Orlando Magic 2016-17 Season Outlook: Returning To The Playoffs

The Coach

Newly minted head coach Frank Vogel is widely celebrated and rightly so. He somehow turned Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson into an All-Star and a borderline All-Star respectively, and now seems to be the only reason they were ever close to that level.

No one wanted Lance Stephenson anymore this summer until New Orleans signed him at the last second just to see what will happen when you put him and Tyreke Evans in the same locker room (probably), and Roy Hibbert is seemingly only in the NBA at this point because he’s 7-foot-2 and knows how to play team defense competently.

It almost appears as if Vogel cast a spell on them that continually wears off as they spend time away from him. Both players have only regressed with time. It seems Vogel doesn’t take team loyalty lightly.

Secretly a wizard or not, Vogel was the head of a 2013-2014 Indiana defense that was historically potent until it inexplicably slid in the second half of the season. For Orlando, he should have a similar effect defensively, hopefully aside from the second half implosion. Building a defense around players such as Payton, Hezonja, Gordon, Biyombo, and Ibaka shouldn’t be difficult for most coaches, and a coach like Vogel should be able to take full advantage.

Trying to score against Orlando will be quite a challenge for other teams this year. Offensively I’m not sure what impact he will have: the personnel on Orlando is not very analogous to his Indiana teams. He has claimed he wants to use Aaron Gordon like Paul George, but it remains to be seen whether Gordon will be up to that task, especially as soon as this year.

We will probably see a lot of transition play that utilizes their athletes, and pick and pop play that utilizes the shooting of bigs like Ibaka and Vucevic. Orlando’s seeming roster imbalance likely foreshadows many problems for them, but it is unlikely that Vogel will be one of them.