NBA Coach Hot Seat Watch: Who will be the next coach fired?

NBA Head Coach Hot Seat Watch: No. 4 – Steve Clifford, Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic fought and clawed for years to stay on the fringes of the playoff picture. They were unlucky in the NBA Draft Lottery, made short-sighted trades and still missed the playoffs for six straight years from 2012-13 to 2017-18. Then the team hired Steve Clifford as head coach.

Clifford has led the Magic into the postseason each of the past two years, albeit down at the bottom of the bracket. Even as the team assembled some bright young talents and guided Nikola Vucevic to an All-Star level, injuries and some more draft whiffs meant the ceiling was low and the future uncertain. The team finally pulled the plug, trading away Vucevic, Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon to signal a full rebuild.

Where does that leave Steve Clifford? On the surface his time with the Magic has not been overly impressive, winning 46.6 percent of games, but in the franchise’s context that looks more positive than it sounds. Will the team want Clifford to stick around during the lean, bottoming-out years? Does Clifford want that? Can his hard-nosed defensive style translate to tanking, or will it keep the Magic from completely bottoming out?

No one would blame either the Magic from moving on, or Clifford for asking to find a new home. He has given the Magic an actual identity, but that identity hasn’t led to anything noteworthy. With the Magic’s current cornerstones recovering from injury and the draft the path to relevancy, Clifford could be in a new home next season.