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"The Orlando Magic let the wrong guy walk; they should have chosen head coach Scott Skiles over general manager Rob Hennigan!!!"

This has been a prevalent, passionate refrain from many Magic fans in the wake of Skiles' shocking resignation this past week after only one season on the job.

MagicStarwipe wrote:I see purpleswordfish has already voted lol.

OrlandoDream wrote:Did he really write this?

.....

This way of thinking is both understandable … and irrational. First of all, there's no evidence Skiles ever demanded it was either him or Hennigan. Secondly, if Skiles ever did give the Magic such an ultimatum, then management made the right choice by choosing Hennigan.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly no fan of Hennigan's style, his public persona or the preferred path he has chosen to rebuild the team. Hennigan is boring and distant and has the personality of a supermarket sea trout, which is fine if you're winning but not when the team you have put together has an abysmal four-year record of 103-225.

Still, if it actually came down to a choice between Hennigan and Skiles, the Magic had to choose Hennigan. You simply don't blow up the last four years of Hennigan's plan and turn the entire franchise over to a coach as unpredictable and unreliable as Skiles.

Let's not forget the Magic rescued Skiles from the scrap heap last year and gave their former player a job when nobody else would. Skiles repaid them this week by quitting on the Magic just like he quit on Milwaukee. Sorry, but Skiles hasn't won enough games or earned enough trust to be given the keys to the franchise.

This isn't Gregg Popovich we're talking about or Doc Rivers or even Stan Van Gundy — three coaches who have earned the right to have control over personnel. This is Scott Skiles — a losing coach who has bailed on two different franchises.

That said, the Magic's vapid GM has one more year to turn his team into a winner or he will go from Hennigan to Hennigone. I asked Magic CEO Alex Martins earlier this week about how long Hennigan's leash is, and Martins didn't exactly give Hennigan a resounding endorsement. In fact, he sounded particularly perturbed that the Magic have been through two head coaches and one interim coach in the four years since Hennigan took over.

"Everybody's accountable," Martins said. "We are at an important junction in our rebuild. It's time to take that next step. It's time to go from building through youth and improving our young players to adding veteran leadership through free agency. And it's time to get the coaching decision right!"

The problem with judging Hennigan is that you can't point to one personnel move and say, "Man, he really blew that one." Of the four teams involved in the Dwight Howard deal, Hennigan — in his first few weeks on the job — got the best of the trade. The Magic ended up with a good, young center in Nik Vucevic and a bevy of draft picks.

It's also hard to second-guess Hennigan's draft picks except to say he's been unlucky with where the Magic have drafted. In 2013, he chose Victor Oladipo at No. 2 — the best player available in a weak draft. In 2014, the Magic were relegated to fourth in a three-man draft and ended up choosing Aaron Gordon and making a trade for No. 10 pick Elfrid Payton. Last year they chose Mario Hezonja fifth.

You can't yet say any of these draft picks have been a bust. If you want to walk on the sunny side of the street, then don't forget that the defending champion Golden State Warriors had three straight losing seasons after drafting Steph Curry. And the Oklahoma City Thunder had 121 losses in the two years after they drafted Kevin Durant.

Despite not making the playoffs in the three years he's been in the league, Oladipo told me he believes he will still develop into a superstar.

"Definitely," Oladipo said. "I truly believe that. Everybody's path [to stardom] is different."

The problem is the Magic's path under its current GM has been littered with too many losses, too much arrogance and not enough coaching stability.

It's time for Rob Hennigan to finally get it right.

thelead wrote:

OrlandoDream wrote:Did he really write this?

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-mike-bianchi-orlando-magic-0515-20160514-column.html

Bensational wrote:The Orlando media is absolute trash when it comes to covering the team. No insight, no personality, no clue.

But since it seems like there are just a lot of fair weather fans, there's no incentive for media outlets to establish anything of a higher caliber. There's just no market interest for it.

OrlandO wrote:I just read the full article... the opening line was awful, but I think he wrote it just so he could shoot it down and say siding with hennigan was the right choice. The rest of the article is actually pretty decent, not his usual troll stuff.

snip

thelead wrote:

OrlandO wrote:I just read the full article... the opening line was awful, but I think he wrote it just so he could shoot it down and say siding with hennigan was the right choice. The rest of the article is actually pretty decent, not his usual troll stuff.

snip

Regardless of the rest of the article, there is no way that his first sentence is the PREVALENT thought from magic fans on this matter.

Mind you, Magic fan =/= Person who loves to get drunk and socialize at the Amway Center.

OrlandO wrote:Let's see.... on one hand we got a guy who didn't believe in his young players and actually quit on them... and on the other hand we have a guy who acquired all these players and fully believes in them. I know who I'm picking.

OrlandO wrote:I just read the full article... the opening line was awful, but I think he wrote it just so he could shoot it down and say siding with hennigan was the right choice. The rest of the article is actually pretty decent, not his usual troll stuff...

Skin wrote:What can we do to get Adam the Greek high up the food chain?