MIAMI – The low point of this Miami Heat season?

Welcome to it, when Erik Spoelstra’s team on Monday night lost to a team that was trying to lose.

Given every opportunity to string together only their second winning streak since early January, the Heat disastrously declined the gift, falling 115-111 to the Utah Jazz at Kaseya Center.

Facing with the prospect of losing their first-round pick in June’s draft if it is not among the first eight, the Jazz pulled leading big men Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. for the night midway through the third quarter, with Jackson with 22 points at that stage and Markkanen with 17 points and eight rebounds.

Utah then played the entirety of the fourth quarter without four of their five starters.

And, still, the Heat could not take what was being given, albeit while paying in the injury absences of Norman Powell, Pelle Larsson and Tyler Herro.

The difference is those absences weren’t by choice, with Powell out with back pain, Larsson forearm discomfort and Herro a rib issue.

So, instead, empty numbers for the Heat, with Andrew Wiggins closing with 26 points, Kasparas Jakucionis with 20 and Bam Adebayo closing with 23 points and one rebound.

Five degrees of Heat from Monday night’s game:

— Game flow: The Heat led 32-26 at the end of the opening period, after taking an early 15-point lead. Utah then moved to a 61-52 halftime lead.

The Heat then tied it late in the third period, before Utah went into the fourth up 85-82.

From there, with the Jazz sitting their best, the Heat moved up five in the fourth quarter.

No matter, not when Utah’s Brice Sensabaugh converted a 3-pointer for a 113-111 Utah lead with 41.1 to play.

Misses on both ends followed, leaving the Heat in possession down two and out of timeouts with 8.6 seconds to play.

A wayward Jakucionis 3-point attempt later and it basically was over.

— Here’s why: So why did the Jazz sit their best for a second consecutive game when carrying a lead into a fourth quarter?

Because if Utah does not wind up with one of the first eight picks in June’s NBA draft, the pick goes to the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

The protected pick dates to a 2021 Jazz trade that unloaded the contract of Derrick Favors.

This is the third year the debt has rolled over. The pick was Top 10 protected in 2024 and ’25, now down to top-eight protection.

If the pick does not go to the Thunder this season, the transaction instead will be completed solely though a cash transaction.

The Jazz also sat their top players in the fourth quarter on Saturday night in Orlando, in a loss to the Magic.

The Jazz entered Monday with the NBA’s sixth-worst record.

— More big: With Larsson and Powell out, and with the Jazz opening big, Spoelstra returned to the Adebayo-Kel’el Ware opening pairing, the first time Ware had started since the Jan. 8 loss in Minnesota.

Whether it was matchup based or the reward of a solid pairing Sunday in Washington remains to be seen.

But it certainly seemed to make sense in this one, with the Jazz opening with a front line of 7-foot Jusuf Nurkic, 7-0 Markkanen and 6-11 Jackson.

The pairing then was limited in the second half, with Ware called for his fourth foul 1:35 into the third quarter, with Ware fouling out with 10:55 to play.

Ware closed with eight points and six rebounds in his 14 minutes.

— Still going: A game after shooting 6 of 6 on 3-pointers, Jakucionis this time made his first three 3-pointers and opened 4 of 5 from beyond the arc.

With Powell out, Spoelstra played all three of his point guards early, including playing Jakucionis and Dru Smith in trandem.

Smith did not play until mop-up duty on Sunday in Washington.

Jakucionis later returned in the second period to play alongside starting point guard Davion Mitchell.

— Attack mode: After falling to 2 of 10 for the night in the third quarter, Adebayo seemingly said enough was enough, moving on to score 11 points in the period.

That effort was eased with Jackson and then Markkanen off the court for the Jazz during the bulk of that surge.

Ultimately, it still wasn’t enough.

____

The Chicago Cubs know they will get contributions this season from players who aren’t yet on their 40-man roster.

Spring training presents an opportunity for those nonroster players to put themselves on the organization’s radar. The Cubs on Monday announced invitations to big-league camp for 18 such players.

