Big news out of Orlando today as the club has fired coach Stan Van Gundy and agreed to part ways with GM Otis Smith. The latest on the Magic..
- Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld tweets that plenty of executives are interested in the Magic GM job, and they aren't scared away by the Dwight Howard saga.
- David Baumann of Bright House Sports Network says that Lakers assistant Chuck Person is on Howard's list of preferred coaches, noting D12's preference for candidates with no head coaching experience (Twitter links, and a hat tip to Sam Amick of SI.com). That might be moot, however, if Howard still wants to leave the Magic.
- Warriors assistant Michael Malone and Pacers assistant Brian Shaw are candidates to replace Van Gundy, tweets Sam Amick of SI.com.
- Amick also tweets that many of the same candidates for the Blazers GM job will be in the running for the same post in Orlando, and links to a story from earlier this month specifying Pacers GM David Morway and former Hornets GM Jeff Bower as candidates for the Portland gig.
- Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio says that the Magic had interest in signing Greg Oden, but that's likely changed in the wake of today's news (Twitter link).
- Orlando Sentinel columnist George Diaz encourages the Magic to be "creative, aggressive and different" with their GM and coaching hires.
- CEO Alex Martins told reporters, including Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (via Twitter) that Smith felt uncomfortable moving forward without Van Gundy as coach. He expects to have a GM in place before the draft, Robbins tweets.
- Martins also said that Dwight Howard didn't want anything to do with the decision and added, "I think Dwight needs to decide where his future lies." (Twitter links)
- The changes alone don't guarantee that Howard will stay, sources familiar with his thinking told Marc Stein of ESPN.com. However, Orlando can give themselves some fresh hope by hiring a proven team-builder like Donnie Walsh to mentor Adonal Foyle and getting a coach who can build a better bond with Howard.
- The club will start discussing GM candidates tomorrow, a team source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
- Those close to Van Gundy say that he won't "rush" into coaching again, tweets Brian K. Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel.
- Mike D'Antoni is reportedly content with sitting out the 2012/13 season unless a particularly interesting opportunity arises and the dysfunctional Magic don't seem like a strong fit for the coach, tweets Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel runs down his list of coaching and GM candidates for the Magic. Potential coaches on his list include D'Antoni, Patrick Ewing, and Brian Shaw. Jeff Boyer, Adonal Foyle, and Steve Kerr are among the possible GMs.
—–