Orlando Magic to bring back Steve Clifford as head coach

CHARLOTTE, NC - MARCH 10: Coach Steve Clifford of the Charlotte Hornets watches on during the game against the Phoenix Suns on March 10, 2018 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. 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 2018 NBAE (Photo by Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images) /

After the slowest coaching search in the NBA this year, the Orlando Magic have settled on…. Steve Clifford?

After a second straight season with less than 30 wins, the Orlando Magic fired head coach Frank Vogel immediately. A very slow search for a coach has come since, with few known interviews and plenty of options landing elsewhere. But on Wednesday morning, the Magic announced the hiring of Steve Clifford as their next head coach. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reported a four-year deal for Clifford.

Clifford spent the last five seasons as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets, with a 196-214 regular season record and two playoff appearances. Two straight 36-46 seasons, and a new general manager in Mitch Kupchak, sealed Clifford’s firing as the franchise looks for a reset.

Clifford has a history with the Magic franchise, having served five seasons (2007-2012) as an assistant under Stan Van Gundy. It’s hard to point to that as a factor in the decision to hire him though, with a pretty fresh front office regime in place. But that front office also inherited Vogel, and a move to get their own guy was made easy by a 54-110 mark over the last two seasons.

The Magic have had six straight losing seasons, and Clifford is now their fifth head coach in the last seven years. But they’ve also been in a bad middle ground, with the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft and being just good enough to not always get a lot of lottery ping-pong balls. Their highest picks over this recent stretch have been given up on too early (Victor Oladipo), have yet to reach their full potential (Aaron Gordon) or have been an outright bust (Mario Hezonja). 2017 first-round pick Jonathan Isaac only played 27 games a rookie due to foot and ankle issues, averaging 5.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. That kind of poor draft yield has set up the recent run of losing in Orlando.

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The Magic were pretty deliberate in their coaching search, which is fine as long as it yielded the right guy. Big names like Kelvin Sampson and Tom Izzo surfaced on some level as potential candidates, but even among a dried up pool of good options Clifford is not an inspiring hire. In a certain light, with similar recent resumes, his hiring is a lateral move after firing Vogel.

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