The breakdown by position:

• Pitchers (8): Jeff Brigham, Grant Kipp, Corbin Martin, Connor Noland, Connor Schultz, Collin Snider, Trent Thornton and Jaxon Wiggins.
• Catchers (3): Ariel Armas, Christian Bethancourt and Casey Optiz.
• Infielders (4): Scott Kingery, Jonathon Long, B.J. Murray and Jefferson Rojas.
• Outfielders (3): Brett Bateman, Dylan Carlson and Chas McCormick.

The group notably features two of their top prospects in Wiggins and Rojas, while the position-player invitees give the Cubs depth options with big-league experience in Kingery, Carlson and McCormick.

Carlson and McCormick have the clearest path to making the opening-day roster as the Cubs look for a fourth outfielder to back up their three starters. Both Carlson, a former first-round pick by the St. Louis Cardinals, and McCormick, who when healthy played well in Houston, can play all three outfield positions.

The Cubs hold their first formal workout for pitchers and catchers Wednesday at the team’s complex in Mesa, Ariz. Their first full-squad workout is slated for next Monday.

Few men know the rarified air of such a mountaintop. For a football player who starts as an 8-year old, as Plainville’s Niko Koutouvides did, and grinds all the way to the Super Bowl, out with his teammates for the coin toss with over 90 million watching, yellow “Terrible Towels” flying everywhere among the 68,000 in Detroit’s Ford Field, it was the moment of a lifetime. And it was fleeting.

“My mindset was, ‘Finally, the game is here, let’s go play,'” said Koutouvides, the Seahawks’ special teams captain for Super Bowl XL. “You wish you could slow it down a little bit more, because I was talking a bunch of junk to my teammates, that I was going to win the coin toss. I wanted to make sure we won it, which we did.

“So everything was going as planned.”

Twice Koutoutvides, a linebacker who played at Plainville High and Purdue, experienced the two-week lead up to the Super Bowl, the endless interviews, the circus that is Media Day, the chaos on the field and, finally, the game. By coincidence, he played for the franchises that are meeting Sunday in Super Bowl LX, with Seattle in the loss to the Steelers in XL, and then with the Patriots, losing to the Giants in XLVI. The current Seahawks are the “more complete team,” he said, but notes the Pats have thrived as underdogs.

“I’m taking the diplomatic stance,” he said. “I’ll be happy whichever team wins.”

Koutouvides, now 44, will watch this one at home in Fairfield with his three sons, all of whom play football, and be able to share just what the players are feeling, experiencing.

For few men, too, know the sting of defeat in sports’ biggest spectacle.

“When you’re there, it seems like the game is so far away, and when the game eventually comes, it goes by so fast, it’s like, ‘What the hell just happened?'” Koutouvides said. “The game’s already over, and unfortunately I was on the wrong side of it — twice — which will haunt me and be with me until the day I die.”

Make no mistake, that wasn’t just a manner of speaking. Koutouvides transitioned to life after football, found success in real estate development throughout Connecticut, but the pain of losing the Super Bowl twinges and acts up like an old joint injury.

“The players that are there today, it’s an experience, they’re going to take it all in,” he said. “But at the end of the day you’re there to complete the mission, from the first day of training camp, to be world champions, and if you come up short you’re going to second guess or think about all the things that may have caused your team to lose that game.

“All I did from when I was 8 years old to when I was 32 years old, 24 straight years of my life, was play the game of football. And the whole goal was to be a world champion. It’s like someone trying to try to climb a mountain and the first couple of times you got there, something happened, a storm, you twisted an ankle or what-not, and you never get to  that summit. If you’re a competitive athlete, it will haunt you forever. It will for me.”

Dom Amore: Patriots entrust QB Drake Maye with this CT native, and results speak for themselves

Koutouvides, 6 feet 2 and 238 pounds, was drafted in the fourth round by the Seahawks in 2004 and played for coach Mike Holmgren, getting in on 62 tackles as a rookie. He became a top special teams tackler, and had two against Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5, 2006, in which a series of controversial calls by the officials played a part in the Steelers’ 21-10 victory. “There were a number of unfortunate circumstances that occurred during that game that really changed the outcome,” he said.

He later played for Denver and Tampa Bay, and joined the Patriots in 2011, winning the first 10 games in which he participated, including a start against the Colts. Bill Belichick, as is his wont with linebackers, found ways to utilize Koutouvides’ skills.

