Official 2025-2026 Regular Season Thread

[Darth Magic]

Although it will never happen, I'm hopeful the Magic will just release Isaac to ensure he doesn't reach his guarantee threshold by playing 4 mpg all season.

I'm still shocked by the way this team has coddled, overpaid, and protected this guy for 9 years. No other team in the league would still be paying Jonathan Isaac $15 mil per in his 9th year of little to no productivity.

Most of this board has argued for years that bringing him back every season was a no-brainer, especially on such a "value" deal for a player with such upside. It's like people refuse to believe what they are seeing with their own eyes.

Isaac's mere presence is symbolic of the mismanagement of the Jeff Weltman era. JI was his first draft pick in 2017, and somehow they are both still here, neither doing anything to move this franchise closer to a championship. Wouldn't it be great to be as unproductive at your job as these two are while being handed generational wealth.

JI may not be the answer but he's not the problem either. Lets keep the focus on Mose.

$15M cap hit this season is kinda a problem unless all the sudden we experiment with JI at point guard like we did with him at center last season

Yeah. JI and his 15 million dollar contract that can easily be off loaded at the trade deadline is why our offense is garbage and we can't hit 3s.

[Darth Magic]

JI may not be the answer but he's not the problem either. Lets keep the focus on Mose.

He has been a significant problem this season so far.

Yes.. I thought last season was an anomaly because we tried to make him into a C. This season that anomaly is becoming the norm.

I've seen one great JI defensive game so far. I'm not sure what is happening with him.

[pepe1991]

He has been a significant problem this season so far.

Yes.. I thought last season was an anomaly because we tried to make him into a C. This season that anomaly is becoming the norm.

I've seen one great JI defensive game so far. I'm not sure what is happening with him.

Year one -hardly plays
Year two - plays, nothing special, promoted to starter based on draft stock
Year 3 - contract year = plays well = gets hurt = but gets paid

Year 4- doesn't play
Year 5 - doesn't play
Year 6- hardly plays 11 games
Year 7 -contract year = plays well
Year 8- nothing special
year 9 - crap

Only two legit good seasons he ever played were contract ones. Most of the time in years when it's not contract year, he hardly plays.

Guy is smart, milking money, bare minimum effort, after Weltman constructed his contract in fashion he did, he was told by managers to gtfo from risky plays and hard defense ,just coast, reach minimum games played, stay healthy, retire with two functional legs to be able to walk past age 35.

Do i blame him? Nop. I blame fool who gave him such contract, knowing history of his health.

9 years into career = 286 games played.
5 years into his career, Franz Wagner= 301 games played

Guy literally skipped half of his career, while being paid like he plays every second. Especially when you consider how limited he is talent vise vs what he is paid.

[drsd]

Yes.. I thought last season was an anomaly because we tried to make him into a C. This season that anomaly is becoming the norm.

I've seen one great JI defensive game so far. I'm not sure what is happening with him.

Year one -hardly plays
Year two - plays, nothing special, promoted to starter based on draft stock
Year 3 - contract year = plays well = gets hurt = but gets paid

Year 4- doesn't play
Year 5 - doesn't play
Year 6- hardly plays 11 games
Year 7 -contract year = plays well
Year 8- nothing special
year 9 - crap

Only two legit good seasons he ever played were contract ones. Most of the time in years when it's not contract year, he hardly plays.

Guy is smart, milking money, bare minimum effort, after Weltman constructed his contract in fashion he did, he was told by managers to gtfo from risky plays and hard defense ,just coast, reach minimum games played, stay healthy, retire with two functional legs to be able to walk past age 35.

Do i blame him? Nop. I blame fool who gave him such contract, knowing history of his health.

9 years into career = 286 games played.
5 years into his career, Franz Wagner= 301 games played

Guy literally skipped half of his career, while being paid like he plays every second. Especially when you consider how limited he is talent vise vs what he is paid.

