reports Shams Charania of ESPN<\/a>, and since confirmed by other reports. Sweeney will continue with the Spurs through the remainder of their playoff run, then head to Orlando after the season.<\/p>\nFormer Bulls coach Billy Donovan was considered the frontrunner in Orlando, but the Magic front office went younger, choosing an untested but promising coach.<\/p>\n
Sweeney will replace Jamahl Mosley, who was let go after a disapointing 45-win season in Orlando that saw the Magic bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the Pistons. After trading four first-round picks to get Desmond Bane last offseason, expectations were sky high in Orlando entering the season. While Mosley dealt with a rash of injuries, the issues with a stagnant offense and slipping defense seemed bigger than that. Mosley landed on his feet, taking over as the New Orleans Pelicans head coach a couple of weeks after being let go by the Magic.<\/p>\n
Sweeney was at the front of the line of assistant coaches around the league who deserved a shot in the big chair. He\u2019s a smart hire for a team that built itself around a defensive identity, something that slipped this past season. That said, it\u2019s easier to design a defense with Victor Wembanyama on the back line and high-level defenders like Stephon Castle on the perimeter.<\/p>\n
Sweeney takes over a roster with some big-name talent \u2014 Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, Bane \u2014 that has never really meshed. Orlando\u2019s front office appears more interested in keeping the roster together and betting on a coaching change to make things work. An assistant coach in the NBA since 2011, Sweeney has worked with plenty of stars, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and now Wembanyama. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the eve of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, the Orlando Magic are reaching into San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-289805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}