Orlando Magic Daily
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Five promising statistics for the Orlando Magic in 2018

By Philip Rossman-Reich

The Orlando Magic's Aaron Gordon (00) dunks against the Detroit Pistons during the first half at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., on Friday, March 24, 2017. The Magic won, 115-87. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)
The Orlando Magic's Aaron Gordon (00) dunks against the Detroit Pistons during the first half at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., on Friday, March 24, 2017. The Magic won, 115-87. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images) /
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Frank Vogel, Orlando Magic
ORLANDO, FL – FEBRUARY 3: Frank Vogel of the Orlando Magic coaches his team during the game against the Toronto Raptors on February 3, 2017 at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Frank Vogel’s second-year Def. Rtg.: 96.6

It is easy to take having the same coach for granted. In fact, it should be easy and something a team takes for granted. Coaching changes should not happen every year. Some measure of philosophical consistency is critical for a team to grow and improve. Especially a young team. Having to change coaches in each of the past three years for the Magic undoubtedly has affected the team’s growth.

It was certainly time for the Magic to part with Jacque Vaughn after the 2014 season. The team was not making dramatic gains and it was time to move out of the rebuilding phase and more toward developing to a winner.

Scott Skiles succeeded in the Magic’s 35-win 2015 season. Maybe with his direction and consistency for the other players on the roster, he would have been able to wring more out of last year’s team. We will never know. His sudden resignation through the franchise into turmoil.

They got lucky to get a coach like Frank Vogel. But not even he could make much with the roster the team had.

The reality is for many of the players on this team, nobody knows how they will react to having some coaching stability. It is hard to think that it will be a bad thing for the coach and the key player to have a relationship already established. Even after last season.

So what can Vogel’s history teach us, if anything?

Vogel likes to refer to his time with the Indiana Pacers a lot, especially as he tried to sell playing with two bigs and then again when he tried to sell his ability to coach a smaller team. But there was something instructive.

The Pacers were starting from a better place, but in his first full year as head coach, the Pacers finished 10th in the league with a 100.4 defensive rating. His second year, with virtually the same roster, the Pacers improved to 96.6, the best mark in the league.

There are obvious reasons for that. David West and Roy Hibbert were both extremely good defenders. Paul George and Danny Granger were good perimeter defenders too. The overall defensive talent on that team is much better than on this roster.

Still, Vogel gets a lot of credit for helping transform Hibbert from the earth-bound, slow-footed center to the verticality-driven rim protector he became in the Pacers’ heyday. He gets some credit for Nikola Vucevic’s improved defense last year. And who knows what might happen in a second year together (although, Vucevic did not display much defensive improvement in Eurobasket).

This is all to say, Vogel has made his teams better in the past, especially after that second year. And Orlando still had a top-five defense through a quarter of the season. Vogel has shown his coaching chops before. He certainly could do so again.