Jacque Vaughn

And-Ones: Vaughn, World Peace, Pistons

September 21st, 2015 at 5:15pm CST by Will Joseph

Former Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn will be joining the Spurs in a player-personnel role, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports.

The Magic fired Vaughn in February in the midst of his third season as coach after having served a brief apprenticeship as an assistant coach with the Spurs. Vaughn could eventually find his way back to the bench as an assistant coach, Wojnarowski writes, but there are no openings for him now.

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Although a deal does not seem imminent, Cerruti Brown of the AmeriLeague announced that he will speak to free agent Metta World Peace about a possible deal, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter links). There’s a good chance that the veteran small forward will come to an agreement with the Lakers before camp, however.
It’s unlikely the Pistons would trade shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for a few reasons, David Mayo of MLive.com writes. Caldwell-Pope, Mayo adds, still could be a major part of the Pistons’ future. What’s more, Caldwell-Pope’s defense makes him a valuable commodity and he is an improving player on a rookie contract, so it would take a strong offer to move him, according to Mayo.

Poll: Which Fired Coach Lands Next Job First?

May 14th, 2015 at 3:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The pace of coaching changes in the NBA isn’t nearly what it was two years ago, when 13 teams hired new coaches in the 2013 offseason, as I noted last week when I looked at how those 13 coaches had fared since then. Still, five coaches have lost their jobs since the beginning of the 2014/15 season, while a sixth, Tom Thibodeau, hangs in serious limbo.

It’s a reasonable assumption that if Thibodeau were to join the ranks of the coaches let go within the past several months, he would have the best shot among them to quickly land another NBA head coaching job, given his credentials. None of the five who’ve already lost their jobs have found replacement head coaching gigs, despite some impressive bona fides of their own.

Monty Williams just lost his Pelicans gig this week, so of course it would be quite a stretch to have expected him to land a new position so quickly. He’d engineered an 11-game improvement from last year to this season, clinching a playoff berth on the season’s final night. Still, that wasn’t enough to save him from the ax.

Scott Brooks wasn’t let go all that long ago, either, and while his Thunder lost a tiebreaker to the Pelicans for that playoff berth, he compiled an impressive 338-207 record during the regular season in parts of seven years as Oklahoma City’s bench boss. That record had plenty to do with the elite talent surrounding him, and Brooks only made it to one NBA Finals in his time with the Thunder, losing that series to the Heat.

Brian Shaw never sniffed the playoffs in his season and a half with the Nuggets, but he was long a sought-after head coaching candidate before Denver hired him. He has two rings from his time as an assistant under Phil Jackson on the Lakers.

Jacque Vaughn also cut his coaching teeth as an assistant with a team accustomed to long playoff runs, learning under Gregg Popovich with the Spurs. The Popovich head coaching tree has expanded rapidly in the past couple of years, though it lost a member when the Magic fired Vaughn during the season, with Orlando largely stuck in neutral amid the third year of a rebuilding project.

Michael Malone didn’t get a third year in Sacramento, and he barely got a second before the Kings fired him just 24 games into his second season this past December. The Kings were off to a fast start this year before DeMarcus Cousins went down with viral meningitis, and the coach had connected with the sometimes-difficult star.

Vote to let us know which of the five coaches let go since the start of the 2014/15 season you think will be the first to find another head coaching job, and elaborate on your choice in the comments.

Southeast Notes: Vaughn, Heat, Walker

February 6th, 2015 at 8:02pm CST by Eddie Scarito

A number of coaches around the NBA have taken issue with the way in which the Magic fired former coach Jacque Vaughn, Chris Mannix of SI.com writes. Said one NBA coach, “We get hired to eventually get fired. But what they did to Jacque was disrespectful.” The main complaint about the team’s handling of Vaughn relates to how the franchise left Vaughn to face a daily barrage of questions regarding his job status instead of either simply pulling the plug on him sooner, or giving Vaughn a public endorsement to ease the media scrutiny, Mannix adds.

