By Dan Savage
May 23, 2016
ORLANDO – Frank Vogel tipped off his introductory press tour on Monday by paying a visit to one of the most popular shows on the national media circuit.
The 13th head coach in Orlando Magic history hopped on ESPN’s Mike and Mike to talk about his new gig, the NBA playoffs and his time in Indiana.
Take a look at the topics they touched on below and don’t forget to tune in to his press conference at 1 p.m. ET on OrlandoMagic.com as well as on FOX Sports Florida.
M&M: Most of the discussion here is about whether or not Draymond Green is going to wind up getting suspended. So, when you’re a coach and one of your own players, and you had it I remember with Lance Stephenson a few times in Indiana, is in one of these where the NBA is potentially going to be handing down some discipline, what is the role of a coach in a circumstance like that?
FV: I think you do talk to the league office and try to state your case, maybe do it publicly like coach (Steve) Kerr did when he was asked about it. But I think a play like that, physically, offensive players will flail a lot. You see it with Kobe Bryant, Lance Stephenson you mentioned on my team, those guys are agitators and they’re physical type of players. I don’t think Draymond was trying to bring this kind of controversy in a split second like that. For a coach you just try to stand up for your guy.
M&M: Is that was you’re trying to do today … Everybody gets on the same page if you have to talk to the league?
FV: I don’t think it’s even really that deep. I think what coach Kerr said in the media is one thing. You probably may make a phone call just to state your case. But I don’t think it goes into long debates or anything like that. The league is going to do what they feel is best, regardless of what you’re saying and you just try and stand up for your guy.
M&M: What are you seeing from OKC here?
FV: Those two guys (Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook), and their whole team really, is on a mission. They understand the challenge that’s before them with Golden State having the best regular season record in the history of the game. They know they’re going to have to reach an elite level to beat them and they’re reaching that so far. It’s going to be about, can you sustain it for four victories and persevere to get through this series.
M&M: So from Toronto’s side talk about those guards who are shooting better, but what they need to continue to do or do an even better job of to be in this series.
FV: Well I think for Toronto, what hurt us the most is when they were balanced. Those two guards, their All-Star guards, are going to be great. They’re going to have their off nights, but typically going to bring their scoring punch and everything they bring to the table. With Toronto, what was so successful this year in winning 56 games and earning that two seed was with their depth. Their bench, their role players, their two centers. They’re missing (Jonas) Valanciunas, but (Bismack) Biyombo has been huge for them. Cory Joseph, Norman Powell, Terrence Ross, Demarre Carroll, role players rising to the challenge. It’s really a big part of their success this year and that’s what it’s going to take to try and unseat the Cavs.
M&M: I was positive you were going to get that one year and it was going to be Mike and Mike and Frank. We had a seat ready for you here and everything was all set, but you had your opportunities. Tell us what made you decide Orlando was the right place for you?
FV: There is that option as a coach when you’ve been in this grind for such a long time. The opportunity to take a year off and spend it with family is appealing, especially if you have the opportunity to be on Mike and Mike and Frank (laughs). That would have been a very attractive situation prior to this move. Kidding.
M&M: It would have been a very good show. You’ll never know what a big deal we could have been. But all right, go ahead.
FV: The Orlando Magic is a great organization. I wasn’t just going to take any job. I wanted to find the right landing spot for my family and I wanted to put myself in a position where I thought we could compete for a championship. This group isn’t there right now, but they have a great young core. Their roster is really strong and deep and to me they’re at the right stage of development in building a winner. They’ve gone through a lot of the growing pains with some of the young players in their first and second years and they’ve got those behind them. So I feel like their best days are before them. I feel like I had a great connection with their front office when I met with them and had conversations with them. And they’ve got a great ownership group. In terms of my family, obviously telling my daughters and my family that I was moving down to Disney World was something that was attractive to me. My wife and I are from the East Coast, but my daughters were raised in the Midwest. The market size of Orlando is comparable to Indiana. And I just felt like all of those factors led for me to believe that this is a great landing spot for me.
