The hiring process for Sean Sweeney and the Orlando Magic was not easy, but it was worth it.
It has been nearly a month and a half since the Orlando Magic hired Sean Sweeney to be their next head coach. Since then, Sweeney has been building a support staff, getting to know his players and attending Summer League games.
Recently, Sweeney joined Ryen Russillo on his podcast to discuss a matter of topics related to the Magic, starting with his interview process.
"It depends on the one, but basically you're studying the team, studying what they played like, what you think you could do with their roster, what changes you would make," Sweeney said. "And then in some situations, you're trying to look at who was the previous head coach and what he did that the guys interviewing you didn't like, and trying to make sure you don't hit on those things.
"But yeah, it's pretty exhaustive," Sweeney added. "Orlando was actually the most thorough interview that I had."
Sweeney also praised the thorough nature of the Magic’s interview process with him.
"Nine and a half hours long, and they did the best job," Sweeney said. Jeff [Weltman] and those guys did the best job of when they asked a question, they had follow-up questions that were like layered. So, there was more depth that you had to give in terms of what you were talking about.
"Hey, this is what I think about, you know, what schemes would be good offensively. And then they'd ask 'Why,' and 'Could you describe different things within it?' It was by far the most thorough of any of the ones that I did."
Sweeney's position with the Magic makes him a head coach for the first time in his career after spending the last 15 years in various assisting roles for various organizations. Sweeney started as a video coordinator in 2011, which has led to a level of meticulous preparation.
Now, Sweeney is in a situation where Orlando provides the right kind of professional marriage.
"Well, I thought we came very, you know, aligned in terms of how we saw the team just naturally," Sweeney said. "You know, I think the big thing that I looked at was, how do we take what has been successful in some ways? And obviously, Franz getting hurt last year.
"A lot of people would point to that as to why Magic potentially didn't get through that first round," he added. "But how do we take that and build upon it, trying to be specific in certain things that we feel like we can measure and improve upon? But I think just at the end of the day, I wanted to go into it really prepared, thorough in terms of how I looked at the team, but try to communicate my thoughts clearly and concisely, make sure that I knew what I was talking about, because clear and concise doesn't matter if you sound like an idiot.
"But just in general," he continued. "Tried to make sure that I was really locked in on what I thought needed to be done and looking at the strengths and the weaknesses, not just, you know, oh, we got to do this differently."
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