The Orlando Magic have fired head coach Frank Vogel after two seasons with the team, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. This is the second quick-fire since Jeff Hornacek was relieved of his duties with the New York Knicks last night, shortly after the end of their season.
Vogel went 25-57 this season, finishing with the fifth-worst record in the league. This came as a regression after finishing with 29 wins in his first season at the helm — totaling a 54-110 record (32.9 winning percentage) through his two-year stint with the team.
Orlando's front office tag team, consisting of president Jeff Weltman and general manager John Hammond are slated to begin a search immediately for a new head coach.
The Magic will also have impending questions at hand with their roster, with the likes of Aaron Gordon, Nikola Vucevic, and Evan Fournier (their three top scorers) facing free agency.
Vucevic, the franchise's longest-tenured veteran with six seasons with the team, perfectly described the imminent decision-making stretch the franchise will have to go through before Vogel's firing.
“When the season ends the way ours is going to end, a lot of these questions come up,’’ said Vucevic before a season finale win over the Washington Wizards, according to John Denton of Magic.com. “It’s something that’s out of our control and you can’t do anything about it. I try not to think about it, but – what’s our record now… 24-57 – if we were 57-24 we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We’d be talking about whether we could add another great player to come and join us.”
“So, it comes with the territory. When a team struggles, the front office is going to look at what’s been working and what hasn’t or what can be done for the team to be improved. There are a lot of possibilities, but I try not to think about it too much. It’s not my job to focus on personnel.’’
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