The Orlando Magic are hurting right now — losing 11 of the past 12 games. They have fallen out of the Playoffs and are 2.5 games back of the eighth seed. They are two games away from finishing the month with just one win.
It is the kind of month that usually turns a promising season into a tanking one. That is not the case because the Magic played so well at the beginning of the season.
Orlando clearly has some good basketball in it. Finding it again has been the difficulty of this month.
It does not appear to be anything schematic then. The Magic just need to run the offense and stick to the defensive principles, executing like they did during that 10-win December.
And therein lies the core to the problem. This is not a schematic issue, it is an execution problem. And reaches deep to the core of something critical in basketball.
As I wrote for Orlando Magic Daily, the issue is not entirely the players or the coaching, it is trust:
There is always the argument rotations create consistency. The common complaint about Skiles, especially early in the season, was that he was mixing and matching too much. His finishers by committee was going too much on feel and not enough on what will consistently help the team win.
At that point Skiles was still figuring his team out. Eventually he built trust and found a lineup that worked. And then it did not work again.
And now he is searching again. Making costly mistakes along the way — should Hezonja have gone out Wednesday after scoring 11 points in his 17 minutes and should Aaron Gordon have been sitting on the bench Monday when the team was in desperate need of a rebound and some size to defend Jeff Green? — that are costing the team wins (maybe).
Behind the questions about lineup changes is that issue Gordon spoke about last week: Trust.
You can see these struggles in several areas — whether it is Nikola Vucevic unsure whether to leave his man on pick and roll coverages or Scott Skiles running out an inconsistent rotation. Everyone is searching for trust and looking to gain it.
The funny thing about trust is that it takes trust to receive it. Someone has to take that leap and expose themselves some. Then consistency gets built.
Orlando had it earlier in the season. Now the team is searching for it again. Hopefully the Magic do not find it too late.
