Cliff would get home court advantage in the playoffs with this roster.

[The-Stallion70]

Clifford coached the Magic to a top ten defense with Vucevic, DJ Augustin, Fournier and Ross playing big roles. I am just imagining the kind of results he could get with the athletes we currently have on this team.

Vucevic and Co. Could execute his defensive scheme well. I don't think there's ant reason to believe our current guys couldn't do it.

[fendilim]

Lmao

[Rainwater]

No, lol.

[MasterGMer]

Really...

[shadrock]

No ill tell you what Cliff would do. He would be starting Gary Harris, Moe Wagner, Carter-Williams, Chuma and Franz, and would grind them the whole way to 28 wins. Meanwhile nobody develops and fans want to rip their eyeballs out.

[Knightro]

The one year under Clifford where the Magic had a top 10 defense, Jonathan Isaac played 75 games and Aaron Gordon played 78 games. Those two were both very good defenders at the 3 and 4.

Plus the Magic that year were DEEP into Clifford's Four Factors preaching.

-They were top 5 in defensive rebounding - very few second chance points allowed
-They were top 5 in fewest turnovers - very few fastbreak points allowed
-They were top 5 in fewest fouls - very few free/easy points given up

But even just five years ago the NBA was still far less offensively crazed than it is now. Back then an average NBA game had a shade over 222 points scored per night. Now it's nearly 229 a night. You could get away with focusing more heavily on the Four Factors stuff (and even 5 years ago it had a very limited upside) because the shotmaking just wasn't as good.

[rusoopE]

Clifford reputation is he doesn't play the young guys... He gave bamba a lot of playing until realized he was garbage. Steve is a great coach who primary objective is winning and put in guys who deserves it. It's questionable the idea of "if he doesnt play he will never improve" look at Houston is green and co. Improving ATM?. Playing time is just a fraction of improvement. I'm not saying he is the best coach developing young guys. I don't know that. But the question is if Clifford is coaching this exact team would it have a better record than under Mosley? I bet yes.
Mosley was hired to be a development and players coach, maybe it's the best option atm, but when it's time to compete I think he gonna be replaced

[Skybox]

Please lock this

[basketballRob]

I could see Clifford playing Moe Wagner over Paolo and Bol.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[Def Swami]

The team would have quit on Clifford back in February.

[Max Power]

I’m a fan of Clifford, but I don’t think this team would be much better than it is now in all honesty if he coached the current roster. One, this is a young team who’s still mistake prone no matter who coaches it. I think they’d be a strong defensive team like this squad, but I think they’d struggle offensively even more on Clifford’s offensive plan. The major things I see would be they’d be a better rebounding team, because this squad could stand to improve there, and I think Bol Bols mistakes would make him garbage time fodder under Clifford.

[Magic#1]

We are not trying to win a championship this year. We are not even trying for a playoff run. We are in year one of having a new centerpiece. Huge jumps rarely happen and this team still needs more talent. We have one player who has the ceiling to be a top 8-10 player (Paolo) and potentially another all-star (Franz) plus some really solid players who are improving or very solid (WCJ, Suggs, Fultz, Anthony). But this team isn't ready to contend yet. A year from now, let's hope we're in the play-in range or somewhere around where Miami/Brooklyn currently is. I'm very satisfied with the development of this team and we can see were on the right path. But you don't jump from bottom five to top 8 team unless you already had elite talent that is developed.

[TheChaser]

Mid summer in Wellington hot take.

[The-Stallion70]

This idea that Cliff wouldn't play the young guys is ludicrous and unfounded.

Last night the Magic gave up 70 points in the first half to the Bucks without Giannis or Holiday. Cliff could surely get the team to play better defense.

[RookieStar]

Yes its true... i believe it.

Unfortunately, our starting SF would be Bacon and Franz would be on the bench...

[AaronB]

Cliff has a team with a significantly better guard rotation than ours and they are a 21-win team right now.

Their best defensive player by a wide margin is a rookie (Williams) and he averages 17 minutes per game.

No thanks.

[pepe1991]

The one year under Clifford where the Magic had a top 10 defense, Jonathan Isaac played 75 games and Aaron Gordon played 78 games. Those two were both very good defenders at the 3 and 4.

Plus the Magic that year were DEEP into Clifford's Four Factors preaching.

-They were top 5 in defensive rebounding - very few second chance points allowed
-They were top 5 in fewest turnovers - very few fastbreak points allowed
-They were top 5 in fewest fouls - very few free/easy points given up

But even just five years ago the NBA was still far less offensively crazed than it is now. Back then an average NBA game had a shade over 222 points scored per night. Now it's nearly 229 a night. You could get away with focusing more heavily on the Four Factors stuff (and even 5 years ago it had a very limited upside) because the shotmaking just wasn't as good.

in other year when Magic playoffs, he also had 10th best defense. With Isaac missing half of a season and Gordon missing on 11 games.
With DJ Augustin, Fultz, Clarke, Iwundu, Birch starting at times

[pepe1991]

Hornets are tanking.

But in same time their injury list this year is Magic 2021-22 level.

Ball missed 31 out of 67 games
Oubre and Hayward missed 25 & 26 games each
Rozier missed 11.

Some of it is probably stelth tanking. Mid season they gave up Plumlee.

Would Magic record look different with him? I don't know. I would bet my house that if he stayed, Bamba would have been gone 2 years ago.

[pepe1991]

The team would have quit on Clifford back in February.

I don't think so. This team could be coached by worst coach in nba history and still not "quit". Those players are way too young to act that cocky and would be instructed by their agents to at least pretend to be good soldiers.
PR is important ( wink wink, look at Morant fiasco as guy who was viewed by some as future face of a league ).

[Knightro]

in other year when Magic playoffs, he also had 10th best defense. With Isaac missing half of a season and Gordon missing on 11 games.
With DJ Augustin, Fultz, Clarke, Iwundu, Birch starting at times

Technically they were 11th