Frank Vogel has a type. It is mainly on defense. But it is not fixed into a specific strategy. Vogel’s flexibility will be his greatest attribute this year.
There is a particular image of a Frank Vogel team. It is easy for his team style to get type cast.
It goes something like this: A hard-nosed defensive focused team that plays a traditional style with a traditional power forward. An offense that is a little bit on the slower side, but that is because it fits the team’s personnel and personality.
That is not the direction the Indiana Pacers wanted to go. Nor was it the direction they could go after both Roy Hibbert and David West left the team before last season. Frank Vogel changed his team’s direction — both perhaps on management’s orders and because of the roster he had to work with.
Vogel’s Pacers kept that same character. They were a strong defensive team — third in the league — and despite struggles on the offensive end overall, their pace was incredibly high. That character of the team changed.
But one thing did not change despite the transformation to using stretch-4s and playing at a faster pace, the Pacers made the Playoffs, defying some preseason expectations and then made noise in forcing the Toronto Raptors to seven games. Vogel changed much of what he had done and got a lot out of his team.
“Every style is dictated by the personnel you have on your roster,” coach Frank Vogel said when he was first introduced to the media in May. “We had some teams that were built around size and strength, so you had to play to that strength and play that style of play. We did pick it up from a pace standpoint dramatically this past season because we changed our personnel a little bit. I have a great desire to play up and down. I feel like we have the athleticism and youth to achieve that right away. As these guys grow and continue to get better year after year. It is predicated on personnel.”
This statement might be the one that explains why Vogel is so successful. His basic personality is on the defensive end and molding strong defensive principles. There will be no talk of trading a defensively deficient player like Nikola Vucevic from him. Vogel said he believes the team can teach Vucevic good positioning and how to better anticipate moves to protect the rim better.
Vogel’s success throughout his career has come from his ability to adapt to his roster and get the most out of them. He is not rigid to a definitive style. He is willing to adapt and experiment, finding the right combination.
And, ultimately too, he delivers results. His team has only missed the Playoffs once, a year his Pacers were without superstar Paul George.
The team Vogel envisioned when he took over the Magic is probably not the one he actually got. When he took the job he talked about the team playing up-tempo, a style he always wanted to play but his personnel did not seem to allow. There was definitely a seeming eagerness for the Magic to play at a faster tempo than his Pacers teams and even play small ball with Aaron Gordon at the 4 or shooters spreading the floor.
The similarity with those traditional Pacers teams would come with their defense.
“We’re going to play a similar style of play as we did in Indiana,” Vogel said at his introductory press conference in May. “We will have a defensive identity, which worked for us. But we’re also going to play a style offensively where we adapt to the way today’s NBA game is played on the offensive end. We’re going to play with pace, we’re going to take advantage of the athleticism we have on this roster, run the floor and also space similarly to the way these teams are playing in today’s NBA.”
Some of that has changed now. The Magic added Serge Ibaka — adding that length and rim protection the team needed — and then doubled down with Bismack Biyombo. The plan and the ideas changed as the Magic made defense their absolute priority as their ticket to the playoffs.
Vogel though is a coach more than capable of changing things. As he told Zach Lowe of ESPN.com, the plan was to play Aaron Gordon at the 4, until Serge Ibaka arrived. Now he will likely be a 3 and play similar to George.
The team shifted from a strategy of playing small to believing they could “beat the out of teams in the paint.” The team’s identity had truly changed as their plans became clearer.
There will be challenges. Vogel will have to find a lineup that not only can be dominant defensively, but score in some way on the offensive end. Not everyone may be happy with their minutes at the end. If they win, it may not matter.
Vogel will have plenty of levers to pull and combinations to try. That is the beauty of this versatile roster. It is also the extreme risk of everything the Magic did this summer.
Orlando will have all the characteristics Vogel wants. The team has plenty of players that are skilled on defense. He has the length and rim protection to put together a strong defensive group. He will have to for the team to have success.
Vogel may not have the clearest picture of exactly how his team is going to play. Not quite yet. But he has ideas and he is not fixed in what he wants to do stylistically that he will force his roster to play that way.
He is going to adjust to what his team does. As long as defense remains the constant, Vogel will play however his team needs them to.
Next: ESPN projects Orlando Magic to stagnate
With how much the Magic’s roster has changed and how many questions and options there are, that flexibility from Vogel will be his greatest attribute in shaping this roster into a Playoff team.