The Magic Hit a Tough Spot

By Adonal Foyle

Editor's note: The following is a blog post by Adonal Foyle from the January 22 edition of the Orlando Sentinel. This season, he is a regular "Opinionator" for The Sentinel. You can read all of Adonal's posts by clicking here >

The Orlando Magic has hit a bit of a tough stretch, but I’m still a believer. The team looks as though we don’t have the answer, or the will to play with people who play harder, faster and more determined than we. We are an extraordinarily gifted team with a tremendous amount of talent. We have great players at all five positions, including an amazing big man in the middle, and yet our seeming insecurity begs the question what is going on with the Magic? I wish I had a simple answer for you, and could tell you that this is just a phase and we will be better soon. The one truth that I know is that the teams that we are playing right now play harder than us and although they are not better than us, they can certainly compete. There is hope for us, but the hope lies in our understanding what constitutes a good team:

1. We must be relentless competing for 48 minutes or however long the game is played.

2. Shooting is only one part of this game right now. We are a great shooting team but we must become better defensively, rebound better, screen better - we must find ways to win ugly and win games even when things are not going well.

3. Last year we played from behind extremely well, but this year we have a bull’s-eye on the back of our shirts and it has proven very difficult for us to adjust. Every team we play comes at us extremely hard and wants to beat us and we have not find a way of how to respond to that.

4. We need people willing to do the intangibles, such as diving on loose balls, setting an amazing pick for a teammate, running back in defense, and take pride in guarding our men.

We have hit a difficult spot there is no denying that, but I still believe in this team, and that we have what it takes to be a championship team.

- Adonal