Stan Van Gundy proved unable to completely turn things around for the Detroit Pistons. Nearly a year after his dismissal, though, the Pistons' former coach and president of basketball operations harbors no resentment for the peers currently enjoying the type of success he never quite managed during his four seasons in the Motor City.
In fact, as the last coach to lead the Orlando Magic to the playoffs, Van Gundy has a unique perspective on just how impressive Steve Clifford's debut season with the Magic has been.
“I just know how hard this was. Steve is very unselfish and he’ll never talk about himself, but I hope he feels a great sense of accomplishment,” he said, per The Athletic's Josh Robbins. “I think to take over a team where the core had been together and not had success and to change that whole culture and mindset, to get guys to be mentally tougher and to stay the course and to believe in themselves (is very difficult). Then they were at 20-31, and he just stayed consistent and kept holding guys accountable but also got them to believe in themselves. I know that is a very, very difficult thing to do.”
Clifford, Van Gundy's top assistant during his tenure with the Magic from 2007 to 2012, considers both Stan and Jeff Van Gundy as two of his most influential coaching mentors.
Despite Orlando making the playoffs for the first time since 2012 and quietly emerging as one of the league's best teams over the last two months of the regular season, Clifford has yet to garner much consideration for Coach of the Year. It's safe to say he'd have the vote of Magic guard Evan Fournier, though, who recently called his team's improvement from training camp, its first with Clifford, to the playoffs “like day and night.”
The Magic and Toronto Raptors tip-off their first-round series at 5:00 p.m. EST from Air Canada Centre.
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