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

Heat team president Pat Riley and his staff want to bolster their roster at the deadline but lack the assets to make a deal, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes. Still, that would seem to indicate that the club doesn’t intend to be a seller, though that is merely my speculation.
Kemba Walker is expected to miss approximately five more weeks while recovering from knee surgery, but the Hornets‘ point guard says that he won’t rush his recovery and risk re-injuring himself, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes. “Right now I’m taking things slow. I want to be 100% when I come back,” Walker said. “I started riding the bike two days ago. As the weeks go by, I’ll do more and more.”
After enduring the previous two rebuilding seasons, Magic GM Rob Hennigan and CEO Alex Martins both expected greater improvement and player progress than the team displayed this season, which is what ultimately led to Vaughn being fired, John Denton of NBA.com writes. “We went into the season wanting to see some progress and see some growth and we just didn’t feel like we were seeing the kind of growth that we wanted to see,’’ said Hennigan. “That led us to this point. We find ourselves in a little bit of a rut right now. We’ll call it what it is, but I’ll always say that it’s a road bump and not a road block. We will get through this, but it doesn’t make it any easier when you have to make the type of decision that we made the other day.’’

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Central Notes: West, English, Gutierrez

February 6th, 2015 at 4:11pm CST by Chuck Myron

There was less acrimony Thursday when the Magic fired Jacque Vaughn than there was when they ousted Stan Van Gundy in 2012, but the current Pistons coach and executive nonetheless has plenty of sympathy for the latest ex-Magic coach. “There’s no such thing as a longtime Magic coach,” Van Gundy contends, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press relays.

“All those things are the same,” Van Gundy said. “You get in the press conference, they loved Jacque. He did a great job. You listen to all that, and then I listen to [GM] Rob [Hennigan] say it doesn’t fall on Jacque, but he takes full responsibility. I laugh, obviously, because that’s not true. You’re still sitting there with a job, and Jacque doesn’t have one, so I don’t know what full responsibility means. But I would say they left the full responsibility on Jacque.”

Here’s more from the Central Division:

Grantland’s Zach Lowe heard six weeks ago that the Pacers had become open to trading David West for a first-round pick, but such chatter has quieted, Lowe adds, suggesting teams aren’t willing to pay that price for the power forward.
Bulls camp invitee Kim English has signed with Guaros de Lara in Venezuela, the team announced (Twitter link; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The 26-year-old who played in 41 regular season games with the Pistons in 2012/13 had played in France earlier this season after the Bulls cut him loose prior to opening night.
Coach Jason Kidd admits that the indefinite length of Larry Sanders‘ latest drug-related suspension complicates Jorge Gutierrez ‘s future with the Bucks, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examines. Gutierrez’s 10-day contract expires tonight, when the Bucks play the 10th game of Sanders’ suspension. The ban was to last a minimum of 10 games, but the league still hasn’t revealed just how long it will last, and once Sanders comes back, the 16th roster spot the Bucks created when they placed Sanders on the suspended list goes away. “We understand this is Jorge’s 10th day,” Kidd said today. “We’ll go back and evaluate and see if we can do another 10-day.”

Eastern Notes: Sixers, Early, Magic

February 5th, 2015 at 8:56pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Scott Skiles has been mentioned as a candidate to take over as coach of the Magic, but he has a reputation as being difficult for players to get along with, Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype writes. Keyon Dooling, who played for Skiles when both were with the Bucks, thinks that Skiles will do better in his next coaching job, Sierra notes. “Skiles is a high-pedigree coach,” Dooling said. “A lot of times when coaches get fired, they get better at wherever they were weak. [If he gets the Orlando job] I think he’ll be better in how he deals with players this time. During my time in Milwaukee, he had an average relationship with the players. I don’t think it was great, I don’t think it was bad. His work ethic, X’s and O’s and game-planning were his strengths. Where he fell short is maybe with people.”

