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Guy did a fantastic job. Especially in the 2nd half. We’re finishing at least .500 and may seed as high as 6th in the East.

This is not the 6th best roster in this division.

Looks like we have a keeper.

He's done a phenomenal job!


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Incredibly proud of our boys. Congrats team, you deserve this!

By the way, I am not delusional or anything, I know we’re winning the championship.

He won't win COTY, but for my money, I don't think any other coach achieved a more difficult task than he did. Turning this group into a "tough" (I still use quotes, cause we're not exactly the 04 Pistons) team that made the playoffs truly was a herculean task.

FFBlitzace wrote:He won't win COTY, but for my money, I don't think any other coach achieved a more difficult task than he did. Turning this group into a "tough" (I still use quotes, cause we're not exactly the 04 Pistons) team that made the playoffs truly was a herculean task.

Absolutely COTY worthy. I was down on the hire but damn he shut me up. Cliff and SVG are easily cemented as all time great coaches in our franchise history after this season. We were projected to be bottom 3 in the east by most accounts

I think Coach Clifford absolutely is coach of the year. But Budenholzer wins it. But Cliff taking the Magic to the playoffs and a division title should be acknowledged.

I wouldn’t be shocked if he won COTY

Excellent coaching job by Clifford. He deserves all the praise that comes his way. 16 game improvement with minimal changes in the roster speaks for itself.

Was so down on the hiring when it was made, but the guy was amazing for us this year

BlueBalls wrote:I wouldn’t be shocked if he won COTY

As good as he did this year, coach of the year doesnt usually go to a coach who won 41-42 games, infact, in the past 15 years, the lowest win total COTY was 47 by Sam Mitchell in 2007, hell even in the shorten season Pop won it after winning 50 games

BUT, the last person to win it after only winning 41 games........2000, Doc Rivers.....With the Orlando Magic

I'm not sure if it's Clifford being this good or if the previous coaches were just that bad (they were pretty bad!), but he got these players playing together and at a level they have never played before. You can't fault him on much this season. He's done a great job.

If you happen to read this and are ever in my city Steve, let me know and i'll hook you up!

Clifford is a staunch believer in the Four Factors (Shooting, Turnovers, Rebounding, Free Throws) and it showed up in spades this year with the Magic.

1st in Opponents 2nd Chance Points
3rd in Opponents Points Off Turnovers
5th in Opponents FT Rate
8th in Opponents Points in the Paint
9th in Opponents Fastbreak Points

The Magic just very rarely give up easy points. Opponents get very little on the offensive glass, very little in transition and very little at the FT line.

If a team is going to beat Orlando, they gotta do it with repeated execution in their halfcourt offense.

I wanted Nurse, but now i think Clifford is better at establishing system. We had a special coaching group during SVG years and now we brought back this gem of a coach i am so happy.

maybe it's the contrast against vogel, but he does definitely seem like a top coach in the league right now.

man, more i remember vogel, more i get furious. this guy's idea of coaching was turning the team into only thing he knew how to coach in indiana. magic was the polar opposite of pacers in terms of roster, but he tried to imitate pacers anyway with no regards for logic. i have no idea why he had the blank check he had, but hennigan bent over to his every whim. team is strong on the wings? trade dipo for ibaka, i want twin towers. our best player is an offensive center? i don't care, get me a pogo stick for double the price. our forward is offensively developing? he is the new paul george anyway, he better handle it.

compare this with clifford. he came and he didn't even have the skiles-era, promising young roster we had. he overtaken the wounded roster hennigan and vogel crafted, and miraculously came up with a winning formula within that. he immediately started creating one to one relationships with everyone. he took what we have gave everyone roles that they can flourish in. just think about it; best season of vuc's career, best season of dj's career, best season of ross's career, best season of gordon's career, best season of isaac's young career, and he managed to got fournier to join them before the season finished as well. we all know he'll get robbed for the coach of the year, but i think he's proven he belongs to small subset of elite coaches with this season's performance.

Another plus/Cheers for Cliff.
Also, not sure if we had a new training staff this year?
Got to love the health and management of this team.
look at these numbers:
Games Played
Vuc 80 games
AG 77
Evan 80
DJ 80
J.I. 75
Ross 80

Minutes avg:
AG lead with only 33.8 mpg
The ONLY Magic player in the top 50 in minutes played.
If he averaged 3 minutes more a game, to put him in the top 5, over the 77 games he played, that would be equal to almost 5 (4.8) complete games! 3 extra min x 77 games played =231 total min. divided by 48 = 4.8 extra games NOT played.

Bradley Beal lead the league in minutes played, he played 411 more minutes this year than AG. Crazy...

Great job! Probably won't win COY, but he did a great job with the same group.

Pretty fair assessment IMO. Drilling on those four factor elements as hard as Clifford does can actually provide some level of consistency in the regular season since they're more of a mentality and effort based thing than a skill thing.

He's been the biggest difference maker. Everything that was said about him was true, he turned the Magic into an elite rebounding and defensive team, and just good enough on offense to be a threat.

I think if you look at quality of rosters, this has to be the best coaching season in Magic history. Maybe Doc Rivers in the heart and hustle season would be the only competition.

I am upset because we are not tanking. I really had 5 more years of tanking in my system. He should be fired tomorrow.