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New Orlando Magic head coach press conference transcript

Talk about your night:

“It’s been a very busy night with the change, and with Doc not being the head coach. It’s a bitter sweet change because he is a friend of mine, and certainly I didn’t want to see a situation where he wasn’t successful here. I don’t think there was anything he did or didn’t do, I just think it’s one of those situations where in this business you have to win basketball games. And unfortunately we got off to a bad start, and ultimately it always comes back to the head coach.”

On head coach rather than interim:

“It’s very important because the players now know that I’m not just the stock guy for the team. I’m going to be the guy that has the voice now and we are going to do things that I deem are best for the team. I’m very thrilled about the situation, to have this opportunity. Certainly I wish the circumstances were different, but the circumstances are what they are. You just have to move forward and get the job done. We have some work to do, but we are not out of it by any stretch of the imagination. The season is still early, and there’s certainly enough time to get this thing going.”

On speaking with Doc about the coaching change:

“As I mentioned to Doc, it was a tough situation in that I came here to help him succeed in this type of situation. Unfortunately that didn’t happen to the degree that we wanted it too. But he understood that this is a business, and that there was an opportunity here for me to acquire the reins and become the head coach. And he certainly supported that. It doesn’t change anything about the way we feel about each other. We are both going to move forward.”

On getting out of the hole:

“You have to take one step at a time. You can’t get too far ahead of yourself. Having a 1-10 team, there are some things that you have to do to change that. And we are going to start working on that tomorrow. I think when you get into a losing streak, the way we have, a lot of it is mental more so than physical. I want to make sure we have an atmosphere that is conducive to winning. And we want to put the players in a position so they can be successful and forget about what happened previously. Let’s start with tomorrow and the next game, and let’s start winning.”

On strategy:

“In terms of the way I like to play the game, I’m more of an up-tempo coach. I like a fast-pace game. We looked to do that previously, but we didn’t get the steam into the game that we wanted. So I want to see that come back into the Orlando Magic style of play where we have an exciting team to watch, and the players have an exciting style that they like to play and a style that I like to coach. I want more of an up-tempo in our game, and I want our guys to have a sense of confidence in terms of being creative. At the same time I need them to understand that there is some discipline that goes into it as well. I think if we have those things, we can get the corner turned, and we can start putting this team in the right direction again. Again it’s more of a mental thing at this point to get the tremendous losing streak off of you and start to enjoy the game of basketball.”

On Tracy McGrady’s adjustment:

“We haven’t addressed the players at this point. It is quite early in the morning. Hopefully they are getting some rest from the game last night. But first thing in the morning we will take the time to address the players and let them know what’s going on.”