Details on Vaughn’s firing.
When Orlando Magic executives stepped back and examined their team in recent weeks, they saw disturbing trends they thought they couldn’t ignore.
Since Dec. 30, the team has posted a 2-16 record, but it wasn’t just the losses that concerned team officials.
It was how the Magic lost games that worried and frustrated team officials. The young team too often lost its fight — its “competitive spirit,” to borrow the phrase of GM Rob Hennigan — and too often looked indifferent and fragile.
On Thursday, in an attempt to jump-start the team’s stalled rebuilding process, the Magic fired coach Jacque Vaughn after 2 ⁄ seasons.
“Today’s decision is about the fact that we’re just not where we feel we should be today, and we told you at the beginning of the season we felt like this was the season we needed to turn the corner, and we haven’t,” Magic CEO Alex Martins said.
“We feel like we’re still going to turn the corner. We may have to take a little bit of a U-turn here in the short term. But we’re just not where we expected or feel we should be.”
Magic officials have turned the team over to an interim coach, 37-year-old James Borrego, who had been the lead assistant coach under Vaughn but has never coached a full regularseason NBA game.
“We went into the season wanting to see some progress,” Hennigan said. “We wanted to see growth, and we just didn’t feel like we were seeing the type of growth that we wanted to see. So that led us to this point. I would say that we find ourselves in a little bit of a rut right now. We’ll call it what it is. But I would also say that it’s a road bump, not a roadblock.”
What remains to be seen is whether Thursday’s move will reignite the team.
Not only did the team fire Vaughn, who had amassed a 58-158 record during his Magic tenure, but it also dismissed assistant coaches Wes Unseld Jr. and Brett Gunning and also parted ways with manager of advanced scouting Zach Guthrie.
Those moves leave Borrego with a limited amount of help. Laron Profit and Jay Hernandez, who had been the team’s assistant coaches for player development, now will serve as fullfledged assistant coaches.
Vaughn took the high road Thursday.
In a statement, Vaughn said: “I would like to thank Mr. DeVos and family for the opportunity of representing the Orlando Magic as head coach. I am a stronger and wiser man and coach because of the opportunity. I look forward to seeing this group continue to grow. God bless, good luck.”
Hennigan and Martins praised Vaughn for his integrity and his positive influence on young players.
Hennigan informed players of the news around midday Thursday, and he acknowledged that many players were “a little rattled.”
“It was tough, I think, not only on myself but on everybody,” center Nikola Vucevic told the Orlando Sentinel.
“For myself, everyone knows that I’m a big fan of Jacque and that I really built a strong relationship with him. Ever since I got here, he really believed in me from Day One, pushed me and gave me a chance to play and learn from my mistakes. . . . What really makes it even tougher is because you know that Jacque is a great guy and is so professional. It’s hard to see it when a guy like that loses his job. It’s tough.”
Hennigan and Martins also praised Vaughn for his willingness to help the organization by doing things that many coaches would’ve abhorred.
One example they didn’t mention occurred at the end of last season. Vaughn limited the minutes of key players Arron Afflalo and Victor Oladipo during the final three games; those were winnable games, but the losses helped secure the Magic’s positioning in the NBA Draft Lottery while they also hurt Vaughn’s career record.
Hennigan also made efforts to say there was no single reason for the team’s recent failures.
“There’s a lot of intangible qualities that sometimes go into team dynamics that sometimes are hard to pinpoint,” Hennigan said. “Clearly, there was a disconnect. Our defense has suffered as of late, and we have to be sure to get that back on track pronto, but I can’t sit here and say it was one thing or the next. It was a multitude of factors.”
From Orlando’s seasonopener Oct. 28 through its victory over the Miami Heat on Dec. 29, the team ranked 18th in the NBA in defensive efficiency, allowing 104.2 points per 100 possessions.
Since Dec. 30, however, the team has lost 16 of its 18 games. During that stretch, the Magic have ranked dead last in the NBA in defensive efficiency, allowing 109.5 points per 100 possessions.
Playing sound defense is tough, dirty work, and the Magic’s sudden inability —
Lakers at Magic, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Amway Center. BROADCAST: TV — Fox Sports Florida. RADIO — 580 AM (WDBO). SPANISH BROADCAST — 1440 AM (WPRD). THE BUZZ: This will be the Magic’s first game without Jacque Vaughn since the 2012 playoffs and the Magic’s first game with James Borrego as their interim head coach. ... The Magic have lost 10 consecutive games. ... On Jan. 9, in the teams’ first meeting this season, the Lakers dominated the Magic 101-84 at Staples Center. Kobe Bryant didn’t play in that game, and since then he’s suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
Josh Robbins
or unwillingness? — to defend worried team officials.
Borrego said repairing the team’s defense will be his top priority.
But, in reality, his task goes further than that: He has to find a way to permanently restore the team’s fight.
It’s unclear when the Magic will seek to hire a permanent head coach.
“We’re not talking about timeline,” Hennigan said. “There is no timeline. We’re focusing day-to-day, like I said. J.B.’s our coach. We’ll continue to evaluate our team, as we always do, and proceed accordingly.”
Names such as Scott Skiles, Michael Malone and George Karl, who are coaching free agents, will surface as potential candidates.
But who will hire the new permanent head coach? How much influence will Martins have in the process?
In 2012, when Hennigan had just started as the team’s general manager, he fought to hire Vaughn while the DeVos family wanted him to strongly consider Brian Shaw.
Shaw didn’t make it beyond the first round of interviews.
Interviewees also included Jeff Hornacek and Malone, but Hornacek and Malone didn’t advance beyond the first round.
Hornacek since has had a successful stint as the Phoenix Suns’ head coach.
Malone, who was fired by the Sacramento Kings earlier this season, actually was thought to be moving the Kings forward this season until center DeMarcus Cousins fell ill with viral meningitis.
Now, sooner than anyone envisioned, the Magic are in the market for a new head coach.
Vaughn’s .269 winning percentage is the secondlowest winning percentage in NBA history for someone who has coached at least 200 regular-season games, according to the website basketball-reference.com.
This season, the Magic own a 15-37 record — the identical record the team held after 52 games last season.
“There are a lot factors certainly that go into how teams progress or regress,” Hennigan said. “I think these rebuilding efforts are very difficult, and oftentimes they’re most difficult on the coach, and that’s just the brutal reality of it, and we certainly recognize that and acknowledge that.
“Jacque had a very difficult task at hand, and he came to work every day with an enthusiasm and a passion and a consistency that I think the players absorbed. And no one worked harder than Jacque Vaughn. I can assure you that.”