Scott Skiles resigns as head coach of the Orlando Magic

Scott Skiles has resigned as the head coach of the Orlando Magic, the team announced Thursday. The team will begin a coaching search immediately.

Scott Skiles has resigned as head coach of the Orlando Magic, the team announced Thursday. A coaching search will begin immediately.

Skiles said the decision was his alone and he felt he was no longer the right coach for this team.

“After much thought and careful consideration, I and I alone, have come to the conclusion that I am not the right head coach for this team,” Skiles said in a press release. “Therefore, effective immediately, I resign my position as head coach of the Orlando Magic. I realize this type of decision can cause much speculation. The reality though is in the first sentence.  It is simple and true.  Any other rumors are pure conjecture.

“I sincerely apologize for any unintended consequences that may adversely affect anyone associated with this decision. The Magic are a world-class organization that employs world-class people. I wish them nothing but great success. I will always be thankful, especially to the DeVos family, for the opportunity.”

Skiles went 35-47 in his lone year as head coach of the Orlando Magic. It was not quite the Playoffs that the team had hoped for in this fourth year of the rebuild, but it was still a significant 10-win improvement over last year.

The Magic’s offense and defense improved dramatically under Skiles — from 27th to 22nd in offensive rating at 102.6 and from 25th to 17th in defensive rating at 104.6. These improvements were expected as Skiles demanded more accountability and did not simply let players play through their mistakes.

The 10-win improvement is not insignificant. it has not happened very much in Magic history.

“While we understand it was a challenging season, we reluctantly have accepted Scott’s (Skiles) resignation,” Magic general manager Rob Hennigan said in a press release. “We appreciate Scott instilling a culture of accountability and certainly wish him and his family well.”

But it was also clear there were some problems. The so-called Scott Skiles effect was taking hold. He often would pull entire lineups out of games because of poor effort early in halves.

After the Magic got out to a 19-13 start and were the toast of the league — with Skiles winning the December Eastern Conference Coach of the Month award — the Magic won just two games in January and fell almost completely out of the Playoff race. It was a difficult and trying month for the team.

They recovered enough to have a strong push to the end of the season, but the defensive intensity that built the early-season record never returned and it felt like the team was not buying in to everything Skiles was selling.

The improvement was real but so too was the feeling the team had reached a ceiling or could not quite climb over the top. Skiles certainly improved the team and made it better, but there was definitely a sense that something was not quite clicking.

It may have been on the team as much as in the front office.

Speculation is already running wild on disconnects between Hennigan and Skiles and disagreements about the direction of the team. And there are already rumors that Skiles looked to resign in January while the team was struggling before thinking better of it.

And certainly there was some surprise when the Magic hired Skiles to begin with. It felt like rumors connecting Skiles to the Magic began when they fired Jacque Vaughn last February. And Magic CEO Alex Martins said the team did encourage Hennigan to interview Skiles as they were going through the hiring process last summer.

Ultimately the Magic decided to move forward with Skiles as their head coach.

It is certainly a surprising and startling move for the Magic just as they are about to get very serious about their Draft preparations and at a relatively late stage in the coaching carousel.

There are still several very good coaches available and the Magic should be a much more attractive job because of the improvements they made under Skiles and the young players and assets they have already on the roster.

Next: Orlando Magic intend to keep busy during NBA Draft Combine

Hennigan though now enters a really important summer though. He will need to find a competent coach that also believes in his plans and vision for the team. Orlando has made it virtually no secret it will be active in free agency to improve the team and make a push for the Playoffs in 2017.