Finding the right coach for Orlando Magic a question of balancing skills

Whether it is a disciplinarian or a player’s coach or a former player or scout type, the Orlando Magic’s coach hire is a balancing of skills.

The Orlando Magic’s coaching search has intensified publicly in the last few days.

President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman and his staff have likely gone through their process at their own pace, understanding the questions they want to ask and the direction they ultimately want to go. All of it has happened behind the scenes.

Only this week has the public been let in on this progress with reports the team will interview Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach David Vanterpool, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka and former Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale.

It is hard to find much of a current that is similar among all those coaches. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what the Magic are looking for in their new coach.

Throughout the last six years, they have run the gamut of coaches. It is one of the more frustrating storylines of this rebuild.

The Magic went from an inexperienced coach meant to grow with the team to a couple of coaches with experience who had been through the grinder before. They did not find success with either path.

And so the question before Weltman is to find the right coach for the team. They need to find someone who can both foster growth and development, gain players trust, establish a culture and hold everyone accountable to a standard. It feels like a lot.

"“We have a lot of young guys on this team,” Aaron Gordon said at the team’s exit interviews. “As you go up each level, the attention to detail becomes heightened. We need somebody who can teach that. We have that starting with John [Hammond] and Jeff [Weltman] and Pete [D’Alessandro]. They are very detail-oriented. I fully trust they are going to find a coach who will be able to teach that on the floor as well.”"

These are all skills anyone might look for in a coach. Like any job search, it is easy to rattle off a list of qualities. What is harder is to predict is whether a coach will be able to fulfill those roles and fulfill those qualities.

Surely, Rob Hennigan thought Jacque Vaughn was going to be able to implement a culture and establish a standard for his growing team. That ended up not happening. Ultimately these hires reflect on the predictive judgment of the hirer.

The players, like Gordon, all seemed to say the team needed a little more of a kick in the butt this year. It was not that coach Frank Vogel was a poor choice or did not do a good job keeping the team unified. Or even that he was not detail oriented — some of his video sessions with the team were legendary for their detail.

Aaron Gordon said the new coach should be someone who holds everyone on the roster accountable. It is something he said he admires about San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

Great coaches, he said, hold their top players as accountable as the 15th player. It is those kinds of details the Magic might be missing.

"“Yes and no,” Nikola Vucevic said after a long pause when asked whether Vogel held the team accountable. “I think in certain situations it could have been a little bit more. I don’t think that is necessarily the issue. I think Frank did a good job trying to hold guys accountable and show us what we need to do and how things need to be done. Sometimes that is all he can do. If you don’t respond as players, that’s up to us.”"

There is that interplay that deserves recognition. A coach can only take a team as far as his players. And the Magic certainly need roster changes as much as they need a new philosophy from the top.

The other debate going around Magic circles is whether to go with a coach with playing experience or someone, like Vogel, who had a film and scouting background to becoming a head coach. Again, here the Magic have been through the ringer with both styles and did not find much success.

Yet, there was a sense from many players as they reacted to the news of Vogel’s dismissal after the season that they felt Vogel was not able to relate fully to players.

It was long a criticism of Vogel. As a video coordinator, he often waited for the video to make adjustments and rarely adjusted his rotations on the fly. Maybe that was a bit of a credibility gap or part of his patient demeanor.

D.J. Augustin said there is a difference between a coach with playing experience versus one without. Coaches who have been through the NBA ringer know better how to manage a player’s rhythm and what their bodies are going through in the course of a season.

But that is not to say coaches without that playing experience could not add that insight that is needed occasionally.

Maybe the team needed a stricter disciplinarian more than a player’s coach or an analytical coach.

There is a lot to say about Scott Skiles‘ lone year with the Magic. But it was also the best season the Magic have had in the last six years too. Players may have started bristling to his disciplined approach. But they also found limited success.

All these factors have to be in balance with the Magic’s next coach.

"“We just need a coach who is going to coach us to not make mistakes,” Jonathon Simmons said. “I’m used to coach Pop so that’s all I know in the NBA. I wouldn’t be made if we had someone like him.”"

It is easy to say go find a coach like Popovich and Kerr — probably the two best in the league. But they were unproven coaches at one point too. There were moments where critics doubted them.

Success and culture were something they built from the ground up. And it was rarely a straight line. But they eventually got there. A strong organizational culture helped build all of that. Everyone worked in lockstep.

That might be the most important thing. The coach must align with management and they must be all on the same page in every way they develop their team.

There is no one type of coach to find.

Right now, Weltman is looking for the traits he wants to work with. He is looking for a true partner to build the team up. A voice to echo his philosophy and his thoughts in team building.

"“It’s going to be a process whatever it is,” Marreese Speights said. “You’ve got to earn whatever it is. You have to earn your spot. There’s no star on this team right now. That’s what a coach has to preach when he first gets in. He has to tell the players and understand you have to work for everything you get. Once you get that here with this group of guys under control, you will see winning.”"

Next: Rumors: Orlando Magic to interview David Fizdale

It is a big decision no matter how anyone cuts it. It is a foundational decision. And so getting it right — with all those traits — will be important for the Magic’s future success.