The Orlando Magic’s biggest offseason project isn’t a trade, a draft pick or a roster tweak. It’s accountability.
That message has come through loud and clear all summer, and Desmond Bane added his voice to the chorus Thursday during the Prime Video broadcast of the Magic’s Summer League game.
“I’m super excited for Sweeney,” Bane said. “The accountability, the discipline and the energy that he brings will really help our team.
We had an up-and-down season. And a year of building chemistry, I think we're going to come back and be a better team this season.”
Bane also made it plain what he expects from the new coach.
“There is a clear plan and clear ideas of what we're going to be asked to do. If we're not doing it, I think he is going to let us hear about it. Which is what I think you need to be a good team and to win in the postseason, which we're trying to do.”
That kind of language has been everywhere around the Magic since their season ended in disappointment. After Game 7, Paolo Banchero didn’t soften the blow. He called for a better standard and made it clear the bar has to rise.
“It’s about winning habits,” Banchero said after Game 7. “It’s about creating a winning environment every single day from September to now.
We’ve got to be better. It doesn’t start in April when the Playoffs start.
It starts in September and October when we get everybody in the building.
“You build habits. You create an environment where losing isn't acceptable.
Losing in the first round is not acceptable. It's not good enough.
That should be the attitude. It shouldn't be comfortable in the building.
It should be everybody on their p's and q's feeling pressure to be great because this result is not good enough.”
Franz Wagner has pushed a similar message in interviews with HoopsHype and BASKET magazine in Germany, pointing to the need for more urgency and saying his first conversations with Sweeney gave him the sense that accountability would be a priority.
The theme has only grown stronger as players have started talking more freely this summer. Bane isn’t the first to mention it, and he likely won’t be the last.
The Magic’s first Summer League game also brought several key players together on the sideline, with Banchero, Bane, Jalen Suggs, Jevon Carter, Jonathan Isaac and Jamal Cain all watching from there. It was likely their first in-person look at Sweeney, who replaced the only major change the organization made this offseason.
That’s part of the backdrop here: the coaching staff changed, but the responsibility still sits with the players. After a season that ended with a Game 7 loss to the Detroit Pistons and a 3-1 series lead wasted, the message from inside the locker room is that the group has to own what comes next.
Bane said the team has a chance to turn the page.
“We had an up-and-down season. And a year of building chemistry, I think we're going to come back and be a better team this season.”
He also sees a group with plenty left to prove.
“I think we're going to be a hungry team,” Bane said. “I think we're going to impose our will on teams, and every time you come to town to play the Orlando Magic, you're going to feel it for sure.”
The talent is still there. Banchero remains a force and a potential All-Star.
Wagner, if not for injuries over the last two seasons, would have been a two-time All-Star. Bane is one of the league’s best volume shooters and was excellent throughout last season.
Suggs still has all-defensive team ability.
But talent alone didn’t get the Magic where they wanted to go last season. Now the group is trying to turn disappointment into something sharper, tougher and more consistent.
The message from Banchero, Wagner and Bane is the same: the standard has to change, and the players know it.
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Washington has bounced around enough to know how thin the margin can be, but Summer League offers a cleaner stage to make his case. If he plays well enough, the next step could be more than just another week of evaluation, with a training camp invite and a chance to keep pushing for a roster spot hanging in the balance. For a Magic team sorting through backcourt depth, that makes him one of the more interesting names to watch in Las Vegas. [Read more 🡒]
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LeBron Buzz Just Turned Up The Pressure On The Magic
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For the Magic, the timing matters because their biggest offseason headline has been hiring Sean Sweeney as head coach, a move aimed at sharpening the group and pushing it forward in a crowded conference. Orlando still has to prove it can keep pace with the Easts heavy hitters, and if one of those LeBron suitors gets the final piece, the margin for error gets even thinner. [Read more 🡒]