“He liked lunch-pail guys,” Koutouvides said. “Grab your lunch pail, grab your hardhat and com e to work. That’s what he liked, selfless guys, who would give whatever they need to in order to make the team successful. He had a way of finding talent, hard-nosed, smart football players and he brought the best out of them. Bill is extremely selfless, a team oriented guy, and he’s a genius when it came to game-planning and situational football.”

In his second chance, Koutouvides and the Patriots came up short, 21-17, against Eli Manning and the Giants at Indianapolis. “We made a couple of unfortunate errors in that game that just made the difference,” Koutouvides said. “And the Giants made those plays that needed to get made.”

A year later, Koutouvides’ career ended, and he and his brother, Aristides, started Skala Partners, a real estate investment, development and management company, building multifamily housing, including buildings in West Hartford and Fairfield. They’ve just completed a 204-unit apartment building in Farmington, next to Batterson Park.

“Life after football has been extremely fortunate for me, thank goodness, because that transition is very challenging for all athletes,” Niko said. “And I have zero complaints … other than, ‘I wish I won a Super Bowl.'”

.More for your Sunday Read:

Sunday short takes

*SCSU’s Jeff Stoutland, who became one of the NFL’s most respected offensive line coaches, announced his week he was leaving his position with the Eagles after 13 seasons. “When I arrived here in 2013, I did not know what I was signing up for,” Stoutland posted on his X account. “I quickly learned what this city demands. But more importantly, what it gives back. The past 13 years have been the great privilege of my coaching career. I didn’t just work here, I became one of you.” Reports suggest the Eagles wanted to change his role (ridiculous, or course), so he wanted to take a step back from coaching. He may stay in Philly in different capacity.

*The Sacred Heart women’s flag football club has been invited to play in the JetsECAC, which is backed by the Jets with a $1 million grant from the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation. The SHU team formed in the fall of 2025, and has 30 players, and the school asked to join the league, which got the Jets’ backing in December. The Jets’ investment is expected to make the ECAC, now at 16 teams, with Sacred Heart the only Connecticut entry, the largest conference for women’s flag football in the nation. Regular-season games will be played February through April, with a championship game at MetLife Stadium in May.

*Jordan Skolnick, a soccer standout at E.O. Smith High in Storrs, was named permanent AD at Delaware. Skolnick, 41, who has had a long career as an athletic administrator, played a key role in Delaware’s move to FBS football.

*Will 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet, who joins the Huskies of Honor on Feb. 14, be the first to be able to reach his plaque from the floor and unveil it himself?

*Mike Joy, 76, a Conard-West Hartford and UHart grad, will call his 47th Daytona 500 race this week for various networks, this will be his 23rd for Fox. Joy, who began his career as a public address announcer at Riverside, Stafford and Thompson in the early 1970s.

Dom Amore: CCSU, true to itself, opts out of NCAA revenue sharing. Most other CT schools are in

*LIU-Brooklyn, the only school in the NEC that opted into revenue sharing, has an 8-1 record in NEC play, three games in the loss column ahead of the schools that opted out, including CCSU and New Haven.

*Olympic snowboarder Maddy Schaffrick has roots in Bristol, where her father, Dan Schaffrick, was born and raised and graduated from Bristol Central before moving to Colorado. Her grandfather opened Lewis Street Auto Body, which is still in the family.

*UConn’s win over Tennessee last Sunday drew better than 1.2 million viewers, the most-watched women’s basketball game of the college season, fifth most-watched ever on Fox, according to the network.

*East Hartford’s Patrick Agyemang, who hopes to be on the U.S. roster for the World Cup, is prospering across the pond in the English Football League. He has nine goals and three assists in 23 starts for Derby County, including three in the last four games in January.

*Matthew Wood, a first-round NHL draft pick after his freshman season at UConn, has reached the NHL with the Nashville Predators, who drafted him 14th overall in 2023. Wood has nine goals, eight assists in 45 games.

*Jim Calhoun and I will be signing copies of our book, “More Than A Game,” at the Barnes & Noble store, 555 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan on March 11, the first day of the Big East Tournament, from noon to 2 p.m. Go to www.bn.com events page for more information.

