Jacque Vaughn to return to San Antonio Spurs, get his second chance
The NBA coaching carousel is full of second chances. The young coach Jacque Vaughn will get his second chance returning to the San Antonio Spurs.
It was with little surprise and little doubt that Jacque Vaughn would land on his feet after the Orlando Magic fired him as the head coach in February. This is the NBA after all where the revolving door and coaching carousel is constantly in motion. It brought Scott Skiles around to the Magic this past summer.
Vaughn will not get his second chance as a head coach, but his failed attempt to be a head coach did not preclude him from working in the NBA again. As much as Magic fans want to criticize him for what he did not do in his three years as head coach, there was a reason he was hired to begin with (over current Utah Jazz coach Quinn Snyder).
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports Jacque Vaughn will return to the San Antonio Spurs in a player-personnel role, returning to his coaching mentor Gregg Popovich and the place where his coaching career began.
According to Wojnarowski, Vaughn will replace Trajan Langdon on the Spurs staff. He will not be a coach and so will not be a bench. The final assistant spot was taken up by former Magic interim coach James Borrego.
This was all expected for Vaughn to return to his mentor in Popovich. It seems pretty clear that possibly even after this year Vaughn will be back on the bench somewhere. For all the struggles he had with Orlando — and a 58-158 record is certainly struggling at minimum — he is still considered an up-and-coming coach with some potential.
Before coming to Orlando, he had spent only two years on Popovich’s bench. He still clearly needed some seasoning. And the Magic provided the opportunity for him to do so. The Magic, after all, did not have the pressure of winning at that point and were willing to let a coach make mistakes and grow with his team.
It is the formula that worked for Oklahoma City and Scott Brooks.
Vaughn never had the most talented rosters for sure. He was expected to nurture the young players and keep them improving through what would surely be the growing pains. Despite the team failing to win very much, it was hard not to say he accomplished that in his first two years. The Magic’s young core was beginning to percolate.
In his third year, last year, Vaughn was supposed to make the turn with the rest of the roster.
Here all the poor play designs, questionable rotations and late-game meltdowns began to matter more. It was clear this young group was talented and something was holding it back. And when a team cannot solve that problem, the coach is the first to go.
Scott Skiles is almost the opposite of Vaughn — an experienced coach who has a specific system to install and tendencies and methods already in place.
One bad job though is hardly enough to keep a coach out of the carousel forever. Not unless he burned bridges on his way out.
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By all accounts, Vaughn did what was asked. He just did not deliver the results when the organization demanded them. It was clear the team needed a new voice to continue its development.
It was also pretty clear Vaughn needed to take a step back to take another step forward in his career. He needed more time as an assistant to improve his Xs and Os acumen and his presence with players in the league. He needed more time outside of player development, largely his responsibility in his first stint with the Spurs, and more time as an actual assistant.
The Magic thought he would get that with on-the-job training. That did not work out for either party.
Vaughn’s re-emergence with a NBA team though is a sign that there are still second chances. One failure is not enough to squelch potential or make a franchise completely give up hope in him.
The Magic will surely see Vaughn again now that he is prepared to start over elsewhere.