Orlando Magic name Scott Skiles as the new coach
The Orlando Magic have announced Scott Skiles is their new coach.
By
Zach Harper
•
4 min read
It's been over 20 years since Scott Skiles was a member of the Orlando Magic organization as their point guard from 1989 to 1994. After two decades being away from the team, he'll go from being their coach on the floor as a member of the roster to being the new coach of the Magic.
The team announced on Friday they've hired Skiles to be the 12th coach in team history, as he tries to bring them back to the NBA Playoffs. It's been three years since the organization was last led to the playoffs in the East. Since then, they've been rebuilding in an era without Dwight Howard nor Stan Van Gundy. General manager Rob Hennigan said in the press release that Skiles "distinguished himself as a tremendous fit." From the Magic:
The Orlando Magic have named Scott Skiles head coach, General Manager Rob Hennigan announced today. Skiles becomes the 12thhead coach in franchise history.
Skiles, 51, has an overall NBA regular season record of 443-433 (.506) as head coach with Phoenix, Chicago and Milwaukee. During his 13 seasons as a head coach, his teams have reached the NBA Playoffs six times.
“Scott (Skiles) clearly distinguished himself as a tremendous fit,” said Hennigan. “Our young roster will benefit greatly from Scott’s extensive head coaching experience and commitment to teaching smart, physical, unselfish basketball. We believe in Scott’s ability to establish a culture of winning habits and accountability that will help guide our team in a positive direction.”
“As we began our search, our internal discussions centered on finding a head coach with a solid resume of NBA head coaching experience, great leadership qualities, a motivating communication style, and someone with a strong strategic acumen,” said Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins. “We feel Scott (Skiles) brings a balanced approach in all those qualities and we look forward, with great confidence, to him leading our young men in helping us reach our collective goal of sustainable success.”
Skiles has a career coaching record of 443-433 after stops in Phoenix, Chicago, and most recently Milwaukee. He has a reputation of being a successful coach that can help his teams become much better defensively. However, he eventually wears out his welcome with his players through a grueling and overbearing style of coaching that can wear thin. And once you lose your players, it's easy to make the call to replace the coach and hope to build off of what Skiles has helped build there.
His time with the Suns lasted 2.5 seasons with the Suns posing the second and third best defensive ratings, respectively, in his first two seasons. His first season there saw him take over for Danny Ainge after 20 games and go 40-22 under Skiles. They dropped to 12th defensively in his third season and he was fired after the Suns started out 25-26. His record of 116-79 was his best coaching stint in terms of record and the Suns made the playoffs in the first two years.
In Chicago, Skiles took over after Bill Cartwright lasted 14 games and Pete Meyers filled in for two games. But the team was still abysmal in 2003-2004 as Skiles tried to implement his style and system on the fly. They went just 19-47 under him to finish out the year. In his first full three seasons as the Bulls' coach, they were a top defense each year and made the playoffs in each of those three years. By his fifth season in Chicago, the voice was no longer getting through and he was infamously fired on Christmas Eve in 2007 after a 9-16 start. The Bulls were 165-172 under Skiles.
His latest stint was coaching the Bucks, where the same pattern played out for him once again. This time, he lasted 32 games into his fifth season with the Bucks before it was time for another coaching change. They were 15th in the NBA in defensive rating his first season before being a top 4 team in the two seasons after that. The Bucks dropped to 16th in his fourth season and he was fired the year after. The Bucks went 162-182 under Skiles, making the playoffs just once.
Since Orlando traded away Dwight Howard, they've been rebuilding their roster through the draft and trades. In 2.5 seasons under Jacque Vaughn, Orlando went just 58-158 before James Borreggo took over for the final 30 games last season. With young players like Victor Oladipo, Nikola Vucevic, Elfrid Payton, and Aaron Gordon locked in as the core, the Magic have the potential to be a dynamic rebounding and defensive team. This fits perfectly with Skiles' style of play.
We just have to see how long he can install and perfect his style of play before the players possibly begin to tune him out. That is unless he's modified his coaching style to adapt after his previous three coaching stints.
