Vogel ‘excited’ about Orlando team’s future
New hire Vogel pledges Magic ‘are going to win’
New Orlando Magic head coach Frank Vogel talks with reporters Monday at Amway Center, where he vowed to work with the owners and players to build up the team’s defense and boost its record.
Frank Vogel and the Orlando Magic have endured a chaotic May.
Vogel labeled one stretch “probably the craziest two weeks of my life.” His Indiana Pacers lost Game 7 of a playoff series. The Pacers let his contract expire. And several NBA teams expressed interest in hiring him.
The Magic experienced a similar upheaval. On May 12, Scott
Host Raptors hold off Cavs in Game 4 to tie East finals. C4
Skiles resigned as their coach. The departure ignited a lightning-fast search for his successor, leaving even young general manager Rob Hennigan looking exhausted, with puffiness under his eyes.
The turbulence is over now. The Magic formally introduced Vogel as their new coach Monday, marking a whirlwind end to a whirlwind few weeks.
Vogel hit all the right notes during a press conference at Amway Center. He praised the team’s young nucleus, promised to work well with the front office and pledged to build the same stifling defense that defined his best Pacers teams.
“We’re going to win and we’re going to have fun winning,” Vogel said. “I’m excited about this group.”
Vogel arrives at a perfect time for a franchise still dealing with the black eye created by Skiles’ embarrassing departure. Team officials can say they made the best out of a difficult situation, responding to the loss of one coach by hiring someone who has won 58 percent of his regularseason games and has reached the Eastern Conference finals twice.
“I guess in looking at it in retrospect now when one door closes another one opens,” Magic CEO Alex Martins said. “Sometimes when that new door opens it’s a
better door.”
Martins and Hennigan hurried through their coaching search because Vogel had drawn significant interest from the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that has reached the playoffs for six consecutive seasons but also has an aging core, a topflight center recovering from a foot injury and a point guard who will enter unrestricted free agency.
“The promise of this roster, to me, was far better than wherever they’re at,” Vogel said, referring to Memphis. “They might be ahead right now, but I’m hoping that this is not about this season. It’s about what we’re going to build over the next handful of years.”
Vogel, 42, inherits a roster filled with youngsters who have known instability at the NBA level.
Point guard Elfrid Payton, for instance, already has played for three coaches in the pros: Jacque Vaughn, James Borrego and Scott Skiles.
Swingman Evan Fournier, who will be a restricted free agent in July, already has played for five coaches: George Karl and Brian Shaw in Denver and Vaughn, Borrego and Skiles in Orlando.
Fournier attended Vogel’s press conference Monday and afterward said he’s “definitely happy” the Magic hired Vogel.
“It was never easy to play against him with Indiana,” Fournier said. “It was always a pain in the [butt] to play the Pacers. They were a very aggressive, defensiveminded team. You knew coming in that it was going to be a tough game. So if we can be that team, that would be perfect.”
One of Vogel’s tasks in the weeks ahead will be to start to build relationships with his new players.
Judging by Monday, he’ll offer a middle path of sorts: something between Vaughn’s constant sunshine and Skiles’ bluntness.
Shooting guard Victor Oladipo stood inside the Magic’s Amway Center practice gym after Monday’s press conference, with a basketball tucked underneath his right arm while he spoke with a reporter.
Vogel completed an interview of his own, walked behind Oladipo and poked the ball away.
“Don’t turn the ball over, man,” Vogel said, a wry smile crossing his face. “Don’t turn the ball over.”
Oladipo chuckled and smiled.
“I think somewhere in the middle is just right for this team,” Oladipo said. “We’ll see how it works out.”
The chaotic stretch has ended.
For Vogel and for the Magic.
jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com Read his blog at Orlando-Sentinel.com/ magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.