*Since the breakup of the original Big East in 2013, the UConn women’s basketball team has won five national championships, missed the Final Four only once – and lost a grand total of three conference games in 13 seasons (all three with injury-plagued lineups). This is to illustrate that the lack of a challenge from their conference may make for some boring stretches in January and February, and it won’t help, but has not, and will not hold the Huskies back from winning in the NCAA Tournament if they are good enough. These are separate matters, and Geno Auriemma’s nonconference schedules take care of the metrics business.

Last word

*And now, the prediction you’ve been waiting for: Seahawks 27, Patriots 23.

Photos from the Chicago Bulls’ 136-120 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Feb. 7, 2026, at the United Center.

I love the Super Bowl.

I absolutely love it.

I love everything about it: The overdone commercials. The over-the-top halftime shows. The overhyped game.

I love the Super Bowl not in spite of its excess, but because of it.

Because for one strange, glorious, guacamole-soaked, chicken wing–stained, beer-drenched Sunday evening every year, America still agrees to sit down together and watch the same thing at the same time. In an age of niche streaming, algorithmic rabbit holes and personalized everything, the Super Bowl remains our last national gathering place; a protected cultural habitat that 130 million Americans willingly enter, even if they don’t know a nickel defense from a nickel beer.

In today’s polarized, politicized country, that matters.

A lot.

After all, we are no longer a country that watches anything together, not even the dying CBS Evening News. With apologies to Simon and Garfunkel: “Where have you gone, Walter Cronkite? A nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you — woo, woo, woo.”

Instead, we scroll alone. We binge watch alone. We argue in parallel realities, each of us convinced we’re seeing the “true” version of America while the other side is being fed corrupted, propaganda-driven lies. But on Super Bowl Sunday, the feeds pause, the ideological divide takes a timeout and for a few hours, the algorithm loses.

That is almost unheard of these days The Super Bowl doesn’t just remain as the most-watched television event in America; it’s routinely the most-watched television broadcast in the world, year after year, in any language, on any platform.

That alone makes it remarkable. But what makes it meaningful is why we watch.Yes, we watch for the game. We watch for the commercials. We watch for the halftime show. We watch for the gambling and prop bets. We watch for the national anthem (And, yes, I stand for the anthem — even if I’m in someone else’s living room balancing a plate of nachos and bean dip. … And, no, I won’t be watching the “alternative” halftime show — a divisive, destined-to-fail attempt headlined by throwback rocker/rapper Kid Rock.)

But, mainly, we watch because everybody else is watching, and we want to belong to something bigger than ourselves. Families and party hosts plan menus days in advance. Employers brace for the Monday-after MIAs. America consumes roughly 12.5 million pizzas and nearly 140 million pounds of avocados — most of them pulverized into guacamole — as if it’s our civic duty.

As for the game itself, most of us will pick a team even if we don’t really care who wins. This year’s game game gives us some juicy storylines, starting with the ghost of Super Bowl XLIX hovering over this matchup. It’s no secret that Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception 15 years ago still haunts Seattle like the price of an Apple Crisp Oatmilk Frappuccino at the original Starbucks.

Then there’s Sam Darnold, who was once declared a draft bust and was football Twitter’s favorite punchline, but now has been resurrected in Seattle, throwing for over 4,000 yards and leading the Seahawks to the Super Bowl. Let’s be honest: America loves second chances almost as much as we love free refills.

On the other sideline, the New England Patriots are somehow back here again, trying to rekindle a dynasty that once felt immortal under Tom Brady. Only now it’s Drake Maye, the sophomore sensation who dragged New England from 4-13 to 14-3 during an MVP-worthy season.

Meanwhile, New England coach Mike Vrabel stands on the brink of history, with a chance to become the first person to win a Super Bowl as both a player and a head coach for the same franchise. Even all of us people who hated the evil empire of Brady-Bill Belichick can’t help but secretly respect this version of the Patriots.

And what’s really cool is that it’s not just us traditional football fans who will be engrossed in the Super Bowl. Believe it or not, 83% of Gen Z adults say they are interested in this year’s game — a remarkable percentage for the most fragmented, always-online generation of all. It’s one of the rare moments when their digital loneliness will subside because they aren’t binge-watching something after everyone else; they’re actually watching something WITH everyone else. Their group chats will light up with every Bad Bunny halftime song and their memes will instantly react to the latest “Jesus Gets Us” commercial.

