<\/p>\n
Magic president Jeff Weltman said that it was time to make a change at head coach and fire Jamahl Mosley but that he does not want to \u201cdismantle\u201d the roster after the team blew a 3-1 series lead against Detroit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a gut punch,\u201d Weltman said of the Magic\u2019s first-round loss, specifically their Game 6 second-half collapse. \u201cThat is going to remain with our team this summer. We know that a lot of our season will be filtered through that lens. What happened? I can point to a lot of things. I think what happened was we were up 3-1 against the No. 1 team in the East and then Franz got hurt. It altered the series.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 When healthy, we were top five [on] defense and top 10 [on] offense. \u2026 I think we saw some of what we had hoped to see [against Detroit]. So I don\u2019t want to tear this thing down and dismantle it because of the way it ended and certainly one half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosley led the Magic to the playoffs the last three seasons but failed to get out of the first round in each of those trips.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just seems like it is time for a new perspective,\u201d Weltman said. \u201cMaybe a fresh voice and for all of us to get a different vantage point on what is going on with our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weltman said the front office will keep an open mind on what type of head coach they look for and how experienced the next coach must be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we look for a particular trait or quality,\u201d Weltman said. \u201cCoaches come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. Someone who can look at our team that can help us move forward and understands where we are on our timeline, try to get past the growth stages of the rebuild. \u2026 I don\u2019t have a box to say that we want the next coach to come out of this box.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added about the Magic, \u201cHad we stayed healthy, I\u2019d like to imagine where we would have gone in this series and beyond,\u201d Weltman said. \u201cI think when you build a team for the playoffs, you try to construct a roster that has the attributes that we have. It\u2019s not easy to get the positional versatility, guys that can elevate their games when it matters the most. The physicality, a lot of the way that we are built is designed to be successful in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately we didn\u2019t see a lot of that. But when healthy, we got a pretty good look at that. I don\u2019t see any reason why we couldn\u2019t have competed against anyone else in the East if we could compete against the No. 1 team like that.\u201d<\/p>\n