The Orlando Magic are expected to name Frank Vogel their next head coach. And he already believes this team is ready to take the next step up in its rebuild.
When Frank Vogel took over the Indiana Pacers in the middle of the 2011 season, he had a roster that was not well defined.
Jim O’Brien had buried Paul George. Roy Hibbert was mercurial. Lance Stephenson immature. The group did not appear to have much of a future, just a lot untapped potential. The team was not able to pull itself together.
Vogel seemingly looks back at that time now and feels like he is looking in a mirror when he looks ahead.
Like that team, his new team, the Orlando Magic, are a lot of interesting talent and pieces with a ton of potential but a ton of questions. This is a group, like those groups in Indiana that had not found itself in the league yet and had its struggles.
Vogel again steps in at a time of turmoil, but a time of opportunity.
And like that team, he seems to believe the Magic are ready to take the next step.
The Magic will officially announce Frank Vogel as its next head coach in a press release Friday and introduce him officially to the media Monday at Amway Center.
He told Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel the Magic are ready to take that next step, just like the team he took over in Indiana six years ago:
"“I believe in the young core that they’ve put together here,” Vogel told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview Friday.“The young talent, I think, is a really good situation. They’re ready — ready to take that next step. I feel like they’ve gotten some of the growing pains out of their system, as you deal with in any kind of rebuild situation. The team really reminds me of the team I took over here in Indianapolis, with the young Paul George, Lance Stephenson and Roy Hibbert. Those guys hadn’t really seen success at the NBA level, and we were able to just bring a positive energy-and-enthusiasm type of approach to the young talent that they had and we watched them grow. It was really special. I see a lot of similarities with the depth of the young talent that we have on this roster.”"
That certainly sets the bar high for a team that won 35 games last season, but struggled to win close games and saw its defense lag from the midpoint of the season on. Orlando has missed the playoffs the last four years, tying for the longest postseason drought in team history.
There is real pressure to begin turning the corner. And Vogel’s experience helping take a 17-27 team to 37-45 and a Playoff berth after becoming interim coach of the Pacers in 2011 to a two-time Eastern Conference Finalist in 2013 and 2014, including holding the top seed in the Eastern Conference in 2014.
Vogel is considered one of the best coaches in the league for the consistency and mentality he brought to the Pacers for the past six seasons.
The team Vogel inherits is a young one but certainly still a promising one. But its future feels very uncertain. Even with a 10-win improvement, the Magic are expected to try to make major moves this summer. Orlando has freed up enough cap room to go after at least one max free agent, and possibly two.
Vogel is viewed as a coach who teaches strong defensive principles. His teams have constantly and consistently been in the top-10 defensively in the league. Even last year after he lost David West and Roy Hibbert as his low-post anchors.
Vogel said he was ultimately attracted to this job because of the players on the roster and the hunger he believes they have to win. Talking to Magic players there is a hunger to win, but maybe not the know-how. Skiles did a good job beginning the process that Vogel will now build from.
He believes this team can duplicate the defensive success he had in Indiana:
"“They’ve got to be given the answers to the test: ‘If you do this, we will win this many games.’ The plan is in place. The system is in place. The drill work is all in place. It’s proven itself over the last few years. My sense from this team is that they’ve very, very hungry to take that next step. That’s part of what excites me about this team. I feel like I have a formula to provide a good defense, and I’ve got some hungry guys to go out and execute it.”"
If there is a criticism of Vogel’s team it was that they struggled offensively and that his “style” was to play with two bigs, eschewing small ball.
While the Pacers again struggled offensively this year, they successfully picked up their pace while maintaining their defensive acumen. And the results speak for themselves, the pacers made the Playoffs.
The Magic are expected to hold a press conference to introduce Vogel to the media formally Monday at 1 p.m.
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Then he and the team get to the work of helping this Magic team reach that next level Vogel foresees.