Several years ago, the great sports writer Norman Chad wrote in TV Guide: “History of America, Part I (1776-1966): Declaration of Independence, Constitutional Convention, Louisiana Purchase, Civil War, Reconstruction, World War I, Great Depression, New Deal, World War II, TV, Cold War, civil-rights movement, Vietnam. History of America, Part II (1967-present): the Super Bowl era. The Super Bowl has become Main Street’s Mardi Gras.”

He’s right. It’s loud. It’s excessive. It’s ridiculous. It’s commercialized.

It’s America.

Sadly, on Monday, our social media feeds will re-fragment and our algorithms will once again feed us our partisan political propaganda. We’ll retreat back into our separate corners and alternate realities.

And that’s why I love the Super Bowl.

Not because it solves our society’s problems, but because it reminds us that, every once in a while, we can all remember what it feels like to come together as a country.

With the trade deadline behind them, the Nets introduced Ochai Agbaji and Josh Minott on Saturday afternoon at Barclays Center and beat the Washington Wizards 127-113, improving to 14-37 while snapping a three-game skid. The turnover that made their arrivals possible was still fresh.

Cam Thomas, Haywood Highsmith and Tyrese Martin were waived to open the door. Hunter Tyson, briefly part of the picture after a deal with the Denver Nuggets, was gone soon after he arrived. Before tipoff, Agbaji and Minott met the media, offering an early glimpse of two wings Brooklyn believes align with where it wants to go.

“We know they’re very good players, that’s why they’re here,” head coach Jordi Fernández said. “They’re good people and good players, so they fit what we’re trying to build. For me, it’s about getting to know them and giving them the opportunity without putting limitations on who I think they are. Show me what you can bring to the group, and if you can be part of this group, you can be a future Net.”

Opportunity is one thing. Identity is another. Both newcomers arrived with a clear sense of what they believe travels from team to team, and for Agbaji, it starts on the defensive end. The 25-year-old appeared in 42 games for the Toronto Raptors this season, averaging 4.3 points and 2.3 rebounds. After shooting 39.9% from 3-point range last year, he entered the afternoon at 18.5% this season on 65 attempts.

Fernández believes Agbaji can return to being the outside threat he once was.

“The conversations have been good, brief,” Agbaji said. “There’s been a lot going on, but [Jordi] told me he wants me here, that he sees a lot more in me and what I can bring to this team. For me it’s about getting back to myself and who I know I can be. That’s super important in this league and it’s what I work for and what I’m trying to show again.”

And there’s at least one built-in comfort for Agbaji. He’s reunited with Jalen Wilson, a former college teammate from Kansas’ national championship run, and said being back in a locker room with him makes Brooklyn “feel even more like home.”

“We played three years together and went through ups and downs, and we ended my career there winning a national championship, which was great,” Agbaji said. “I actually knew him before he came to Kansas. I hosted him on his recruiting visit. I’ve known him a long time and seen him grow. Ending up teammates with him again is great.

Minott’s journey was different, but the foundation sounds familiar. Originally drafted in 2022, he comes over from the Boston Celtics after appearing in 33 games and averaging 5.8 points and 3.6 rebounds. The opportunities he carved out there, he said, were rooted in “hunger” and “desperation,” traits he believes translate no matter the jersey.

The 23-year-old said the defensive identity in Brooklyn already mirrors what he values, with an emphasis on pressure and disruption. He added that his shooting has progressed to the point where he trusts it as a real strength and believes in taking the right, open looks when they’re there. What he sees in the Nets is a young group wired to play that way. And the reset, in his mind, doesn’t change his personal standard.

“For me it’s about staying true to the values I’ve learned over my three and a half years in the league, especially the work ethic,” Minott said. “I’ve been around some winning organizations. Understanding what we did right and what it takes to make those playoff pushes, it’s about bringing that over.”

Defense is the entry point for Agbaji and Minott. It’s what stands out on both résumés and what Brooklyn keeps insisting it wants to be about. For Fernández, that shows up immediately in how you defend at the point of attack.