M&M: With the Pacers, did it completely catch you off guard? Were you completely surprised by this?
FV: Not entirely. I was a little bit surprised. I had felt like we had gotten through, sort of a transition period with our franchise, with the Pacers. From the standpoint of Paul George missing the entire year with the injury and knowing his first year back was still going to be an adjustment period for him and Myles Turner being his rookie year and changing our style of play, we felt like it was going to be a transition year. I felt like we managed it pretty well and made a good run at Toronto as a seventh seed. But at the end of the day, you don’t know what the direction of the franchise is going to be. I was in the last year of my contract, so all year I did have the understanding that this could happen. You have to respect Larry Bird and the Pacers franchise for making a tough call, but doing what they feel is right.
M&M: We were a little taken aback, when Larry Bird said, basically the shelf life of a coach, I’m paraphrasing now, is three years in the NBA. We know that’s how long he coached in Indiana. Did he say that to you?
FV: He didn’t say three years, but he did say that at a certain point in time changing the voice of the head coach is good for an organization. He felt like this was the right time for the Pacers. It’s natural, it’s not anything that’s really indicting of me or the job that I did, but he has always felt that that type of change can be good for a franchise. Again, Larry’s been terrific to me, gave me the opportunity of a lifetime six years ago. The Simon family was wonderful to me. I have nothing but positive feelings about the Pacers.
M&M: There was a feeling around the league anyway, that he wanted to play a more up-tempo offensive style and perhaps he felt like that isn’t what you wanted to coach. Did you ever talk to him about the style you were playing, the changes he was interested in making, was that part of the discussion?
FV: No, that’s a misconception about this whole deal. Larry and I have been very well aligned all the way through these six years, including the decision to try and play faster and smaller. This is not something I was resistant to. It’s a style of play that I am going to try and implement with the Orlando Magic. We’re going to try and get up and down and run the floor. There was a lot made when this all came out about Larry vs. Frank and their differences, but really throughout the whole process we were very well aligned. It was just a matter of a feeling that a change in the voice of the head coach could give the franchise a boost. It wasn’t about a difference of opinion or a difference in philosophy; it was really just about change.
M&M: What do you take to your next job? Are there things that you’ll change in this job?
FV: I think that every team is different. When you have your roster set up different ways, you really just have to examine the roster, find out what their strengths and weakness are and hopefully you take your roster and the vision you want to implement of how you want to play and you can tweak your roster to create that. I think that going into Orlando we’re going to try and highlight all the successes we had with Indiana, in terms of taking that young group we had with Paul George and Lance Stephenson and Roy Hibbert, and some of those guys, Tyler Hansbrough, Josh McRoberts, Darren Collison and just molding them into winners. And showing them the discipline that is necessary to win basketball games. That’s what I hope to bring to the Orlando Magic and this young group.
M&M: You’ve got a lot of things to sell. You’ve got Florida, so you’ve got the weather, you’ve got no state tax, all that sort of thing. What is the sales pitch? The NBA today is about going out and trying to find a way to recruit, with all the cap space all these teams are going to have over the next two years, one of the real big players in the league. Is that the goal? And what’s the sales pitch from Frank and the Orlando Magic to get one of the big stars to come down and play for you?
FV: The number one thing for me is we’re going to win. We’re going to win big. We have a core that’s very, very talented and hungry and quite frankly, fearless. I see a lot of guys with chips on their shoulders with this group. For guys that are going to come and play for the Orlando Magic, they’re going to play disciplined basketball, they’re going to defend and rebound and they’re going to play an up-tempo style of play offensively where we’re going to run, we’re going to space the floor on the offensive end, the way the new NBA is playing today. I really believe we’re going to have great success there. So I think it’s going to be a very attractive on-the-court setup and obviously all the things you mentioned about Orlando being a great destination, great place to live, the weather, the state taxes, all those things make it a very attractive destination for free agents.