If Magic president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has an ideal candidate in mind to replace Jamahl Mosley as Orlando‘s next head coach, he certainly didn’t show his cards Monday.
Mosley was fired Monday morning after the Magic’s season ended Sunday at Detroit in Game 7 of their first-round NBA playoff series. Orlando led the series 3-1 before it ultimately lost three consecutive games to the top-seeded Pistons, who advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Hours after announcing his decision to dismiss Mosley following a five-year stint that included three straight first-round playoff exits amid ever-increasing expectations, Weltman answered questions about what he’s looking for as he leads the search for the team’s next coach.
“I don’t think we look for a particular trait or a quality,” the Magic executive said inside the AdventHealth Training Center on Monday. “Coaches come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. Someone that kind of looks at our team in the way that we feel can help move us forward. Obviously someone who understands where we are on our timeline, that we’ve kind of tried to get past the growth stages of the rebuild. … I don’t have a box to say that we want the next coach to come out of this sort of box.”
Weltman can’t say precisely what the search will look like. It’s something more akin to a feeling and how it fits into his process, he said.
“I’m not really sure,” he added. “That’s more like, we want to talk, have really in-depth conversations with people about how they view our team, maybe see some things that we haven’t seen and kind of go from there.”
Weltman, who’s been known to keep information close to the vest throughout his nine years in Orlando, wouldn’t even go so far as to say whether or not prior experience as an NBA head coach is something he expects in a potential candidate.
Mosley was a longtime assistant coach before the Magic hired him as a first-time head coach in July 2021. He came to Orlando after spending seven seasons (2014-21) as an assistant coach with the Mavericks and four seasons (2010-14) as an assistant coach with the Cavaliers.
“I don’t want to kind of come to it with any preconceived non-negotiables,” Weltman said when asked about previous head coaching experience. “There are some really talented young guys out there that haven’t gotten a chance yet – as Mose was.”
“There are also some guys that have proven that they can do the job,” he added. “What’s the best fit for our team right now? I don’t think you can really know more than speculate until we really like … get in and talk to them and exchange ideas and their thoughts on our team. That’ll hopefully lead us where we need to go; the more preconditions you put on that, maybe you kind of give yourself a worse chance of getting to the right place.”
Weltman also didn’t share a timeline for how long the search might take.
When he hired Mosley in July 2021, the choice came 36 days after the franchise agreed to mutually part ways with Steve Clifford. Weltman’s first coaching change with Orlando was his firing of Frank Vogel in 2018 and hiring of Clifford, which took 48 days.
“We’re going to meet immediately and start to figure out what that grouping could look like,” Weltman said about the timing. “And then decide how we want to conduct those initial meetings.
“A great number of candidates have already reached out to us,” he added.
Orlando isn’t the only NBA franchise in need of a new coach. Job openings around the league include the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Pelicans, but that number could increase based on postseason results.
Elsewhere, the Bucks have already filled their opening after the departure of Doc Rivers, a former Magic coach, with the hiring of Taylor Jenkins.
Weltman has confidence Orlando is an appealing job – largely thanks to its young roster that includes Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs.
“That always factors into this stuff,” Weltman said of the other openings. “One of the things that you have to do is assess; is your job attractive? And I do think our job is attractive. I think that people look at us as a young, growing, forward-moving team with talent, chemistry, fit and a defensive backbone. So, I hope that that’s the case. I think that that’s the case.
“And you can’t try to jump it just because another team might hire somebody.”
While players inside the locker room are frustrated that their last three seasons have ended with first-round losses, it doesn’t appear likely they’ll have a say in who Weltman hires.
“I would never put players in that position,” he said. “It’s our job to listen to what they feel about the team and where we need to get better and the elements that we need to improve in. And then it’s our job to go hire a coach.”
Despite the frustrations, Weltman believes the players’ desire to win will be a driving force in the search.
“This team is incredibly hungry, competitive and dying to please our fans, and prove to everybody how good the team is,” Weltman said. “That’s one of the reasons that we are an attractive job and I think that we are going to be speaking with some really interesting candidates.
“The players are going to embrace our new coach and give them everything they’ve got.”
Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com