The Orlando Magic have officially ended the Rob Hennigan era, firing him after five seasons. What went wrong and what can the Magic learn from the “Process” of Hennigan’s era.
On June 21, 2012, the Orlando Magic officially embraced their young hot shot general manager Rob Hennigan. Hennigan had a masterful introductory press conference, his charisma and intelligence were apparent.
Hennigan won over the fan base that day and many, myself included, believed Hennigan’s mantra of long-term sustainability, the building of a lasting winning culture and emphasis on a long-term process were going to successfully lead the Magic out of the crater Dwight Howard was about to leave them in.
Now five years later, the Magic are coming off another 50-loss season. This gives the Magic four 50-loss seasons in Hennigan’s tenure. The team still lacks a superstar, any sense of a core outside of Aaron Gordon, and worst of all, ownership seems to be meddling with the on-court product.
The sad fact of the matter is the Magic are staring down the possibility of being the new version of the Sacramento Kings.
From the start, Hennigan preached the Magic’s need to rebuild through youth and not try to cling to the playoffs with aging veteran players. He wanted the Magic to avoid being stuck in basketball purgatory.
While that goal was admirable, the results have left Orlando in a place worse than purgatory. The Magic the past five years have resided at the bottom of the league and there does not currently seem to be a way out of that place.
How exactly did the Magic end up here? A lot of mistakes. Some mistakes the Magic can learn from and others that may plague the team for years to come.
How we got here
When you take a look at what Rob Hennigan did when he first became general manager he had a clearly defined strategy: Plan on losing but remain positive and nurture the young talent.
Hennigan traded Dwight Howard and somehow managed to end up the winner of that deal. The Magic acquired a bunch of future cap flexibility, some young players (Nikola Vucevic and Maurice Harkless) and picks. In that trade, the Magic did not acquire anything that did not serve a purpose to further Hennigan’s future plan.
The hiring of Jacque Vaughn and his staff were made to place a focus on building an upbeat, fun culture for the young guys where they were encouraged to build camaraderie and learn together on the court.
While the Jacque Vaughn hiring flopped, nobody can suggest Vaughn did not consistently maintain a positive attitude even when things were going badly.
There was a clear plan in place and the Magic were following it to a tee. In his first three
In his first three drafts, Hennigan selected Andrew Nicholson, Kyle O’Quinn, Victor Oladipo, Romero Osby, Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton and Devyn Marble. Five of these seven players project to be long-term NBA players, while the other two were late second round picks.
This is a good batting average for the draft. But one problem remained, the Magic still had yet to find a superstar in the draft.
The central mantra of Hennigan’s plan was based around the idea the Magic could eventually find a superstar or two by bottoming out and drafting future superstars.
In 2013, the Magic fell one spot according to their lottery odds but essentially drafted the player who was number one on their board in Victor Oladipo. The 2013 draft is still considered one of the weaker drafts in recent memory even with the emergence of Rudy Gobert, Giannis Antetokounmpo. and C.J. McCollum.
In 2014, the Magic again fell one spot, out of the top three while the Cleveland Cavaliers bumped them out with a less than two percent chance of doing so. The Magic ended up selecting Aaron Gordon and later trading for Elfrid Payton.
This is the problem for teams trying to build through the draft, the Magic “unlucked” their way out of prime draft position. Had the Magic stayed in the top three they would likely have had Joel Embiid and the franchise’s future is completely altered.
Without a true superstar, the Magic struggled again in 2014 and head coach Jacque Vaughn was fired halfway through the season.
The beginning of the end
Jacque Vaughn’s dismissal was the turning point of Hennigan’s tenure. Suddenly former Magic player Scott Skiles was being linked to the head coaching vacancy. If you want a more
Suddenly former Magic player Scott Skiles was being linked to the head coaching vacancy. The Magic began to short circuit and undermine the process.
Then a few months later, it became official. Skiles was the new head coach of the Orlando Magic. The man known as a taskmaster was to head up the project of coaching up a bunch of young players that had been relatively babied under Jacque Vaughn.
At this point, Hennigan’s process had become tainted and it seemingly had a lot to do with the team losing patience with the speed of the rebuild and letting business interests take over. Orlando’s impatient casual wine and cheese fans were complaining about the team (and justifiably so) and the Magic needed a way to sell tickets.
