Thanks For Nothing, Scott Skiles

Scott Skiles has resigned as head coach of the Orlando Magic, putting an end to an underwhelming period in team history.

In one of the most unexpected turns of an offseason that is yet to properly begin, Scott Skiles has resigned as head coach of the Orlando Magic. It is not clear yet why this happened, although Skiles himself was quick to deny that any such rift existed between both him and the players or front office members.

In any event he is gone, after an underwhelming year in which the team started brightly, before failing to make the playoffs once more. On the surface this may look pretty bad for the Magic. This young team are once again without a head coach, at a time when they’re supposed to be climbing towards respectability once more.

A quick spin around the world of social media though, will tell you that fans of the team aren’t exactly gutted over this announcement. Rather, there’s an overriding sense of indifference to the departure of Skiles.

In many ways, those feelings mirror how most felt during his time in charge. It looked like some consistency and a commitment to defending as a team were being slowly instilled into the group, but even the more casual fans were aware that Skiles was only in the hot seat to see the organization back to the playoffs once more.

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He was supposed to stick around for at least three years, with the goal surely being to get this team back to the postseason in year two or three. Other reasons for bringing him onboard included his track record in getting other young teams to the playoffs, as well as his ability to get younger players to buy into defending.

The fact he was the first high-caliber player the Magic organization ever had helped his cause as well. So it wasn’t an odd hire last year, just one that failed to inspire. Which is why you can look at his resignation from two different angles, depending on your viewpoint of where the Magic are at.

On one side, the path is now clear to hire a better individual to lead this team for the medium to long term. A guy who has dealt with stars before, and has experienced everything from conference finals to missing the postseason altogether.

Such a guy recently became available and if the Magic don’t seriously look at Frank Vogel as the answer here, you’d have to question what direction the team is headed in next season. He’s the perfect candidate and the thoughts of him working with another two-way player like Victor Oladipo are exciting.

So for this, we should thank Skiles. Maybe he did realize that, although he was doing nothing wrong at the helm, he was stopping the team from going out and getting a quality long-term solution to their head coach woes. Mike D’Antoni is also available. Even somebody like Byron Scott, despite his dumping by the Los Angeles Lakers, should at least be looked at.

It’s a time of renewed hope once again. The Magic may have lost Channing Frye and Tobias Harris during the season, but with a new incoming head coach, another lottery pick, money to spend and the continued improvements Aaron Gordon and others, optimism is back in the air.

Well, that’s one way of looking at things, and it’s a nice way to put it. The other side of the coin however, is that Skiles just wasted a year this team didn’t really have only to suddenly realize he wasn’t up to the task of getting this group back to the postseason.

If that’s the case, why take the job in the first place? All it has done is effectively cost guys like Oladipo a year of their careers. He’s no longer helping them on the path back to redemption. Plus, it’s not like he was free about how he used the young potential at his disposal.

Skiles does have a reputation of not playing rookies, but given that the team collapsed at the turn of the year anyway, it really would have been beneficial to have them play more. Mario Hezonja clearly has talent and he played in 18 minutes a game.

Aaron Gordon is a guy who may yet be the face of the team, yet he was restricted in all that he could do for the Magic as well. We weren’t to know that Skiles was going to be a one-year rental job and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it really didn’t pay off for Orlando to hire him.

Further, had the Magic shown glimpses of real potential this season, who is to say a premier free agent wouldn’t have joined them this summer if they’d made the playoffs? After all, Paul Millsap thought about it last summer before returning to the Atlanta Hawks.

If Orlando already had a more respected coach in charge, with a first-round playoff exit already in their back pocket, it would at least give some top players food for thought. Instead there are more question marks than ever around this team. Is that really how you attract talent?

Thankfully the positives outweigh the negatives in this situation though. The Magic now have all summer to find the right guy, although the quicker they do so, the better chance they’ll have to succeed. The draft lottery is mere days away, and hiring a coach who knows what they want to do with the pick is the first step in making this a summer of good vibes for this team.

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In the end, the brief tenure of Scott Skiles was a forgettable one. The Magic had young talent at their disposal, and mostly the year just got away from them at a time when they were meant to be climbing that mountain once again. That reign has come to an unexpected, yet merciful, end and it’s something most fans will be delighted about.