5 reasons Frank Vogel can lead Orlando Magic to NBA Playoffs
By John Buhler
1. Outstanding defensive-minded head coach.
This is Vogel’s greatest attribute. He is an outstanding defensive-minded coach and will make this once directionless Magic team into a defense-first basketball team.
Vogel would routinely have his Pacers teams in the top five in the league in defensive rating. While he doesn’t yet have the players capable of boasting such a strong defensive team, he does have youth on his side. Those fresh legs and not yet being a strong offensive-minded team already plays right into Vogel’s plan to make Orlando good once again.
To become playoff caliber in the NBA, it is immensely important for a club to have an identity: Does this team win with the three? Does this team win with strong defensive tactics? Does this team win with pace?
The three ball may come later down the road, but the Magic have the athletes and the youth to win with both defense and pace should Vogel want to go that route. As the new head coach in Orlando, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Vogel can turn the 2016-17 Magic into some sort of variation of the 2014-15 Bucks, who finished fourth in team defensive rating under then new head coach Jason Kidd.
Milwaukee finished over .500 that year after winning only 15 games in 2013-14. The Bucks were a strong No. 6 seed in the 2015 NBA Playoffs, taking their Central Division rival Bulls to six games in their first round series.
While Orlando will want to be a more consistent team under Vogel than the Bucks have been under Kidd, that 2014-15 team in Milwaukee is a realistic comparison to what Vogel could have with the Magic in 2016-17. If next season’s Magic team is anything like that Bucks team, Orlando will find itself in the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2012.
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