Vaughn’s final season left Orlando with the fifth-best odds in the draft. And this time the Magic stayed where they were.
Orlando Magic
The Magic had their eyes on Kristaps Porzingis. But once again, the Magic were foiled, as the New York Knicks took Porzingis the pick before the Magic. The Magic ended up selecting Mario Hezonja, a player who was known for his offense and his brash confidence. It would be fair to say he is not a player anyone would have predicted to get along well with Skiles.
That offseason the Magic gave away Maurice Harkless for free because of concerns about a logjam at forward with the selection of Mario Hezonja, and with current players Tobias Harris and Evan Fournier on board.
The Magic also let Kyle O’Quinn walk in the free agency and replaced him with Jason Smith. The Magic also added veteran point guard C.J. Watson into the fold.
The message was clear now, the Magic intended to win now. The time for rebuilding and trusting the process was over. Fans were fed up, and Orlando’s bottom line was going to impacted by it and that wasn’t an acceptable result for ownership.
As the 2015 season progressed, the Magic went from bright, young upcoming team to a complete disaster.
The Magic traded away Tobias Harris (a player Skiles reportedly had issues with in Milwaukee) for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova, a pair of former Skiles starters. The Magic recovered a bit after the All-Star break, just enough to crush their draft prospects but also give hope to fans.
Abruptly on May 12, Skiles resigned as head coach. Reports about Skiles quitting on the team in January began to surface and the Magic were once again left with egg on their face.
The Magic replaced Skiles with Frank Vogel and once again focused on winning right now. But this time the coach was much more of a players coach.
The pressure to win
Now four seasons into his job, Rob Hennigan had little success to show for his efforts. The pressure to win was intruding even more. There was to be no more waiting.
The Magic had a ton of cap room and a first round pick late in the Lottery. The pressure was on Hennigan to build a playoff contender instead of continuing to build up the program.
Then on draft night 2016, the beginning of the end had commenced. The Magic traded their best player in Victor Oladipo and the 11th pick for Serge Ibaka. It was clear as day now that Orlando had completely lost patience and it was time to start winning.
Later that offseason, Hennigan added veterans D.J. Augustin, Bismack Biyombo, Jodie Meeks and Jeff Green. More than $100 million in contracts handed out to bench players to help get Orlando ready to win now.
But, as many critics pointed out, the Magic roster was deeply flawed. Hennigan seemed to be throwing stuff at a wall and hoping it stuck. The team’s best player, Aaron Gordon, had been misplaced at small forward due to the acquisition of Serge Ibaka. And veteran forward Jeff Green was just going to steal minutes from Hezonja and Gordon.
Well, as it turns out the critics were right.
The Magic this season were an abject disaster. Orlando was forced to admit its error in acquiring Ibaka as the team dealt him to the Toronto Raptors for Terrence Ross and a late first round pick in this year’s draft.
Now, Rob Hennigan has been fired.
Lessons learned
The question is will the Magic learn from the lessons of their past? Will ownership continue to try and intervene in basketball operations over their basketball minds? This happened and is still currently afflicting the Sacramento Kings, who have been out of the playoffs for 11 straight seasons.
Rob Hennigan himself has to shoulder some blame as well. He put together a team that most of the basketball world knew did not fit together and expected them to win.
The modern NBA is a game that revolves around shooting, ball movement, and quickness. Hennigan rarely added pieces in free agency that filled holes for his team. He routinely blocked his own players’ development with his free agency addition.
The Magic had a plan, it seemed, and they departed from it. Their idea and grand vision were correct. Their execution and patience to see it through were lacking.
Orlando did not fully trust the process. The franchise wavered and panicked, trying to seize the first opportunity to improve rather than waiting for their investment to pay off.
What the Magic need to take away from this entire era is that the process is important.
The next general manager the team hires needs to be able to see his vision through. They take their time to come up with a vision for a team and sold the organization on it. The organization must let the general manager do their job unimpeded, so long as they show progress.
Next: The Orlando Magic's season in three charts
Patience is a virtue. That is the lesson that the Magic need to take away from the Rob Hennigan era.