“Ball pressure is our first staple,” Fernández said. “Every time you can apply ball pressure, full court or half court, you can create turnovers and deflections and make the other team uncomfortable and late in the clock. We believe those guys can do that and I’m excited to watch them play.”

Agbaji and Minott, still learning the system, didn’t play against the Wizards, but the Nets didn’t need much depth in a matchup between two teams expected to slide down the stretch in pursuit of draft position. Brooklyn entered the afternoon with a clean injury report, but Washington had just eight available players and a lengthy list of absences that included Kyshawn George, Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, Cam Whitmore and Tre Johnson.

The Nets’ 46 points in the first quarter were their most in any period this season and their highest-scoring quarter since 2003. Brooklyn’s 80 points in the first half were also a season high and their most in a half since 2022, and they led by as many as 34. While the Wizards won the second half 66-47 and trimmed the deficit to 12 with 2:10 left, Brooklyn had done enough early to hold on for the win.

Michael Porter Jr. led seven Brooklyn players in double figures with 23 points, while Will Riley fueled Washington’s comeback attempt with 27.

The Nets return to action Monday when they host the Chicago Bulls.

WASHINGTON — The juxtaposition could not be any clearer the next two games for the Miami Heat.

On one hand, you have Erik Spoelstra and his now-perennial play-in team living in the moment, even if the moment has the Heat at 27-26 and coming off a disastrous Friday night loss to the Boston Celtics at the start of this two-game trip, when even a 22-point lead was not good enough.

On the other hand, you have a pair of upcoming opponents who have left little doubt about their need to lose as a means of creating hope.

Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena, it will be against the Washington Wizards and their annual race to the bottom, with the Wizards having sat out Trae Young since since his Jan. 9 trade arrival from the Atlanta Hawks, and now with word that prime trade-deadline acquisition Anthony Davis will not suit up for them this season.

Then Monday night at Kaseya Center, the opponent will be the Utah Jazz, a team that even while making the forward-thinking acquisition of Jaren Jackson Jr. at Thursday’s NBA trade deadline is well aware it only keeps its June lottery pick by closing with one of the league’s eight worst records.

Losing by winning.

As an NBA way of life.

And then there are the Heat, who also possess their own draft pick this June, with no strings attached, positioned to gain a lottery seed either through losing now or being eliminated in the play-in round.

Their approach? Full steam ahead, even while having won consecutive games only once since Jan. 1.

So in Friday night’s loss in Boston, when a case could have been made for youth in the wake of inaction at Thursday’s trade deadline . . . no minutes for rookie Kasparas Jakucionis, a mere 9:32 for 2024 first-round pick Kel’el Ware and 6:22 for 22-year-old Nikola Jovic.

To Spoelstra the approach remains that youth will be served when deserved, and even then not at the cost of one more victory, even amid the seemingly inescapable reality of a fourth consecutive trip to the play-in round.

“We’re not going to prioritize something over winning,” Spoelstra said ahead of Friday night’s loss, a game when 30-year-old Simone Fontecchio played 19:28, despite closing 0 for 5 from the field, with just two points, a game when Andrew Wiggins, who turns 31 in two weeks, played 38:22, albeit with 26 points. “Winning is going to be the bottom line. Take it or leave it, like it or not. That’s what the Miami Heat is about. We’re competing to win.”

To their credit, such an approach did have the Heat positioned for the victory had point guard Davion Mitchell made an open 3-point attempt from the left corner with 2.7 seconds to play in what instead was a 98-96 loss that had both teams scoreless in the final 1:31.

To Spoelstra, the gifting of minutes to youth would send the wrong message. In support of his approach, Jovic managed to finish a Heat-worst 14 in his Friday night minutes, with the Heat also outscored in Ware’s limited time.

“You have to earn your minutes,” Spoelstra said of his rotation approach. “We’re not gifting minutes to anyone. We have more young players playing in the rotation than we’ve had in a long time, and that’s this balance that I’m embracing.”

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All, Spoelstra said, also with an eye for the future, but not with an eye on the race for the bottom being favored at the moment by the Wizards and Jazz.