And-1


This season Isaac has now logged 82 minutes over this 11 game season. And this is under an assumption that he is 100% healthy with no minutes restrictions due to health concerns.
Sad.

p.s. minutes restricted Suggs, who has also missed three games, is at 166 minutes played this season. As a comparison.


Is there really a difference in Isaac this year and "peak Okeke"?

[pepe1991]

I've seen one great JI defensive game so far. I'm not sure what is happening with him.

Year one -hardly plays
Year two - plays, nothing special, promoted to starter based on draft stock
Year 3 - contract year = plays well = gets hurt = but gets paid

Year 4- doesn't play
Year 5 - doesn't play
Year 6- hardly plays 11 games
Year 7 -contract year = plays well
Year 8- nothing special
year 9 - crap

Only two legit good seasons he ever played were contract ones. Most of the time in years when it's not contract year, he hardly plays.

Guy is smart, milking money, bare minimum effort, after Weltman constructed his contract in fashion he did, he was told by managers to gtfo from risky plays and hard defense ,just coast, reach minimum games played, stay healthy, retire with two functional legs to be able to walk past age 35.

Do i blame him? Nop. I blame fool who gave him such contract, knowing history of his health.

9 years into career = 286 games played.
5 years into his career, Franz Wagner= 301 games played

Guy literally skipped half of his career, while being paid like he plays every second. Especially when you consider how limited he is talent vise vs what he is paid.

And-1


This season Isaac has now logged 82 minutes over this 11 game season. And this is under an assumption that he is 100% healthy with no minutes restrictions due to health concerns.
Sad.

p.s. minutes restricted Suggs, who has also missed three games, is at 166 minutes played this season. As a comparison.


Is there really a difference in Isaac this year and "peak Okeke"?

It is very obvious that Mosley just puts him in to unlock contract stipulation.

First night vs Boston he played 4 min and 30 sec.
Second game vs Boston he played 4 min and 27 sec.

Next lowest MPG played on both team played x2 of his min in game 1, and near x3 of his min in game 2.

It is very silly situation.

[RookieStar]

I've seen one great JI defensive game so far. I'm not sure what is happening with him.

Year one -hardly plays
Year two - plays, nothing special, promoted to starter based on draft stock
Year 3 - contract year = plays well = gets hurt = but gets paid

Year 4- doesn't play
Year 5 - doesn't play
Year 6- hardly plays 11 games
Year 7 -contract year = plays well
Year 8- nothing special
year 9 - crap

Only two legit good seasons he ever played were contract ones. Most of the time in years when it's not contract year, he hardly plays.

Guy is smart, milking money, bare minimum effort, after Weltman constructed his contract in fashion he did, he was told by managers to gtfo from risky plays and hard defense ,just coast, reach minimum games played, stay healthy, retire with two functional legs to be able to walk past age 35.

Do i blame him? Nop. I blame fool who gave him such contract, knowing history of his health.

9 years into career = 286 games played.
5 years into his career, Franz Wagner= 301 games played

Guy literally skipped half of his career, while being paid like he plays every second. Especially when you consider how limited he is talent vise vs what he is paid.

And-1


This season Isaac has now logged 82 minutes over this 11 game season. And this is under an assumption that he is 100% healthy with no minutes restrictions due to health concerns.
Sad.

p.s. minutes restricted Suggs, who has also missed three games, is at 166 minutes played this season. As a comparison.


Is there really a difference in Isaac this year and "peak Okeke"?

Peak okeke means Auburn Okeke. A legit top 10 pick during Zion Ja RJ draft..... well before he got the ACL injury...

[drsd]

Peak okeke means Auburn Okeke. A legit top 10 pick during Zion Ja RJ draft..... well before he got the ACL injury...

Respectfully, are you really trying to defend that Okeke had at any point NBA competence?

The dude had a good NCAA run. Before that he was a 12 ppg player his "peak" year.

[RookieStar]

Peak okeke means Auburn Okeke. A legit top 10 pick during Zion Ja RJ draft..... well before he got the ACL injury...

