General manger Rob Hennigan has finally been relieved of his duties by the Orlando Magic in the first step in becoming excited about this team once more.
As 16 teams gear up for the postseason, the Orlando Magic once again find themselves on the outside looking in.
The Magic did not have a good season, as they limped to a 29-53 record, regressing on last year.
While the team was one of the bigger disappointments in the league, the slate has now been wiped clean with the firing of general manager Rob Hennigan.
It was a move that could not come soon enough, and it was great to see the team not hang around and get Hennigan canned quickly In fact, it may be one the most positive moves the team has made in years, but how quickly can we expect to see change?
Again the organization needs to be commended for the handling of this situation, with that now infamous whiteboard photo seemingly being the final straw.
The playoffs are only just beginning, and the team is already looking for a new person to take over Hennigan’s responsibilities.
When you look at how the Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy situations were handled in the past, it looks like the team have learnt from past mistakes.
With another lottery pick coming their way, and fresh eyes looking at who to draft, the sense of cautious optimism around this team is refreshing….which is what makes the next hire such a crucial one.
Grant Hill is one name that has been floated recently, but the team may want to stick to a more established general manager to take over. That is not a knock on Hill, who could be an excellent hire, but the Magic have to play it safe with this one.
They took a calculated gamble in hiring Hennigan and had him guide the Magic through a critical time in their history, and he failed.
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This is also why the team should look beyond Matt Lloyd, who has taken over in an interim role and will interview for the full-time position as well.
Again, Lloyd could actually be really good at the job and turn things around. He’s been around the league since 1994, so he is no rookie.
But if you’re a Magic fan, is that really what you want to see?
Promotion from within, and a guy who has been around this dysfunction for some time now (five-plus years)?
Surely it’s a better idea to cast the net outside of the organization, with Lloyd reverting back to his assistant general manager role.
That’s where it gets more complicated. Earlier this season current Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was mentioned as a potential head coach/GM combo for this team. We’ve already examined why this is not the right move to make at this point, but if he becomes available, how difficult does it become to turn him down?
A former Magic head coach who has won a title elsewhere and has some real clout around the league? That would seem to tick a lot of boxes.
But relinquishing that much control to somebody who in six seasons hasn’t been able to get the Clippers to the conference finals is worrying. Rivers wouldn’t even have an All-Star level player to work with, at least not yet. He would seem to be the answer for a team with a sense of direction.
Right now the Magic are an aimless bunch of players who sometimes fit together, and sometimes do not. Besides, there’s zero guarantee Rivers becomes available anytime soon either.
It would be of no benefit for Doc Rivers to leave Clippers for the Orlando Magic. Even if he gets fired Orlando would hire him right away.
— NBAMVP (@NBAMVP) April 14, 2017
This is where the road splits in two once more, with one direction being to go for that established GM, or an up and comer with some buzz around him like Michael Zarren.
The established route hopefully brings stability and an understanding of the role. But would it also bring new ideas?
If a younger individual was brought in, they would likely embrace the pace and space era the NBA is going through. They would also likely work better with head coach Frank Vogel, somebody who has his own style and way of playing.
But that’s exactly what Rob Hennigan was when he joined the team from the Oklahoma City Thunder: a then 30-year-old guy with lots of ideas and the time to guide this team through a rebuilding phase.
He was also coming across from the Thunder, a team who had drafted Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.
On paper, Hennigan was a good to great hire, but the Howard drama came so soon into his tenure that it was difficult to rebound from that.
There are no star players that could force their way out of Orlando this summer, but we need to hope that lessons have been learned from before. That’s really what makes finding a new GM so difficult.
One with experience who is willing to come to Orlando will be hard to find. He may also clash with Frank Vogel.
A younger individual could bring fresh ideas, but we’ve just been through five years of that, and it was not pretty, which may be Rob Hennigan’s parting gift to this team. A kiss of death that means he will be an easy act to follow given how bad his time with the team was.
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But will anybody be brave enough to take that challenge on, given the way he left the roster?
Good riddance, Rob Hennigan.