Orlando Magic: Brian Shaw Would Be A Terrible Hire
By Luke Duffy
A number of outlets have recently reported that Brian Shaw would be interested in coaching the Orlando Magic should the opportunity ever arise. Now, there’s a couple of clear reasons why he said these things, and all of them are pretty obvious.
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Given how his tenure with the Denver Nuggets ended though, Orlando would be best served keeping this guy as far away from the roster as possible, and here is why.
To begin with, Shaw had a 56-85 record during his time in the Rockies. That’s not good by any stretch of the imagination, but what makes it worse is he had some talent to play with at the time. The Nuggets weren’t exactly in full on rebuild mode. In Ty Lawson, this team also had a point guard who was a borderline All-Star, despite his seemingly repeated injuries.
Add to that the likes of Arron Afflalo (now gone to Portland) and the tireless motor of Kenneth Faried, and this was a roster that had some pieces. The Western Conference is merciless as we well know and the playoffs with that squad may have been a push. But the point is Shaw didn’t get the most out of what was a good team, and that in itself is alarming.
Although not quite at that level yet, the Magic themselves have a promising roster. In Nikola Vucevic and Victor Oladipo alone, this team has potential All-Star talent. With Evan Fournier (formerly a Denver player) and Elfrid Payton, this team also has a scoring guard (Fournier) and a floor general who already has exhibited some great defensive ability (Payton).
So why exactly would Orlando want to introduce Shaw to this impressionable environment? Andre Miller, the ageless point guard with the cool demeanor, even lost his cool with Shaw, and he’s meant to be an old head who has seen it all. A lot of what Shaw did in Denver was baffling, seemingly picking fights with his own players and alienating some for no clear reason at all?
Is that really what is needed to take Orlando to the next level?
Shaw may have some history with the team, he spent a couple of seasons there as a player, but that shouldn’t automatically make him go to the top of the queue if the job becomes available. In fact, his comments about being interested in running the team seemingly came from nowhere quite soon after being let go from the Nuggets.
That looks kind of desperate to me, and it’s something you don’t see head coaches typically do so soon after being fired.
Certainly, we didn’t see Mike Malone do this when he was let go by the Sacramento Kings a little while back. At the time some felt he was harshly treated as he had the team finally trending in the right direction it seemed, albeit slowly. Speaking of Malone, he’s the kind of ideal candidate this organization should be looking towards.
The guy has a proven track record, and this team is crying out for an experienced leader to guide them.
So with Shaw having done a poor job in Denver, combined with the fact the Magic should really be looking to bring in somebody with a proven track record, it makes little sense to hire him. This team is on the brink of something big if it can continue to grow the way it has over the last couple of years.
The rebuilding and the losses are finally starting to pay off in the form of talent and depth. The next head coach hire is crucial and it better not be Brian Shaw who gets the job.
One final thing worth considering however, is letting interim head coach James Borrego keep the job full time. If any coach with minimal experience should get the gig it’s this guy. He’s 6-6 (at time of writing) so far and most importantly of all, he has the team playing with a sense of identity. The defensive talent has always existed on this roster.
Borrego is now finally getting the team to use it to their advantage to suffocate opponents and produce wins.
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Shaking things up by hiring another inexperienced coach with their own ideals would just set the process back that little bit more, and that would be frustrating to witness. As a brief aside, another coaching hire would mean Payton will have played under three different head coaches his first year and a half in the NBA.
How can you hope to achieve continuity and growth with that kind of turnover?
Brian Shaw is hardly a guy with a ruined reputation, but his first crack at being a head coach did not go well at all. If this was Orlando before the Jacque Vaughn hire and they went for Shaw instead, I’d say go for it. The team were going through a rebuild and perhaps a young coach could grow with the team.
But the time to get back into the postseason is nearly here, and Shaw has come along at the wrong time in saying he’d like to coach this team. In fact, hiring this guy would be one of the worst things they could do right now, and as a fan I could think of few things worse.
I personally would be irate, and until the next head coach has been announced (or in Borrego’s case kept on for the long term) I’ll live in constant fear this guy may actually end up running the team. That’s how bad a hire I think he’d be.
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