While some Orlando Magic fans
want the team to tank the remainder of their season so the team can potentially win the draft lottery, coach Frank Vogel has no intention of tanking the final 24 games.
The Orlando Magic own the NBA’s fourth-worst record. If the current standings hold through the end of the season, the Magic would have an 11.9 percent chance to win the draft lottery, a 12.6 percent chance to secure the second overall pick and a 13.3 percent chance to receive the third overall pick.
No wonder, then, that some Magic fans want the team to tank the remainder of its season.
Although the Magic have a reasonable chance to be in a position to draft heralded prospects Lonzo Ball of UCLA, Markelle Fultz of the University of Washington or Josh Jackson of Kansas, there’s an even greater likelihood — as things stand today — the Magic will pick fifth or sixth overall and miss out on Ball, Fultz and Jackson.
Just don’t tell that to Magic coach Frank Vogel. He has no intention of tanking the final 24 games.
“As a coach, you worry about one thing, and that’s getting a group of guys that haven’t won in five years
to learn how to win,” Vogel said Wednesday.
“That’s more important than any one player you can add. But I understand that perspective [about tanking]. That strategy has worked wonderfully for organizations, and it’s failed miserably for organizations. It’s a high-risk type of thing. As a coach, you worry about getting a group guys to learn how to win and play winning basketball. I think with the way the last five years have gone here, that’s the most important thing for our franchise.”
Magic officials should understand all too well the dangers of tanking. During the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, the franchise made little effort to win games while it hoped to enhance its draft position. Instead of focusing on developing as a team, the front office and the Jacque Vaughn-led coaching staff stressed individual development.
The tactic failed. Although the Magic won the second overall pick in 2013 and received the fourth pick in 2014, the franchise never acquired a superstar player through the draft (even though the team is holding out hope that Aaron Gordon, the fourth pick in 2014, eventually becomes a highlevel player).
Worse, the tanking likely stunted the growth of youngsters such as Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Maurice Harkless and Kyle O’Quinn. And when the Magic sought to win, beginning with the 2014-15 season, the coaches and players found it difficult to suddenly switch gears from tanking mode to winning mode.
“Tanking and all that, I think, is just crap,” said center Nikola Vucevic, the last remaining player on the roster from the 2012-13 season.
“Teams that do that — it just doesn’t work out always in a good way. You can’t lose and then expect to win just because you drafted somebody. It just doesn’t happen like that. I think winning comes from teaching the right habits every day, teaching the right way to play basketball every day.”
The Magic will enter their game tonight with a 21-37 record. They trail the Eastern Conference’s eighth-place team by 6½ games.
Vogel said he wants his young players (guys like Gordon, Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja) and even some of the young veterans to develop habits such as running back in transition, boxing out and containing their own man on defense.
When the team reconvened following the All-Star break, Vogel told his players that their season was not over.
“Until it’s mathematical that we’re not going to make the playoffs, there’s a chance,” Fournier said. “But the thing for us right now is just playing basketball — playing good basketball, creating habits, playing winning basketball. That’s how you get better.
“We’re trying to get ready for next year but also trying to win now. We’ve got to create habits.”