Here’s the latest from the Eastern Conference:

The Knicks have assigned Cleanthony Early to their D-League affiliate in Westchester, the team announced. This will be Early’s second trip of the season to the D-League.
Tobias Harris says that the Magic need to rally around interim coach James Borrego, John Denton of NBA.com writes (Twitter link). “We have to have his back. We have to want to win and play hard and do all that we can do to help [JB].“
The Sixers were pleased with the production that they received from Larry Drew II, but the rookie was caught in an unfortunate numbers game that prevented Philadelphia from signing Drew for the remainder of the season, Max Rappaport of NBA.com writes. “Flexibility,” coach Brett Brown said when asked why the team didn’t sign Drew for the rest of the 2014/15 campaign. “The trade deadline is coming up, and we need flexibility. We may see [Larry] again. Who knows? What I do know is he was an ‘A’. He did everything and some, and it doesn’t prohibit us from revisiting him [in the future] at all.”
Jacque Vaughn became the fall guy for the Magic, who are in the third season of their rebuilding project and appear to be heading in the wrong direction as a franchise, Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel writes.
One of the issues that the Magic‘s front office had with Vaughn was his inconsistent use of Harris and Maurice Harkless, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel writes. Both players received sporadic playing time under Vaughn, which didn’t sit well with Orlando’s GM Rob Hennigan and CEO Alex Martins, Schmitz notes.

Magic Fire Jacque Vaughn

February 5th, 2015 at 12:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:01pm: The firing is official, the team announced via press release, confirming that Borrego is taking over on an interim basis. The statement doesn’t mention Unseld, Gunning and Guthrie, the assistants whom Schmitz reports (below) that the team has also decided to fire.

“Jacque has been a trusted friend and colleague,” Hennigan said in the statement. “We thank him immensely for his contributions and sacrifices in bringing our team to this point, and we greatly appreciate his unwavering commitment to our organization. We have tremendous respect for Jacque and certainly wish him the best as he embarks on the next phase of his career.”

11:33am: The Magic have fired coach Jacque Vaughn, as Brian K. Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports (Twitter link), though the club has yet to make an official announcement. A news conference is scheduled for this afternoon, Schmitz tweets. Assistant coach James Borrego is expected to take over on an interim basis, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Team officials by last week had made up their minds about firing Vaughn and were simply looking for the best time to do so, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports and Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported then. That was shortly after Schmitz heard that the front office was “not at all happy” with the coach’s performance. Vaughn was on a deal that was to run through 2015/16 after the team picked up his option this past offseason.

Scott Skiles looms as a “serious candidate” to eventually take over as coach of the Magic, league sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Several executives around the league speculated that Skiles would become a favorite to formally succeed Vaughn, as Broussard reported last week, also identifying Mark Jackson among the “names to watch” in regard to the job. There’s a “real chance” that Orlando hires a replacement during the All-Star break later this month, Wojnarowski hears (Twitter link).

Vaughn, 39, was in the midst of his third season as coach of the Magic after having served a brief apprenticeship as an assistant coach with the Spurs. Orlando has shown only incremental improvement during each year of Vaughn’s tenure, starting with a league-worst 20-62 record in his first campaign, and the Magic are 15-37 this season, nine games in the loss column behind the final playoff position in the Eastern Conference. Vaughn’s career record is 58-158, giving him a winning percentage of .269, the second lowest for anyone who’s ever coached 200 or more regular season games, according to Basketball-Reference, as Schmitz and Sentinel colleague Josh Robbins point out in a full story.

GM Rob Hennigan didn’t give Robbins a direct answer when he asked Hennigan last month whether Vaughn’s job was safe through the end of the season. The GM did describe the coach’s performance as “solid,” but while the team believed a month or so ago that inexperience was at the root of its problems, the club had since become increasingly concerned not just that the team was losing, but how it was losing, Robbins wrote last week. The Magic put up a stiff challenge to the Spurs on Wednesday, but Orlando fell for the 10th consecutive game, the longest current losing streak in the NBA.

The Magic are also firing assistants Wes Unseld Jr., Brent Gunning and Zach Guthrie, Schmitz tweets. Borrego, their fellow assistant who instead receives the short-term promotion to the head job, spent time as an assistant with the Spurs and Pelicans before joining Vaughn’s staff for the 2012/13 season.

Skiles was last in the NBA during that same 2012/13 campaign, when he was fired as coach of the Bucks at midseason. The 50-year-old Skiles is 443-433 in parts of 13 seasons as an NBA head coach, with stops in Phoenix and Chicago preceding his stint with Milwaukee. Jackson, 49, the other name connected to the vacancy, was let go after a three-year run with the Warriors in which he helped turn the franchise around and led them to a 121-109 record.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Southeast Notes: Hawks, Hornets, Magic

February 4th, 2015 at 6:10pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Hawks‘ depth took a hit with the injury to Thabo Sefolosha, and one of Atlanta’s primary concerns with making any deal to compensate for his loss is disrupting the team’s excellent chemistry, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. “For us to be open to improving the group and adding more depth, with Thabo healthy or without Thabo healthy or without Thabo having this injury, it’s kind of the same mindset,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We really like our group. You are hesitant to do anything. There is a little more opportunity for a six-to-eight week window but I don’t think it changes much if at all.”

