Van Gundy says Clifford ‘good fit’
Says former assistant the one to lead
Perhaps no NBA coach knows Steve Clifford better than Stan Van Gundy.
Clifford spent five seasons as an assistant under Van Gundy in Orlando and the two have remained close throughout the years. Clifford often has leaned on his mentor for advice.
Van Gundy, who’s in his first season coaching the New Orleans Pelicans, sees Clifford and his staff as a good fit to guide a rebuilt Magic team that now features eight players 23 or younger. Van Gundy said the experience of Clifford and his assistants will be a huge benefit.
“He had to develop that team in Charlotte and he had to develop the team in Orlando when he first got there, and now he’s got a new group,” Van Gundy said of Clifford last week. “So this is a guy who’s done a lot of good work in terms of developing teams, so they’ve got a very good guy to take them through this. I don’t think there’s any question about that.”
The Magic are 2-4 since trading the veteran core of Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon, although the first game in that stretch did not include newly acquired players R.J. Hampton, Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr. or Gary Harris.
Familiar foe: The Magic didn’t have to wait long to face one of
the players they dealt before the March 25 trade deadline.
The first reunion came Sunday when the Magic took on Gordon and the Denver Nuggets.
Orlando sent Gordon and Gary Clark to Denver for Hampton, Harris and a 2025 first-round draft pick.
Gordon scored the Nuggets’ first 12 points and finished with 24 on 10-of-13 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, two blocks and a steal in a 119-109 Denver victory.
Denver is now 4-0 with Gordon in the lineup, although the Nuggets had been playing well before he arrived. Still, Denver’s offensive and defensive ratings have improved with Gordon. Over the past four games, the Nuggets have an offensive rating of 119.4 and a defensive rating of 106.7 for a net rating of +12.7. Their season marks are 116.9 (offensive rating) and 111.6 (defensive rating) for a +5.3 net rating.
Nuggets coach Mike Malone credited Gordon for finding ways to mesh without disrupting what the team does well. Malone said he’s been more impressed with how quickly the players have adjusted to the new dynamics.
“It takes a group trying to incorporate some new players or pieces a little while to figure each other out,” Malone said before Sunday’s game. “I think you have to give Aaron Gordon a tremendous amount of credit because he has come here in a big trade for us, but he’s come here trying to fit in. I think he realized, ‘I’m coming to a really good basketball team. They’ve got a top-two or -three offense in the NBA. Let me come out here and just fit in with these guys and play off of them as I get comfortable,’ and the other guys have done a good job of making sure that we’re using him the right way, getting him involved, finding him. And that speaks to Aaron buying into our culture of being selfless. It’s not about any individual, it’s about the group, and that’s been the best part of these last few games in my opinion.”
The other deals saw the Magic trade Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu to the Bulls for Carter, Porter and two first-round draft picks, and Fournier to the Celtics for two second-round picks.
The Magic will see Vucevic next when they face the Bulls April 14 in Chicago. Fournier and the Celtics are scheduled to come to Orlando for a May 5 contest at Amway Center.
Up next: The Magic begin a fourgame homestand Wednesday against the Wizards. The contests tips off at 7 p.m. and will broadcast on Bally Sports Florida.
Wednesday’s game will mark the third and final regular-season meeting between the teams. The Magic beat the Wizards twice in December, winning 130-120 and 120-113 on consecutive nights at Capital One Arena.