Orlando Magic: Steve Clifford has become their x-factor

With the 2019-20 season offering much optimism for the Orlando Magic, it will be head coach Steve Clifford who will determine how far they can go.

A lot can change in the space of a year, and in the case of the Orlando Magic, that sentiment is particularly true. At this point last season they were still trying to establish an identity and a way out of the mess that the previous front office had left them in.

There were no big-name free agents coming to help, and with the sixth pick in the draft, it felt like they weren’t going to be able to snag the supposed can’t miss talents of both Luka Doncic and Trae Young.

Instead, they were left to select center Mohamed Bamba, an intriguing player who didn’t get to showcase much in his rookie season.

More from Hoops Habit

• 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
• NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers

The Magic also cut ties with head coach Frank Vogel after two, mostly uninspiring, seasons. This was seen as the right move, but it left the team in a state of once again having to start over with a new coach at the helm. The next appointment was important, but the appointment of Steve Clifford appeared uninspiring.

Some, including this writer, feeling that he had done all he could with a middling Charlotte Hornets roster in reaching the lower rungs of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, and that he was destined to do the same with the Magic. Health problems to close out his tenure with the Hornets didn’t help matters either.

Instead, Clifford proved all of the doubters wrong in 2018-19, by instilling an identity across the roster and leading them back to the playoffs. Much of the offseason talk has been about the growth of Jonathan Isaac (quite literally), and the fact Markelle Fultz is shooting a basketball again, but coach Clifford has emerged as the x-factor who will determine how far they can go.

It starts on the defensive end, where the Magic ranked 8th in defensive rating during the regular season (107.6). Post All-Star break though, they were even better, ranking 5th (107.0). This was because Clifford unearthed gems like Khem Birch to power their second unit and because he managed to get the best out of players who had not been known for their defensive prowess to that point.

Center Nikola Vucevic, a first-time All-Star and gifted offensive player, has never been known for his defensive ability. In fact, opponents would have known to key in on him as an area of weakness around the basket. Yet the rating of 106.4 the Magic had when he was on the court was even better than their season average.

It was also the second-best mark he posted as a member of the Magic, behind the 106.1 of 2015.16 (he only played in 65 games that season). It was the same story for point guard D.J. Augustin who, at 31 and generously listed at six feet tall, wouldn’t have been known for his disruptive defensive behavior.

The team had a defensive rating of 107.2 when he was out there, which when put alongside the team-high 5.3 assists and fantastic 42.1 percent from deep, equated to the best season of his career. That’s without even mentioning “The Shot“, with respect to the great Michael Jordan.

Which is a huge part of the reason why coach Clifford enters this coming season as the clear X-factor for the Magic. They returned their core from last year, a season in which they overachieved relative to the expectations set for them. This time however he will have not only Vucevic and Augustin, who again are not out there primarily to defend, but guys like Isaac and Aaron Gordon too.

For Gordon in particular not to receive a single All-Defensive vote was absolutely a snub, while both Isaac and even Birch can feel aggrieved not to have picked one up either. The trio combined to make the Magic one of the best defensive teams in the league, and it was because Clifford put the scheme in place for them to begin to reach their full potential.

Gordon, in particular, seems to be the apple of Clifford’s eye, with his athletic body and always improving defensive skillset a perfect match with what he wants out of his players. He believes Gordon can be an All-Defensive team member, and the fact he matches up with opponent’s best players nightly is because he has the capability to do so.

With a revenge season for Gordon on the cards, plus the improvement on Isaac and Birch, Clifford has the tools at his disposal to make even greater strides on that end of the court. He won’t receive a lot of credit for this, however, because it is the players who ultimately make the stops.

One area where he will get more praise is how he utilizes his bench.

Here again is where Clifford can be an X-factor. His use of the rotations and bench unit with be critical to the Magic’s success over the course of a season.

This roster is now sneaky deep, particularly on the defensive end, which is exactly what Clifford will want to see. The addition of Al-Farooq Aminu through free agency a great complimentary piece to their bench.

Combining Aminu with Birch/Bamba, the defensively improving Wesley Iwundu (who Clifford appears to have a soft spot for but who he also shows some tough love to through the DNP-CDs he received last year) and Michael Carter-Williams, another above-average defender at his position, and you have a second unit that can strangle opponents.

Coupled with Clifford’s knowledge of the game on that end, it should make the Magic tough to compete against for 48 minutes every game. Something that was largely true last season already, despite the dumb losses to the inferior opposition. But now with improvements across the roster on that end as well.

If you’re still in any doubt as to whether coach Clifford is the X-factor here, you only need to look at his comments after their first day of training camp. As he told the reporters present when asked about how his players had gotten on during their first day back officially;

"“Fair, I guess. I mean it was an ok practice, you know you can’t manufacture stuff. It was ok. Turned the ball over a lot so you know, it was ok. Ok.”"

Given the recent hype around the return of Fultz on social media, as well as the growing belief that this is a roster who will continue to surprise and is on the cusp of being legitimately good, comments like this help to keep everybody grounded. Clifford isn’t getting too carried away, and nor should he be.

This is the attitude he brought from day one, and despite not being flashy or always exciting, it was something the players bought into as they posted a 42-40 record. For Clifford to start year two in the same manner, not buying into any of the noise surrounding his players, is hugely important.

They have still done nothing yet, and this coming season is going to be another tough one. Even more so with expectations higher than they’ve been in a long time. Not that Steve Clifford cares though. He takes everything one day at a time, and his methods and leadership qualities will be the last layer to their hunt for homecourt. It was also the foundational block that started this whole process too.