Respectfully, are you really trying to defend that Okeke had at any point NBA competence?

The dude had a good NCAA run. Before that he was a 12 ppg player his "peak" year.

No one watching him thought " theres my star scorer" everyone watching him thought " wow a 6'8 ( allegedly) athletic dude that can bang zion down low yet chase PGs in the perimeter and chuck 3s"

They want him because the league was populated with the peak LBJ, Jimmy, kd, harden , etc

[rcklsscognition]

I must have missed these or they just dropped:





Not a huge fan personally of such little contrast I do feel like what they did with the other jerseys this year makes up for it though, the new black and blue jersey is so good

Edit:

So some other images have much better contrast than what I first saw, and these shorts are

[doct3r dr3]

Hideous

[eyriq]

Hideous

[SOUL]

Look great to me yall crazy

[RookieStar]

I need to see the players wear them on the game.

1st pic look ok the next 2 are barf-worthy. And they are the same unis?

[Kent]

I LOVE THESE.

This mashup rocks.

Our best year for jerseys across the board, by far.

[Idiosyncratic]

Those jerseys are very good.

[eyriq]

They look like pajamas, just like last season

[Magic_Johnny12]

Not sure who Grant Afseth is and how credible he is, but did anyone see this report?

"According to RG sources, there is a "growing disconnect" between franchise cornerstone Paolo Banchero and head coach Jamahl Mosley. The source described communication between the two as strained, adding that members of the organization have grown concerned about Banchero's level of engagement with his coach during games.
Sources familiar with the situation said communication between Banchero and Mosley has become almost nonexistent during timeouts, and the star forward often avoids eye contact when the coach addresses the team in huddles.

[SOUL]

Not sure who Grant Afseth is and how credible he is, but did anyone see this report?

"According to RG sources, there is a "growing disconnect" between franchise cornerstone Paolo Banchero and head coach Jamahl Mosley. The source described communication between the two as strained, adding that members of the organization have grown concerned about Banchero's level of engagement with his coach during games.
Sources familiar with the situation said communication between Banchero and Mosley has become almost nonexistent during timeouts, and the star forward often avoids eye contact when the coach addresses the team in huddles.

Feel like he saw the Magic struggling and then referred to the post game interview as his sources lol.

[Idiosyncratic]

Not sure who Grant Afseth is and how credible he is, but did anyone see this report?

"According to RG sources, there is a "growing disconnect" between franchise cornerstone Paolo Banchero and head coach Jamahl Mosley. The source described communication between the two as strained, adding that members of the organization have grown concerned about Banchero's level of engagement with his coach during games.
Sources familiar with the situation said communication between Banchero and Mosley has become almost nonexistent during timeouts, and the star forward often avoids eye contact when the coach addresses the team in huddles.

No clue if that is real, but wouldn't surprise me based off how Paolo lets out little jabs during interviews. To me this would look worse for Paolo than Mose regardless of what you feel about Mosley's coaching chops. That behavior is ridiculous especially when Mose still trusts him to draw up game ending plays for him.

Of course it also could be fake

[bigdogdylan5]

Not sure who Grant Afseth is and how credible he is, but did anyone see this report?

"According to RG sources, there is a "growing disconnect" between franchise cornerstone Paolo Banchero and head coach Jamahl Mosley. The source described communication between the two as strained, adding that members of the organization have grown concerned about Banchero's level of engagement with his coach during games.
Sources familiar with the situation said communication between Banchero and Mosley has become almost nonexistent during timeouts, and the star forward often avoids eye contact when the coach addresses the team in huddles.

Idk I have never heard of the guy or the RG news network. So I am going to take it with a huge grain of salt. Also I think we can all tell the whole team looks a little out of sorts with frustration. The guy is from Dallas and only connection to Dallas is individuals on the coaching staff. Someone gave him a couple quotes and he ran with it. Though if I am Paolo I am going to be pissed that someone from coaching staff was talking to a reporter.