The Orlando Magic are at a tricky stage in their development.
They are still an incredibly young team that has a lot of growth ahead of them. It is unfair to say this is the best the team will be. The Magic should keep improving under the right guidance and coaching.
But they are also demanding more from the team in the present. The Magic are not waiting for some far-off future. They want to win now after three straight first-round exits. Orlando is hungry to do something bigger and believes this young core can accomplish that.
This is why Jamahl Mosley is now coaching the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Orlando Magic moved on. They are looking for a coach to take them to the next level and unlock something within them.
There is not much reporting on the Magic's coaching search -- there never is. Marc Stein of the Stein Line reported that people around the league expect the Magic to focus on a coach with experience to help guide them deeper into the Playoffs.
Jake Fischer reaffirmed that on Tuesday afternoon, reporting that Billy Donovan remains the favorite to take the job around the league and that Tom Thibodeau is on the way out of the coaching search and LA Clippers assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy might be on the radar.
That is not where the search stops. And it is getting harder to ignore another coach on the market.
Fischer reports San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Sean Sweeney is expected to interview with the Orlando Magic, but has not done so yet.
His audition is playing out in real time during the Western Conference Finals with the way his defense plays and hounds the Oklahoma City Thunder. Sweeney is going to be hard to ignore, and his interview will have to take place at some point during the Spurs' playoff run.
The Spurs' defense is more than just Wembanyama
Sean Sweeney is known most for his defensive acumen. He was essentially Jason Kidd's defensive coordinator in his years with the Dallas Mavericks and is in charge of coordinating the defense for Mitch Johnson and the San Antonio Spurs.
That might be easy to do because Victor Wembanyama is the Defensive Player of the Year and a 7-foot-4 backstop that can deflect everything at the rim.
But Wembanyama credits Sweeney with the team's defensive scheme and success. Sweeney has put Wembanyama in a position to be successful. And the duo deserves some credit together.
On NBC's Showtime postgame press conference, they put together a full defensive highlight reel of the San Antonio Spurs' guards pressuring and controlling the Oklahoma City Thunder's ball-handlers. It was all without Wembanyama.
Sweeney's defensive schemes are impressive when he has a team fully bought in and confident.
The Spurs held the Thunder to 115 points in a double overtime game and a 102.7 defensive rating. San Antonio had a 96.8 defensive rating with Wembanyama on the floor. The Spurs gave up 119.0 points per 100 possessions when Wembanyama was off the floor. He is certainly an accelerant.
But the Spurs are typically strong defensively even without him.
In the regular season, San Antonio had a 113.7 defensive rating with Wembanyama off the floor. That would rank just below where the Orlando Magic ranked in the regular season (they were 113.6 points per 100 possessions).
In the Playoffs, the Spurs have a 105.6 defensive rating with Wembanyama off the floor (the worst on the team). That would rank third in the Playoffs.
Obviously, most of the minutes played are with Wembanyama. It still takes good coaching to put him in the positions to maximize his play. But the deployment of other players to build an elite defense -- especially one that can slow down the Thunder -- is still impressive.
It seems to be widely accepted that Sweeney will get a head coaching job in the near future.
Sweeney checks off the development box too
It is easy to say: "Go after the lead assistant on the team in the conference finals (or the Finals, as the case may be)."
Teams always try to copy success and leech off the cultures other teams have built. Every team in the league should be asking why the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder have thrived so quickly with so many young players. Teams have been trying to copy the Spurs' culture for decades.
That Victor Wembanyama has credited Sean Sweeney so much is a credit to Sweeney and a reason why he is on the radar.
It is not just Wembanyama either.
Sean Sweeney was an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks from 2014 to 2018. He is credited with helping transform the Bucks into one of the best defensive teams in the league and fostering Giannis Antetokounmpo through his early years.
The aggressive trapping and switching the Spurs have been deploying, he has been doing at his stops throughout the NBA.
Sweeney used that to work with Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond with the Detroit Pistons under Dwane Casey. He essentially replaced Jamahl Mosley as Dallas' Luka Doncic coach when Jason Kidd took over.
Sweeney has the development chops to get the most out of a young team and build relationships with elite players.
His story is similar to Mosley's.
That might make Magic fans a bit uneasy. Orlando should want something different. And the team just hired an intense defensive-minded coach who is good at building relationships with his players.
The big mystery is whether he can coach offense. That has never been his responsibility in the league. And that is a hurdle he will need to overcome in his interviews. He will need to present a clear vision of how he wants his team to play.
The Magic want a defense-first coach. But they know they must improve their offense and put their players in better positions to score.
That puts Sweeney squarely in the mix. And the Spurs' continued success will make him hard to ignore -- even if he does not have the head coaching experience the Magic seem to prefer.
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