The Orlando Magic are one of four teams with a head coaching vacancy currently, along with the Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers, and Indiana Pacers, and for most are the least desirable of the available jobs. The Blazers and Celtics each have established stars with postseason expectations, while the Pacers hope to get back to the playoffs after a rather disastrous 2020-21 season, but still have an All-Star talent in Domantas Sabonis and other high level players.
The Magic are more of a development situation coming off of, effectively, a lost season due to injuries that saw them finally commit to a rebuild by trading Nikola Vucevic to Chicago and Evan Fournier to Boston. Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac will be returning from serious injuries and there are young players like Cole Anthony and Wendell Carter Jr. that present interesting upside, but a coach going in knows it’s going to take time before that’s a contender again and there will be growing pains along the way.
On Monday, word emerged that Jason Kidd will interview for the job after being granted permission to do so by the Lakers, which is particularly interesting given he recently publicly pulled his name from contention for the Portland job after Damian Lillard made it clear Kidd was his preferred choice.
Scoop: The Orlando Magic have requested to interview Jason Kidd for their vacant head coaching gig and the Lakers granted permission, sources told FOX Sports. Kidd, an assistant coach for the Lakers, will interview with the Magic this week.
— Melissa Rohlin (@melissarohlin) June 14, 2021
When Kidd turned down the chance to interview for the Blazers job, there was a thought that he had his eyes on another job, but few would’ve guessed Orlando was that spot. It’s possible that he sees the Magic as a comfortable place to work his way back into the head coaching ranks with low expectations and high upside for him should he succeed there, while struggling wouldn’t be viewed as a coaching failure in the way that it would be if the Blazers didn’t improve.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see if the Magic want to go with Kidd or a younger coach who could grow with the team and might be seen as having more upside than a retread.