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

The Hornets couldn’t wait any longer for Jannero Pargo‘s injured back to heal, which is what prompted the team to waive the veteran in order to make room for the signing of Elliot Williams, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer writes. “He still wasn’t close to being able to play,” coach Steve Clifford said of the decision to waive Pargo. “We were playing with fire out there if Brian Roberts goes down. Lance Stephenson and Gary Neal are doing a great job, but you’ve got to have a point guard.”
Heat assistant GM Adam Simon had been the key figure within Miami’s organization keeping up with Hassan Whiteside before the team signed the big man in November, notes Chris Mannix of SI.com.
If the Magic had managed just five more wins during the first half of the season, it’s likely that coach Jacque Vaughn‘s job wouldn’t be in jeopardy, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel writes. Schmitz speculates that if Orlando had 20 wins, the franchise would be in the playoff hunt in the weaker Eastern Conference, and Vaughn’s employment situation would have been more stable as a result.

Magic Close To Firing Jacque Vaughn

February 4th, 2015 at 6:09pm CST by Eddie Scarito

FEBRUARY 5TH: Vaughn’s firing is imminent, league sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Magic have called a mandatory team meeting for this afternoon, leading to speculation that the players will be informed then that Vaughn has been fired, as Chris Broussard hears (Twitter link).

2:50pm: Mark Jackson is also among the “names to watch” should the Magic replace Vaughn, Broussard tweets.

9:44am: Orlando’s front office has already decided to fire Vaughn and is simply determining when to go through with the move, a source tells Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. That echoes the “when” but not “if” sentiment that Wojnarowski heard. No move will happen before the Magic’s game against the Mavs on Saturday, Wojnarowski writes in an updated version of his story. A replacement for Vaughn would likely come from among his assistant coaches, but several executives from around the league have speculated that Scott Skiles will emerge as a favorite for the job, according to Broussard.

JANUARY 30TH, 7:50am: The Magic are close to firing Vaughn, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who hears from a source close to the decision-making process that it’s a question of “when,” not “if.” Orlando has been hesitant to make the move to this point in part because of the lack of a candidate on the coaching staff whom the Magic can promote in Vaughn’s place, Wojnarowski also hears.

JANUARY 29TH, 11:01pm: Magic team management is “not at all happy” with the job performance of coach Jacque Vaughn, Brian K. Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel reports (Twitter link). A team source told Schmitz, “We won’t settle for this,” when discussing the franchise’s recent play. Orlando hasn’t ruled out making an in-season coaching change, Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel tweets.

Vaughn’s job security has been the topic of discussion this past month, and when Robbins asked GM Rob Hennigan recently if Vaughn’s job was safe for the remainder of the season, Hennigan was non-committal in his response. “Look, we’re clearly in a rut and we need to find our way out of it together,” Hennigan said. “The buck starts and stops with me. I’m responsible for the team and its performance, plain and simple. I’m constantly evaluating myself and ways in which I can do a better job for our team, and that will continue to be the case, and I’ll continue to make sure I’m evaluating every inch of the organization. It’s my job to make sure that we’re constantly evaluating every aspect of the organization from top to bottom. So, to your question, I’d say that everyone and everything is being evaluated right now. I wouldn’t be doing my job if that weren’t the case. I’ll also say that there’s not one isolated problem or issue and that we need to collectively be part of generating the solution.”

Orlando has lost seven straight games, and the team’s overall record of 15-34 has the franchise five and a half games out of the final Eastern Conference playoff slot. What primarily has Vaughn’s job in jeopardy is his squad’s performance against teams in the Magic’s talent class, Schmitz writes. The team’s front office has also been told by various insiders around the league, even one Western Conference coach, that the club has better talent than its current record, Schmitz adds. Vaughn had said recently that he wasn’t concerned about his job.

