Thoughts on Steve Clifford?

He looks like a crane operator from those construction sites.

 Clifford The Big Red Dog? I didn’t Care Much for that Cartoon! I’m a Scooby Doo fan!! 

 Folks here in Orlando remember him from his time as Stan Van Gundy’s assistant during Dwight’s heydays. He did have Charlotte Ranked amongst the Top defensive teams during his 5 years in Charlotte. But to be fair to him they gave him a BS roster full of odd pieces similar to what they have down here. And some said he didn’t do a good job of developing young players. He said during an interview a few weeks ago how he wanted to draft Donovan Mitchell. But was overruled by the front office,That wanted a bigger name college player. 

 I think he can build a decent team if given the opportunity to have a say. If he gets the right pieces around the solid base he has in Bamba, Isaac and Gordon, you never know what he can do in the East. 

 His style may seem a bit dated but being 57 years old, he may want to stick to what he knows best. He does set up good defences and maybe prefers a more traditional half court approach. At the Hornets he did a reasonable job but maybe never got to mould a team how he wants.

At the Magic he has John Hammond who has a good record of drafting talent overseeing the FO, so he may get the pieces he wants to help build a good team. Sometimes you could say a rebuilding team needs a bright young coach but Steve may seem a safe pair of hands to oversee things.

I just hope he give Isiah Briscoe some decent minutes. Especially over one of the most unskilled guards in the league in Jerian Grant…

Better than Jacque Vaughn.

I doubt he makes any serious impact, but I’d rank him about in the middle of the pack of the coaches. He’s not going to magically pull your team out of mediocrity, you need some better players.

When I look down Orlando’s roster I just think "meh". No disrespect at all, just isn’t much to look forward to outside of hoping Bamba becomes Mutumbo and Isaac stops getting injured. Gordon is good but he’s more like a glue-guy than a star. I like Fournier but I think he’s already peaked. I don’t know what happened to Vucevic, a couple years ago he looked like he’d be a challenger for best Center in the league then he just didn’t improve at all. Like I said "meh".

 Agree with OP, his coaching style is Thibs-lite. I wouldve thought ORL would’ve gone with a young offensive mind at head coach instead of another in the Scott Skiles, old school mold. They have a team full of young athletes who cant shoot, why hire a half-court focused coach?

 Its much easier to hire an offensive minded head coach and surround him with good defensive assistants than the other way around