The Orlando Magic fired Rob Hennigan on Thursday, ending his five-year tenure as the team's general manager.
The move occurred after the Magic finished their 2016-17 season with a 29-53 record and failed to reach the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season.
Even worse, the rebuilding plan that Hennigan shepherded _ a plan that CEO Alex Martins and the DeVos family implicitly endorsed when Hennigan was hired _ appears to have lost all traction, with no light at the end of the tunnel and no clear pathway back to relevance.
It is unclear how the Magic will proceed. The franchise could seek to hire a well-known name as president of basketball operations and have that hire pick a new general manager to do the day-to-day work. Or the team could decline to hire a president of basketball operations and instead hire a less-experienced person to serve as general manager.
Sources tell the Orlando Sentinel that Magic officials have interest in former NBA All-Star and former Magic player Grant Hill to work as president of basketball operations. But ESPN.com reported that Hill has no interest in the job. Joining the Magic would require Hill to divest his small ownership stake in the Atlanta Hawks.
If Hill doesn't have interest, candidates for the general manager job likely would include Detroit Pistons associate general manager and former Magic player Pat Garrity and Golden State Warriors assistant general manager Travis Schlenk.
The Magic also fired assistant general manager Scott Perry on Thursday.
Magic assistant GM Matt Lloyd has been named the team's interim GM and team officials said Lloyd will be a candidate for the permanent job.
"We appreciate Rob's efforts to rebuild the team, but feel we have not made any discernible improvement over the last few years specifically," Martins said in a statement. "It's time for different leadership in basketball operations. We certainly wish Rob and his family well."
Asked about the firings of Hennigan and Perry, center Bismack Biyombo said, "It's a big disappointment. I just heard the news when I walked in, and it was difficult to take it. But at the same time, those are the people I love. But there's nothing I can do about it. It's a business. You've got to respect the ownership decision. You can only wish them luck."
The Magic hired Hennigan in June 2012 when he was 30 years old.
"I would like to sincerely thank the Orlando Magic organization, the DeVos Family, Alex Martins, the coaches, players and fans for a wonderful opportunity," Hennigan said in a statement released to the Orlando Sentinel. "The Magic is a first-class organization and there are bright days ahead. I wish the Magic the best of luck in the future."
Hennigan arrived as the Magic faced a crisis: All-Star center Dwight Howard was demanding a trade.
Hennigan traded Howard in a complicated four-team deal _ a trade in which Hennigan wisely avoided acquiring often-injured Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum.
Then, the Magic sought to bottom out in hopes of securing the best possible NBA draft lottery odds so they could draft players who potentially could become franchise cornerstones.
None of the players the Magic drafted under Hennigan's watch have developed into All-Stars _ at least not yet. Indeed, when the vast majority of NBA scouts assessed the Magic's 2016-17 roster, they saw many players within the team's nucleus who, at best, would be the sixth or seventh men on high-level playoff teams.
To be sure, some of that is not Hennigan's fault. The Magic never received the lottery luck they hoped for when they tanked the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons. And perhaps the team's long-range outlook would be much different now if it had only received the fourth pick in 2015 instead of the fifth pick, because it would have allowed the team to select highly regarded power forward Kristaps Porzingis at No. 4 instead of struggling Mario Hezonja at No. 5.
Yet the Magic also have done a poor job of developing their young players. Hennigan's decision not to retain or pursue high-level veterans early in the rebuilding process hindered the rebuild. Youngsters such as Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton and Maurice Harkless had minimal competition for playing time from high-quality veteran players who would have forced Oladipo, Payton and Harkless to raise their games.
And there were other issues.
Hennigan's decision to hire Jacque Vaughn as head coach in 2012 was disastrous. It would have been difficult for any coach to win with the players Vaughn was provided, but Vaughn didn't provide the accountability the young players needed.
In addition, Hennigan did not require Vaughn to fill out his assistant-coaching staff with highly experienced assistant coaches who could have helped develop the young players, would have helped Vaughn build a winning culture and would have helped Vaughn with the inevitable X's-and-O's learning curve that any inexperienced head coach faces.
When the Magic hired Scott Skiles in 2015 _ a move made with Martins' strong backing _ Hennigan and Skiles clashed repeatedly, and Skiles ultimately resigned after one season in the job.
Reaching the postseason in 2016-17 was thought to be attainable, but a few of Hennigan's most recent decisions backfired badly.
Last June, the Magic made a draft-night trade to acquire power forward Serge Ibaka from the Oklahoma City Thunder for Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the draft rights to the 11th overall pick, Domantas Sabonis. That move alone invited criticism because Ibaka's defense had declined in recent years and because Ibaka tends to be aloof with teammates. Ibaka also had only one year left on his contract.
But Hennigan subsequently acquired yet another big man during the free-agency period when he signed Biyombo to a four-year deal worth $17 million per season.
With Ibaka, Biyombo and returning center Nikola Vucevic on the roster, the Magic went big at a time when most of the NBA's teams accelerated their transitions to small-ball lineups. These days, versatile lineups with high-level outside shooters are in vogue, and teams that don't have enough quickness or 3-point shooting tend to be at major disadvantages.
Instead, the Magic almost exclusively employed lineups with two big men playing simultaneously, and the Magic struggled to defend quicker, more agile teams. Playing two big men at once also forced coach Frank Vogel to play Aaron Gordon at small forward instead of Gordon's more natural position of power forward.
Throughout his tenure, Hennigan had no qualms about drafting players with questionable shooting skills _ Oladipo, Gordon and Payton come to mind. Hennigan believes that shooting can improve over time. But in the short term, the Magic were left with an alarming lack of long-range shooters at a time when the 3-point shot has never been more important in the NBA.
On Feb. 14, the Magic traded Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors for swingman Terrence Ross and a 2017 late-first-round pick. It was a clear sign that Ibaka didn't intend to re-sign with the Magic and that the experiment of playing two big men simultaneously didn't work.
But despite a few impressive performances, the Magic still often struggled after the trade.
Indeed, the problem wasn't just that the Magic lost a total of 53 games overall. It was how they lost many of those games. The Magic lost eight games by at least 30 points and eight more by a margin of 20-29 points.
The struggles demoralized fans.
The team's highest-level decision-makers, the DeVos family and Martins, concluded they could not sell to their fan base another season of Hennigan as their general manager.
But major questions still must be answered.
As CEO, Martins played the integral role in hiring Hennigan. He also endorsed Hennigan's overall strategy and also supervised Hennigan.
What will Martins' role be going forward as it relates to basketball decisions?
Will any big-name, established candidate want a job as the Magic's president of basketball operations if they don't report directly _ and only _ to the DeVos family?
And, finally, how will Hennigan's successor, whomever it is, make up the talent gap that separates the team from its competition?
