The Orlando Magic are making another addition to Sean Sweeney’s staff.

Former Cleveland Cavaliers and Michigan head coach John Beilein announced on Monday on the social media platform X that he will be joining Sean Sweeney as a senior coaching consultant. 

It will be Beilein's third role in the NBA after he transitioned from the college ranks to coach the Cavaliers in May 2019. Beilein's tenure with Cleveland was short-lived, and he resigned from his position in February 2020 after a dismal start to the season and a controversial statement in which he said the Cavs were "no longer playing like a bunch of thugs" during a film session.

Beilein apologized and said he misspoke, and his resignation followed. In June 2021, he was hired by the Detroit Pistons as senior advisor for player development. 

Beilein's best years came during his time with Michigan. The Wolverines were a floundering program, and Beilein helped rebuild them into a contender. Now, he will assist Sweeney in his first NBA head-coaching job.

On the latest episode of Full Court Magic, I discussed Beilein’s hire:

"It was announced by John Beilein on his Twitter account that he will be joining Sean Sweeney's staff, I believe, in a consulting role with the Orlando Magic in the 2026-27 season, and this is an interesting addition, because Beilein was in the NBA very briefly. It was not a good tenure. It was very short-lived.

It had controversy, and so on and so forth, in his very brief time with the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2019. But before that, he was a pretty successful college coach. He was integral in rebuilding the Michigan Wolverines basketball program, helped them reach a couple of Final Fours; even in just his second season, they beat No. 4 UCLA, which was the first time they had beaten a top-five team in over a decade. So Beilein has experience, and he brings good stuff in his own way; he just could not be an NBA coach. 

But in a consulting role, kind of in the, you know, background and the, you know, the ethos of things, he could be beneficial for Sean Sweeney. So it will be interesting to see how that works out, having a veteran voice within the organization to provide support for Sweeney in his first year as not only the head coach of the Magic, but as an NBA head coach in general. So, we will have to keep an eye on that."