“Develop these players, infuse them with confidence, but also hold them accountable to our standard,” Spoelstra continued of what he considers a workable approach. “The standard is not going to change, and we feel that players improve the quickest when there’s an accountability to winning, when they’re not just empty minutes that are being gifted to someone.”

And when the youth produces in such moments, Spoelstra said it is all the more gratifying.

“It’s art, not necessarily science,” he said of the approach. “But our young guys are getting a lot better. And they’re playing and contributing. And it’s exciting.

“We want our fan base excited about this young group. And we want our team excited about the youthful exuberance that they’re bringing our locker room. And there’s a big upside.”

Although the Magic only made one move ahead of the NBA trade deadline — Orlando sent veteran guard Tyus Jones and two second-round picks to Charlotte in exchange for cash considerations — team president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman revealed Thursday the franchise considered making other deals in hopes of improving its roster.

Ultimately, however, the Magic didn’t roll the dice on any other trades beyond moving Jones late Wednesday night.

Weltman doesn’t believe that’s a sign of complacency or due to a lack of aggression by the organization that entered Thursday’s game against Brooklyn 2-8 in its last 10 games and 8th in the East during a season that came with high expectations.

“We’re aggressive 365 days a year,” he said at the AdventHealth Training Center. “And I think we’re not afraid to make bolds as I think last summer showed. The answer to frustration isn’t just to make a move just for the sake of making a move. One thing to understand is the way that our team is set up right now with contracts and timing, for us to make a significant move means that we have to break into the core.

“That core has been excellent when it’s been on the floor together,” he added. “… So, for us to break up that core, it’s going to have to be a significant move. I will tell you, we had some substantiative talks that I thought could have gone somewhere. Obviously they did not, they didn’t materialize but it wasn’t for a lack of pushing, for a lack of urgency. Our mission is to improve this team. We’re never taking a day off from that. It’s just that we’re not going to do something just for the sake of doing it.”

To Weltman’s point, Orlando’s opening night lineup of Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. ranked sixth league-wide in net rating (plus-18) among all five-man lineups in the league who had played at least 115 minutes together entering Thursday’s slate of games, according to NBA.com.

But for the second season in a row, the Magic have been plagued by injuries to key players.

Suggs has missed 20 games due to injury, including seven (Dec. 18-29) because of a left hip contusion and eight (Jan. 4-22) with a grade 1 right knee MCL bruise. Banchero has missed 10 games (Nov. 14-Dec. 3) due to a left groin strain. Wagner missed his eighth straight Thursday due to left high ankle sprain injury management after he already sat out 16 (Dec. 9-Jan. 11) due because of the original injury.

Even Carter missed two games due to injury: one (Nov. 23) due to a left ankle sprain and another (Jan. 11) due to a right hip strain.

Among Orlando’s opening night lineup, only Bane had been available for each of the first 49 games of the season.

“It’s concerning,” Weltman said when the Sentinel asked him how concerning it is to him that the team’s core hasn’t been able to remain healthy this season and last. “Every team has injuries, but it’s having these prolonged injuries. All I can say is, these are soft tissue injuries. What can you say? It’s the NBA and this is what happens sometimes.

“I do feel like we’re a little bit ‘Groundhog Day,’ with this season,” Weltman added. “The only thing is, I also think we’re better this year because we added Desmond Bane. So, I hate to keep saying it, but when this team has been healthy, it’s been really good.”

Still, Orlando at times this season has fallen away from its defensive identity, which in turn has stumped its offensive output.

Entering Thursday, the Magic were 16th in defensive rating (114.6) and 20th in offensive rating (113.5), which resulted in a net rating (minus-1.1) that sat 19th, according to NBA.com.

Last year, the team ended the regular season second in defensive rating league-wide (109.1) and 27th in offensive rating (108.9), which left them with a net rating (minus-0.2) that ended 17th in the NBA.

After opening this season 13-8, the Magic have gone 12-16 since Dec. 3.

“I don’t like the state of the team right now,” Weltman said. “We’re not playing well and I think it’s been a little while that we haven’t been playing well. I would imagine our fans our frustrated by the way we’re playing and I’m frustrated with them.

“I remain optimistic about the rest of the season and it’s on us to turn this thing around,” he added. “There’s still over a third of the season left and we’re right in the thick of the race. We’ve got to get it done.”

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com