the play-in entirely to earn the 6-seed.

This would be a relatively huge success after the ups and downs this team has faced this season. Escaping the play-in when this team has slumped most of the year would be the first big step towards running this squad back next year, despite national media reports.

What's the one step so positively in the right direction that everyone's job is safe? Doing something this iteration of the Magic never has – win a playoff series.

The best-case scenario for Orlando heading into playoffs is likely as the 6-seed in a first-round series against the New York Knicks, who Orlando matches up well with, where a playoff series would turn into a rock fight.

The worst-case scenario is having to overcome the buzzing Hornets plus another team in win-or-go home situations in the play-in, before having to face an even better opponent in a playoff series like the Detroit Pistons or Boston Celtics, even if their best players are coming off injuries. The Cleveland Cavaliers look very impressive with James Harden in the mix, even if Orlando plays them well too.

The big wildcard for the rest of this Magic season is that no one actually knows how good the Magic can be at full strength, not even the Magic; they've hardly scratched the surface of what they can be.

Now that Orlando is finally healthy, as other teams deal with one problem or another, right as this team hits a winning streak entering the playoffs, there feels like enough positive momentum to get this team rolling into the postseason, playing its best basketball at the best time.

While the Magic has had some of its key talent in some moments, it has simply not been anywhere close to full strength. Missing its All-Defense level core guys in Franz Wagner, Suggs and Black, along with the hustle play hype man Moritz Wagner for half the season, Orlando was missing the faces of its team identity – guys who force turnovers and score points off them, who help spark the team winning the hustle play margins.

Banchero and Bane are here to score, to create good looks, to shoot tough shots, and be plus-defenders, not to anchor the defense. When Orlando is suddenly relying on them to not just hold their own and make plays, but to be the most important defenders for getting stops other than bigs Wendell Carter Jr. and Goga Bitadze, while also increasing their scoring load, every task becomes harde, and some nights, the damn breaks sooner than normal.

Orlando had expectations to win laid upon them by media this season partly because of the decision to trade four future draft picks for a proven star, but they also made that move because of the confidence they had in Jamahl Mosley's culture, an elite defense built on hustling harder than your opponent and playing drive and kick basketball through its rising stars.

The fans should be disappointed with the results of this season, but that should be directed at injuries zapping what could have been if the kitchen had all of their ingredients to work, rather than taking it out on the chef doing his best to make a turkey burger taste like a cheeseburger.

Coach Mosley has earned the opportunity to give it another go with this squad whether the team wins another game or not. Building a Top-2 defense in back-to-back years, constructing winning lineups around whichever star was available with guys now out of the league, defining a structure this organization has not seen in a long time, are all reason enough to think this group can be much better if they can stay on the court together for any reasonable amount of time to prove it.

What this team looks like with Jalen Suggs - Desmond Bane - Franz Wagner - Paolo Banchero - Wendell Carter Jr. - Anthony Black - Tristan da Silva alone, let alone its mix of depth, can still be a special combination of elite team defense, five-out spacing, individual star scorers mixed with super connectors, an inverted drive and kick attack that thrives on hustle, drives, and toughness.

At the end of the day, though, this is a results business. National narratives have run away with any rumor they can find. Apparently a team missing its star players over half the season doesn't lower realistic expectations, because the people talking about it on national television aren't paying enough attention to notice.

The only reward for winning regular season games is a high playoff seed for home court advantage in the playoffs; all it takes for a lower-seeded underdog to flip any series on its head is one playoff win on the road, and suddenly that entire season's story is wiped out.

If the story of this Orlando Magic season all comes down to winning one playoff series, where everyone has given up on this team except the guys in the locker room, then this team's fate is back in the hands of the guys in that locker room.

This team has proven it has the talent to compete with anyone, between the strong net ratings of its best lineups as arguably the best team in the clutch this season; now, it finally has timing on its side with most of their best talent available finding a groove at the right time. All that's left is showing up when the moment calls, accepting this sport is a game of runs, and not letting go of the rope the first time you get punched in the mouth.

If this team shows up and shows out against a higher-seed playoff opponent for an upset playoff series win, the first playoff series win for Orlando since Dwight Howard was in town, there would be no reason to move on from any key pieces to the puzzle.