ORLANDO – Steve Clifford said if there’s one lesson he still carries with him from his days as an Orlando Magic assistant coach under former head coach Stan Van Gundy, it’s this: Coaches must always work to get as many of their best players on the floor as possible for as long as possible.
Van Gundy did it just that as the Magic’s head coach from 2007-12, shifting free-agent signee Rashard Lewis to power forward so that he could play alongside of small forward Hedo Turkoglu and center Dwight Howard. That move played a major role in Orlando reaching the 2009 NBA Finals and the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals.
Taking a page from that playbook, Clifford planned to use Friday’s night exhibition game against Brazilian power Flamengo to experiment with Magic centers Nikola Vucevic and Mohamed Bamba playing simultaneously. In that scenario, Bamba – the No. 6 pick in last summer’s NBA Draft – would use his plus mobility to guard opposing power forwards, while both big men could play on the perimeter offensively because of their shooting range. Clifford liked what he saw from having the two play together during practice this past week and is eager now to try it out in games.
``My feeling is, again going all the way back to what Stan used to say: `You have to find ways to get your best players on the floor,’ and they are two of our best players,’’ Clifford said of Vucevic and Bamba. ``Two months from now, as Mo learns, (it might work better then), but you just don’t wait until then. If we’re going to become the team that we can become, (Bamba’s) progress is part of that. So, you can’t get into December and say, `(Bamba) is playing well, but two of our best players are at the same position’ and then start it from there. We may as well start it now and make it a part of what we do.’’
Clifford said that while there might be doubters about a big lineup working in a time when the rest of the NBA is shifting to small ball, there were also plenty of skeptics back in 2008 when Orlando signed Lewis as a free agent and paired him with Turkoglu and Dwight Howard along the frontline.
``They both like it and you can tell that there’s an intelligence on the floor and it brings us size and skill,’’ he said, referring to Vucevic and Bamba. ``Are there things about it (not yet perfect)? Yeah, but people didn’t think Rashard and Turk were a good idea either at first.’’
CLIFF NOT SENTIMENTAL: Clifford’s father, Gerald Clifford, was once a highly successful high school coach, the Magic’s new mentor grew up only wanting to be a coach and many of his closest friends in life are coaches.
A basketball lifer, Clifford is a coach to his very core. So, you might have to forgive him these days if he hasn’t given much thought to the sentimentality of his returning to Orlando and the NBA franchise where he has enjoyed his most success. Instead, Clifford’s focus has been firmly affixed on Xs and Os and coming up with tactics that will help the Magic be successful this season.
``What happens is once you get started (with a season) you get so locked into our team, but there’s no question that coming back here I feel blessed,’’ said Clifford prior to working his first game as the Magic’s new head coach at the Amway Center on Friday night. ``But you know how coaching goes – if you want to be able to stay here for a while, you had better get your team to play well.’’
Orlando hasn’t been to the postseason since 2012 and Clifford – who was head coach of the Charlotte Hornets the previous five seasons – knows he is being looked to as the person who can help the Magic contend again. Those concerns fill his thoughts these days more than sentimental ones about returning to the Magic.
``I’ll think about (coaching in Orlando again) next summer, but tonight I just want us to play well,’’ he said wryly.
INJURY ISSUES: Magic center Timofey Mozgov was unavailable to play on Friday night after badly dislocating one of his fingers. The injury occurred when the 7-foot Mozgov accidentally tangled his finger in the jersey of fellow center Nikola Vucevic.
Mozgov’s injury isn’t thought to be serious and it shouldn’t shelve him long – news that was well received by Vucevic, who knows a thing or two about that sort of injury. Vucevic missed 23 games last season and needed corrective surgery when he fractured the second metacarpal in his left hand – an injury that knocked him out of action from Dec. 26-Feb. 14 last season. Similar to Mozgov’s injury, Vucevic hurt his hand after it snagged in the jersey of Washington center Ian Mahinmi while defending a post-up play.
``It happened on a play I was posting up and his finger got caught in my jersey,’’ Vucevic said, referring to the way Mozgov was injured on Thursday. ``When he went onto the floor I saw (the out-of-place finger). The good thing is it’s only dislocated and it’s not broken, so he doesn’t have to wear a cast and get surgery. Dislocation is bad, but not as bad as it could have been. I saw (the finger) and it wasn’t pretty, but he’ll be all right because he’s a big, tough guy.’’
Terrence Ross (sore foot) and Jonathan Isaac (sprained right ankle) also didn’t play on Friday night because of minor injuries. Ross, who scored 13 points and made three 3-pointers in Monday’s exhibition opener in Philadelphia, had been bothered off and on by foot pain, and the decision was made to rest him on Friday following an especially taxing practice on Wednesday.
Isaac, whose rookie season was limited to 27 games because of ankle issues, sprained his right ankle on Monday when he accidentally stepped on 76ers forward Dario Saric’s foot. Isaac, who turned 21 earlier this week, said all of the work he did this summer to strengthen his ankle kept the injury from being a far more serious one.
``We do band work pretty much every day on my ankles and it was super tough working on (strengthening the ankles) this summer,’’ said Isaac, who has been able to do non-contact work and one-on-one pickup games the past four days. ``I’m glad about the progress that we’ve made. My ability to roll (his ankle), stepping on somebody’s foot, and be back in action (shows the progress).’’
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