Weltman: We'll make Magic 'as good as we can, as quick as we can'
The Orlando Magic are looking to improve quickly.
On Tuesday, the struggling franchise hired Jeff Weltman as president of basketball operations, and he's ready to turn the ship around.
"The team is going to be what it is," the 52-year-old, who'd been serving as the Toronto Raptors general manager, told The Associated Press. "We are going to make it as good as we can, as quick as we can."
He didn't waste much time to make his first big move, hiring John Hammond as GM. The two worked together on the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks, where Hammond was the general manager for the past nine years.
The dynamic duo has a combined 63 years of front-office experience - a far cry from the previous regime. Rob Hennigan, 35, was given the keys to the franchise in 2012 despite lacking much relevant experience. Unfortunately, that experiment didn't quite work out, with the team accumulating a record of 132-278 (.322 - the second-worst winning percentage in the NBA) and Hennigan getting sacked last month.
At least CEO Alex Martins learned from it and has chosen to go a different route this time around.
"I'm confident that this approach is going to have a much different outcome, and is going to be a lot more successful and is going to get this organization back on track," he said of hiring Weltman, who alone has 28 years of experience as an NBA executive.
The team is sticking with its head coach Frank Vogel, who led the club to a 29-53 in his first campaign. Beyond that, though, there are many questions surrounding the team, which has missed the playoffs for five straight years. The Magic have a dearth of both star talent and salary-cap room (they have about $15 million to spend on free agents this offseason). Their best bet is to improve through the draft, where they have picks No. 6, 25, 33, and 35.
Sure they now have plenty of experience (and an exec with a solid draft record in Hammond), but they'll also need some luck.