Orlando Magic: Addressing Jacque Vaughn, The Elephant In The Room

With the Orlando Magic stuck at the bottom of the Southeast Division, many fans have been quick to chime in with potential solutions to remedy this poor start to the season. By and large, the players themselves don’t seem to be the problem in the eyes of many, even though there is evidence out there to suggest otherwise.

No, most of the fault seems to lie with coach Jacque Vaughn and all of the questionable decisions he seems to make. Now, I’m not here to defend him, far from it, but let’s be reasonable and look at both sides of the argument. One to keep him, the other to let him go, which is what a lot of fans seem to want right now.

I haven’t lost all hope is Vaughn, at least not yet anyway. But I will say this, of all of the bizarre things he’s done with his rotation and handing out of minutes, having Luke Ridnour on the court for the fourth quarter in the demoralizing 104-100 loss to the Toronto Raptors was the one that got to me the most.

The guy wasn’t producing anything on either end of the court, and it’s clear already Elfrid Payton is a better defender than Ridnour is. Kyle Lowry had heated up, and played a big part in their comeback.

Having Payton on the floor to at lease try and slow him down somewhat could have changed the outcome of the game. That was hard to watch as victory slipped from the team’s grasp.

More from Hoops Habit

• The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
• 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout

Looking at it from another angle though, while it is easy to sit back and say that Vaughn should be fired, what exactly would be the plan after that? It’s not like there’s a plethora of class head coaches currently out of the job who would be jumping over one another to join a rebuilding job that is taking considerable time.

Mark Jackson, the former Golden State Warriors head coach, is a guy I like who is currently out of a job. He’s only recently gone back to work in the media with ESPN on a multi-year deal, so getting him would be tricky. But if there was a serious chance he could be brought on board, I’d be listening.

Yes there are other candidates out there as well, but I think that some of the anger at the relatively poor start to the season has been misplaced and aimed at Vaughn because there is nowhere else to put it. All summer we were fed stories of how young and exciting this team was going to be.

Injury and a lack of depth have exposed those words now as inflated, but really, should we be surprised? This is still a team trying to get some pieces together to make it back to the playoffs. 1990s Phil Jackson could be at the helm right now, and the difference wouldn’t be that substantial.

This team isn’t very good, and their schedule to start the season hasn’t helped either.

There were a lot of new faces brought in this summer, and yet even with the new players trying to learn the system in Orlando, this team has still been pretty good. The two losses to the Raptors this season, the team really should have won.

Against the New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls the team hung around for over half the match, before falling off. This ability to not get the job done is the classic hallmark of a rebuilding team. They don’t have the strength in depth or experience to go for the kill when they’re on top.

The most recent loss to the Raptors only illustrates this point further, the Magic were much the better team on the night. Vaughn has this team playing hard, but like so many rebuilding teams before them, they can’t last the full game. That’s not all Vaughn’s fault.

That being said though, there is still no true identity coming together for this team, and that’s a worry. If Vaughn had one job this year, it was to create an identity that has been missing from this team since Dwight Howard skipped town. It’s not happening, and he deserves the blame for that one.

The offense seems to just run in place on too many possessions, often times leading to ill-adviced jumpers from the likes of Evan Fournier early in the shot clock. That’s not a dig at Fournier, who is emerging as an offensive weapon. Rather, there’s nothing else on so he decides to create something himself, and that is the fault of the management.

But I hate all of this grief being aimed Vaughn’s way, when I see precious little by way of what to actually do once he’s been ousted. It’s easy to talk about getting rid of him, but much harder to do if it’s your decision to make for the organization.

Vaughn has been around a while now, and while he’s clearly lacking in some departments, he brings to this team a continuity from his time there. His first two years with this team, there was little expected of him because the roster was left with a Howard-sized gaping hole.

Now there is a little bit more expectancy, and it would be fair to say that so far he hasn’t delivered. Remember though, the season isn’t even a month old yet.

So I’m not ready to give up on Jacque Vaughn just yet, it’s too soon into the season. As I’ve said, if there is a better coach with a proven record genuinely interested in the job, I’m all ears.

But to want him gone after some poor rotations and a bad start to the season in which the team has been competitive but ultimately lost most games, just like all rebuilding teams do, well that’s not enough of a reason to let him go for me.

Come back to me after Christmas, when we’ll have a clearer indication of what direction he’s steering this organization.

Next: NBA Power Rankings: How Close Are The Magic To The Bottom?