Orlando Magic must improve development of young players
By Joe Buckley
Coaching
The problem of not developing talent stretches back far in Magic history, but even when looking at the last two seasons, coaching seems a common problem.
The Magic elected to hire first Scott Skiles and then Frank Vogel the following summer. Both coaches had past successes, but both were known for not wanting to play younger players. A product of their drive to win, in Skiles’ case, and Vogel’s roster being ready to compete.
More importantly for the Magic, the constant coaching changes have led to an unstable environment for the Magic’s young players. Instead of fine tuning their skills for a specific offense or defense they are comfortable with, the past three seasons they have had to work under new coaches.
For a young point guard like Elfrid Payton, this is especially damaging. He has had to learn a new offense and be the starting point guard for a new coach in each of his three seasons. That is asking a lot. And Payton’s inconsistency and slow comfort is at least partially attributable to this.
Quite simply, no matter who the coach is, a new staff brings a new relationship and a new trust that has to develop. That can stunt any young players’ growth.
The Magic’s instability at head coach the last three years has absolutely slowed their progress.
Orlando Magic
For the past two years, the desire to win and make the Playoffs after a prolonged absence has also hurt.
Of course, every NBA team and every NBA coach begin the season wanting to amount the most amount of wins possible. But the Magic have been willing to try for this at the exclusion of developing their young talent the past two seasons.
At a certain point, a team must choose development over chasing futile wins.
Frank Vogel tried to include his young players early. Mario Hezonja was a key part of the rotation for the first few weeks. But with so many new pieces to integrate and a seeming Playoff mandate, Hezonja’s struggles quickly saw him pushed to the bench in favor of veterans Vogel could trust.
There was not the space or the success for Vogel to mine another Paul George as he had in his first tenure with the Indiana Pacers.
Unfortunately, Vogel’s tenure has been more of the same. As mentioned, Hezonja has been pushed further back into the cupboard, and Aaron Gordon spent half the year playing a new position with very limited success — a product of roster construction which the coach and the general manager share blame.
As a point of reference, even now, sitting at second worst in the Eastern conference, Hezonja has cracked 20 minutes of playing time just twice in March.
The instability at coach and the push for wins over development have cost the Magic the last few years and have hurt some valuable assets.