Small Market. New coach. New GM.

The Orlando Magic, after what has felt half a year for Magic fans, have finally hired a new coach in Jacque Vaughn. I'm going to have to learn how to spell that correctly very soon. Quick question, who is Jacque Vaughn? Well....he used to be an NBA player. He even played for the Magic at one point during the Heart and Hustle days of the early 2000's when contracts were coming in and out and it always felt like a new face was on the roster. But the reason I think he was hired and the reason I like this hire is because he was an assistant coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

The Magic are a small market. Orlando is not Miami, it's not New York, and it's not L.A. Despite that the Magic have had a history of being able to lure free agents to Orlando. Horace Grant, Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, almost Tim Duncan, and Rashard Lewis. All guys who had offers from multiple teams (Horace Grant from a team that had just won a championship in the Bulls) and they chose Orlando. The Magic however are currently losing Dwight Howard because they are a small market. So when you're a small market who has a history of signing free agents but can't hold onto your superstars because you're a small market what do you do? You copy the other small markets in the Association.

I love the hires of Rob Hennigan, from Oklahoma City, as GM and Jacque Vaughn, as head coach, from San Antonio. Alex Martins, who I strongly criticized for firing Stan Van Gundy, wisely hired a GM from the current best team in the Western Conference in OKC, and then that GM turned right around and hired a guy from the 2nd most successful team that same conference who is the model of consistency in the NBA. Both teams happen to be small markets. If there are two small markets in the NBA you want to be like it's OKC and SA.

With these hires it looks like Orlando wants to copy OKC and SA but I don't think that's what they're going to do. FA's don't usually go to SA and are unlikely to want to go to OKC. This separates Orlando from these two franchises because of it's history of being able to nab FA's. With Orlando following the OKC/SA formula and having the ability to sign FA's I'm very interested to see if they create their own style that other small markets are going to want to copy in the future. Time will tell and I can easily say I'm excited to see what that future beholds.