| Brian Hill Review Authored by Alessandro Martini - June 2, 2007 - 7:33 pm
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During the week of May 24, 2007 the Orlando Magic brass announced (more like "confirmed") that Brian Hill, head coach at the time, was relieved of his duties. That decision puts an end, officially, to his second stint with the club, after the much talked about first and, mostly, successful run in the mid nineties. Let's look at the events in the correct timeline...
Brian Hill literally popped up as the unlikely saviour after another disappointing season came to an end in 2004-2005 with two coaches (Johnny Davis and Chris Jent) taking the reigns during that year and a rookie General Manager (John Weisbrod) failing miserably and leaving his place after the T-mac fiasco. As the '05 season was coming to a close, the Orlando Magic management choose to look at their history once again and offered Brian Hill (who was fired in 1997 by the same club) a head coaching job.
Welcome Back?
Obviously, he rised to the occasion, enforcing a defensive mindset from the start while trying to keep egos in check, Steve Francis' included. The '05/06 season started with mediocre-to-good expectations but nothing out of the ordinary. After all, the fanbase was still recovering from a terrible 21-61 season and another 36-46 record, and completely fell for the "remembering the past" punchline. If Brian Hill had been able to reach the finals once, he would do it twice right? Probably not, since Shaq and Penny were (and are) either too old or playing somewhere else.
As the losses started to pile on, the team reached another Trade Deadline in the early weeks of 2006 with the ex Steve "Franchise" ready to pack his bags (main reason: coaching, playing style and other personal stuff) while the team was still bouncing in and out the win/loss columns, showing no sign of real improvement record-wise. In fact, to revitalize the falling postseason hopes, rookie co-GM Otis Smith pulled the trigger on a trade that would kick his career into high gear. He was able to send guard Steve Francis to the New York Knicks and backup center Kelvin Cato to Detroit, getting three players in return: forwards Trevor Ariza and Darko Milicic with guard Carlos Arroyo.
It was a gamble, but it payed off immediately (after a couple weeks of adjustments) as the three newest pieces started to deliver. No doubt Darko Milicic was the media darling in Magicland, because he rarely got playing time under Larry Brown in Detroit and he was picked before Carmelo Anthony (and other stars) in the 2003 draft. While Darko still has something to prove to the critics, his Orlando "comeback" brought life to his NBA career and showed everyone the player's abilities, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
Everything really looked on the way up just 365 days ago. The Magic narrowly missed the postseason but racked up the wins against top tiered opponents, beating them with a combination of talent, athleticism and, yes, smart decision-making on the floor. A mediocre record (the same 36-46 of the previous year) notwithstanding, the fanbase was excited about the "new" players and the team's progress. At the time, coaching didn't seem much of a problem: no doubt Brian Hill wasn't the perfect example of a "perfect" NBA coach, but his faults were somewhat hidden by last season's hot finish.
Hot Start, Cold Finish
A stagnant offseason (Keith Bogans signed, DeShawn Stevenson let go) was the perfect prelude to one of the most disappointing years the Magic have seen for a long time. If the inflated expectations weren't enough, a hot start launched the team at the top of their division (and, for a few days, conference too) giving some fans the right to dream about an unlikely sweep of the East and championship run in the playoffs.
The Magic were really doing great at the season's start, but if you looked behind the record, a lot of issues started to show. Namely: turnovers, a stagnant offense and the complete absensce of adjustments during games from -you guessed right- the coaching staff. An early couple of bad losses to Atlanta and Memphis sounded the alarm, but the good record was able to silence the criticts for the best part of november and into december, when things really started to go downhill.
Once again, any observer could find the issues as clearly as a light in complete dark: bad rotations, the wrong starting lineup put on the floor, complete lack of adjustments by the coaches: most opponents had the Magic completely figured out by halftime, they just needed to continue executing their plan because Orlando would never try something new. While Darko Milicic's consistency was an issue, his lack of playing time had many fans roll their eyes, while a college star like JJ Redick was left on the bench almost all year long.
When 2007 came around the team fell into a seemingly never ending slump that dropped the Orlando Magic (again) under .500 and dangerously near another early offseason. After the All-Star Break, save for a couple of good games, the team was looking completely out of place on the court, almost every night. Some players even got worse in the process: in fact almost the entire backcourt was to blame, starting from the point guard Jameer Nelson with the only exception of Keyon Dooling and Trevor Ariza, "energy guys" who pretty much came to play all year long.
Again, we (as fans) saw absolutely no adjustment from the coach: every night, every loss, was the result of the same exact lineup put on the floor, the same substitution patterns in late game situations, the same comments in post-game interviews. The entire process, watching the team sink lower and lower everyday, was too frustrating to bear and some fans even went as far as launching an Internet site, firebrianhill.org, that ultimately proved successful. Most people in managament or with ties to the Magic organization know RealGM and his boards very well, and it was going to show sooner or later.
Playoff(DIS)Appearance
By complete luck and a long stretch of coincidences (the East getting even worse this year helped a lot), the Orlando Magic finally came back in the Playoffs, as the eight seed in the Eastern Conference, still with a losing record of 40 wins and 42 losses. In fact they were the worst team in the NBA Playoffs, ready to be blown out by one of the best teams in the entire league. Their first round opponent was Detroit, an ultra-veteran team that immediately exposed all the coaching deficiencies Orlando (and its fans) had seen for months.
With the same lack of adjustments from the bench, the series closed in the fastest possible way with a 0-4 sweep that effectively shut the door on Brian Hill's coaching career, with the team showing up in only one game (the last, however ironic that sounds). Nobody expected Detroit to lose but the complete abscence of a gameplan and the same errors repeated over and over gave the coaching situation its true name: failure.
While the fans' voice on the matter was louder than ever on and off the Internet, the Magic management finally gave in and announced Brian Hill's position was under scrutiny. Three weeks later, he's about to leave, or get "promoted" into another role with the same organization, a move that probably will only help the team save its face with the media.
Living In The Past
In Hill's defense, under his tenure the Orlando Magic learned to play tough "D" on most opponents and limit their opportunities no matter the skill differences. On good nights, it was almost surprising to see all players put a hand in the face of their man, jump to contest a shot and always be ready to go back on defense. Many longtime fans still remember how bad the defense situation was in Orlando just two years ago, with absolutely no "D" whatsoever, and a complete lack of effort from veterans and rookies alike.
This wasn't enough, however, to establish a succesful system because the Magic have rarely shown any kind of offense and scoring ability for the best part of two seasons. Brian Hill enforced (especially this year) a slow tempo, grind it out style that ultimately brought the Magic to a standstill. Coupled with the lack of roster adjustments, his game plan looked like a complete failure before the ball went up. Everybody, other teams included, knew the Magic were really lacking support from the bench, yet no real changes happened.
Looking back at the last two years, every one of the parts involved has learned another lesson: rarely do business decisions work when they are based on emotions. That mid '90s run was great for the Orlando Magic but you can't turn back time, in basketball and in real life. As new opportunities open up for the coaching spot and the team, we finally need to put our '95 Finals run behind us, look at the future with hope and leave the past where it belongs. In history books.
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