Jamahl Mosley has gone from one mess to another.
The former Orlando Magic coach is now in New Orleans, and his first stretch with the Pelicans has already turned ugly. After a promising 4-4 start, the bottom has dropped out fast: a 138-87 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday, then a 145-111 defeat to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.
Two blowouts. Two nights.
And a whole lot of questions.
Wednesday’s game brought a familiar face into the picture, too. Moe Wagner, who spent Mosley’s five seasons in Orlando as a useful scoring punch and a constant nuisance, was on the other side for Brooklyn.
Wagner finished with 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting and made sure Mosley knew about it. Mosley picked up a technical foul in what appeared to be a back-and-forth with his former player.
Wagner later downplayed the exchange, saying it is all positive between him and his former coach, but Magic fans were left reading between the lines.
That kind of edge was part of Wagner’s value in Orlando. He was the sort of player coaches love to have and opponents can’t stand to face.
Mosley had dealt with him before, but never from across the floor. On Wednesday, with New Orleans already in crisis mode, it clearly wasn’t the night for old jokes and old friendships.
The Pelicans’ recent slide has made the situation feel even more dire. After the worst defeat in franchise history on Monday, the pressure is piling up quickly. Mosley is publicly challenging his team, and the early optimism around his arrival has faded in a hurry.
His exit from Orlando had its own warning signs. Mosley was brought in to steer a rebuild and teach a young roster how to win, and by that measure he did his job.
But once the Magic shifted gears, acquired Desmond Bane and pushed to win right away, the expectations changed with them. Injuries made the season more complicated, but the problems were there from the start.
By the end, the signs were impossible to ignore. The Magic blew a 3-1 series lead in their loss to the Detroit Pistons, and the season ended with the sense that the group had reached its limit under Mosley.
In his first extended comments since being let go, Mosley told Marc J. Spears of Andscape, "At some point, you just know, right?
You just know," Mosley told Marc J. Spears of Andscape in his first extended comments about his time in Orlando since he was let go.
"As the rumors start to surface, you listen, you hear them. You’re like, “Yeah, I get it.”
And then you also understand that some people have to do their job. We didn’t accomplish what we were supposed to accomplish.
We were supposed to be a second-round team or whatever it was when healthy. And you didn’t get the job done."
That was the blunt reality in Orlando: the Magic did not get the job done.
There were other hints along the way, too. Rumors of tension between Paolo Banchero and Mosley surfaced early, even if it never seemed personal. Banchero was left to carry too much of the offense, and the team’s blowout losses and defensive drop-off suggested a group that had stopped responding the way it needed to.
Mosley moved on quickly, which was hardly shocking. There are only 30 head-coaching jobs, and he reportedly had an offer to join Steve Kerr’s staff with the Golden State Warriors.
Instead, he took over a Pelicans team that was trying to climb into consistent contention. Through those first eight games, it looked like the right fit.
New Orleans was 11th in defensive rating at 111.1 points allowed per 100 possessions and 13th in offensive rating. The 4-4 start, with four losses followed by four wins, looked like a real step forward.
Now that progress has been buried under a four-game losing streak and two humiliating losses. Zion Williamson called the effort unacceptable. Dejounte Murray has shown his frustration on the court and even through social media posts he has put up and quickly deleted.
That’s the part that tends to come with losses this ugly. Internal issues usually aren’t far behind.
Magic fans know that better than most. And after what happened in Orlando, Mosley is finding out again that leaving one fire doesn’t always mean you’ve escaped the heat.
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