The Orlando Magic have been in rebuilding mode ever since Dwight Howard left for Los Angeles. They’ve had to start building a team from the ground up, and they will be better long term for it. However, as we are now entering year three of the Orlando Magic rebuild and fans want to see some sort of progress.
The Magic are not a team bereft of talent. They have a stable of young, talented players that have gained valuable experience over the last two years (sometimes to the detriment of the win-loss column). It is now time to see the talent this team has been nurturing materialize into some wins and a competitive run for a playoff spot. With budding star players such as Nikola Vučević, Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, a deep bench with young talent such as Kyle O Quinn, Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson, Evan Fournier, and veteran players such as Channing Frye, Ben Gordon, and young (but very talented) young pups Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon these expectations are completely realistic. This is where coach Jacque Vaughn comes in.
He recently signed a contract extension with the Magic along with young whiz general manager Rob Hennigan. I thought the first couple of years given the young inexperienced talent Vaughn had to work with he coached reasonably well. They had poor records and Jacque Vaughn definitely had a learning curve, but were also pretty competitive in many of their losses and always competed hard. However that crutch of an excuse of inexperience should no longer fly this season. Progress needs to be made in year three of a rebuild. That responsibility falls whether fair or not on the shoulders of the head coach. Vaughn comes from the coaching tree of Gregg Popovich (my pick as the greatest coach in NBA history) and while Vaughn is nowhere near the level of Pop he needs to display what he learned as a head coach under Pop’s tutelage.
Progress needs to made. Jacque Vaughn has had two years of free reign and time to mold the young team into professionals. This season we will see the fruits of his labor and if unsatisfactory the Magic organization need to take good hard look at the coaching position and evaluate whether Vaughn is the man to take this franchise to the next level. Many Magic fans already have their doubts about this, but I for one will wait and see. We all have no choice but to wait and see.
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