NBA Power Rankings: The Grizzlies are in trouble

28. Orlando Magic

The Magic have lost eight in a row now, and they continue to drop off from their strong start to the season. Last week, that included losses to the Celtics and the Ben Simmons-less 76ers.

The biggest problem for the Magic right is that they look like they are going through the motions, not contested as many open shots as they need to and aren’t at all competing in games they probably should be getting up for. At 8-12, the Magic are back out of the playoff picture and have wiped away a lot of the good will they built up early in the season.

“It’s really hard because it’s not like we’re just losing close games or something where you’re right there and you know you’re close,” Nikola Vucevic said after the 76ers loss, per the Orlando Sentinel. “The last couple of games, it’s been by 20 every game and it’s just been bad on both ends of the floor and no effort and not competing enough. It’s tough. A lot of stuff has to turn around for us. A lot of stuff has to get fixed. Obviously, it’s not going to happen overnight.”

How they fix this is unclear. Should they just trade Vucevic to get some assets back? Should they just roll with the lumps? And how much will Jonathan Isaac, who has been out with an ankle injury, help when he returns? The hope for Orlando has to be that they can find a solution, and get closer back to where they were at the start of this season.