Vaughn is in his third season with the team as coach, and he has a career record of 58-152. The franchise had picked up Vaughn’s 2015/16 team option last May, despite two consecutive last place finishes in the Southeast Division. To make Vaughn’s task this season more complicated, the team began the campaign having to integrate eight new players into the fold, and had to endure injuries to Channing Frye and Victor Oladipo. With Orlando playing in the weaker Eastern Conference, team management believes that a coaching change could help the franchise compete for a playoff spot this season, Schmitz notes.

Southeast Notes: Ferry, Vaughn, Whiteside

January 31st, 2015 at 8:56am CST by Eddie Scarito

Hawks GM Danny Ferry is largely responsible for Atlanta’s success this season, but there is almost zero chance of him returning from his leave of absence to the team that he built, Paul Newberry of The Associated Press writes. A number of the Hawks’ current players believe that Ferry deserves a second chance, and some of them applaud the way Ferry rebuilt the club without allowing the franchise to fall to the bottom of the standings while doing it, Newberry notes. “He did it a totally different way,” Hawks forward Kyle Korver said. “I think there’s a whole lot of owners who would rather do it that way, rather than lose for five years and hope their draft picks turn out at the end of the day. Danny is going to have another job. There’s not any doubt about that.“

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

The Magic‘s front office had better hope that coach Jacque Vaughn is the reason that the franchise isn’t performing up to expectations if it fires him, Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel writes. If bringing in a new coach doesn’t improve matters quickly, then GM Rob Hennigan‘s job will be in jeopardy, Bianchi adds, since Hennigan is the architect of the Magic’s underachieving roster.
Hassan Whiteside has been filling up stat sheets for the Heat this season, but the big man’s chance to shine in the NBA has been a long time coming, Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) writes in his profile of the player. Whiteside, who is scheduled to earn just $981,348 next season, has quickly become one of the biggest player bargains in the league, Haberstroh opines.
With Vaughn’s job as Magic coach in serious peril, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel runs down a number of the team’s options for hiring his replacement. Coaches who could be promoted on an interim basis are Orlando assistant coaches Wes Unseld Jr. and James Borrego. The candidates whom Schmitz speculates the team will consider as long-term solutions include George Karl, Scott Skiles, Tyronn Lue, Michael Curry, and Mark Jackson.

Eastern Notes: Vaughn, Pistons, Bucks, Knicks

January 30th, 2015 at 1:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Magic believed as recently as a month ago that youth and inexperience were to blame for the team’s struggles, but it’s no longer that the Magic are losing that troubles club officials; it’s how they’re losing, writes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Still, Jacque Vaughn remains unmoved amid reports he’s close to losing his job.

“I do my job every day,” Vaughn said today. “I don’t abide by the tyranny of other people’s attitudes and moods. I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll.”

There’s more on the Magic amid the latest around the Eastern Conference:

The Pistons view a trade as their preferred method to find a point guard to compensate for the loss of the injured Brandon Jennings, tweets David Mayo of MLive. Signing a D-Leaguer is Plan B, Mayo adds. Stan Van Gundy is now saying Monday is the earliest day the team would make any such move as he keeps pushing back the timeline, Mayo notes.
Coach Jason Kidd has offered Kenyon Martin a chance to remain with the Bucks for next year as an assistant coach, a source tells David Alarcón of HoopsHype (Twitter link; translation via HoopsHype). Martin signed a deal Thursday that keeps him with Milwaukee as a player through the end of the season.
Some of the Magic‘s veteran acquisitions from this past offseason began questioning the on-court decision-making, and the doubt spread to some of Orlando’s younger players as the team failed to gain confidence in Vaughn, writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Vaughn didn’t earn his team’s trust, Kyler believes, but the Magic nonetheless dealt the coach a losing hand, as Kyler also opines.
The Knicks have sent Cleanthony Early to the D-League, the team announced. The assignment is to allow the rookie to work on his conditioning following knee surgery, but he’s expected back with the big club by Sunday, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post (Twitter links).
The Celtics recalled Andre Dawkins from the D-League on Thursday only to quickly send him down again, the team announced in a pair of tweets. The team brought the 10-day signee up to Boston merely for a practice, as Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com details.

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