Jacque Vaughn has a calm demeanor at all times. He is the anti-Stan Van Gundy in that way. He doesn’t stomp his feet and gesticulate, yell or gyrate. He gives a stern stare and a calm word. He and his coaching staff discuss and plan what they are going to say. There is strategy behind everything.

Rookies are going to be an important part of the Magic’s future in 2013 and beyond. And the injuries are working to push them along a bit sooner than expected.

Nobody knew quite what to expect from the Magic as they embarked on this new era. What would this team be? Who would be its leaders?
Inside the halls of Amway Center though, preparation was being done and the team was going about its business. There were no distractions from the prying eyes of media expectations, [...]

So who will be the senior leaders in the locker room and on the court for Orlando this year? Jameer Nelson, JJ Redick and Hedo Turkoglu immediately come to mind when thinking tenure

Whatever Hennigan’s plan may be, the players that are on the Magic are expected to play hard and go out and compete regardless of their record. And the players, at least by their words on Media Day, are expecting the same things from themselves.

“It’s exciting for me. It’s a change,” Afflalo said as he was introduced to the media Thursday. “Change always brings mystery, it always brings doubt. But at the same time, from a positive outlook, it brings a lot of opportunity and a lot of room for growth. And that is the light that I feel most of people in the organization are looking at it and that’s the way we’re going to move forward.”

Marc Stein of ESPN.com is reporting the Magic, Nuggets, Lakers and 76ers have agreed in principle on a deal that will send Dwight Howard out of Orlando. He reports sources tell him that a conference call has been scheduled for Friday morning to confirm the trade.

The one thing everyone will have to get over is that lack of experience. Clearly Jacque Vaughn had done enough already to convince general manager Rob Hennigan, CEO Alex Martins and owner representative Dan DeVos, who all took the stage with Vaughn on Monday at Amway Center. Orlando is looking clearly toward its future. Vaughn is here to develop that.

The Orlando Magic hired Jacque Vaughn to be the team’s new head coach John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com and Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel report. It ends an exhaustive search for Magic general manager Rob Hennigan and completes two of the three major franchise-shaping decisions the team had to make coming out of the 2012 season.

Howard’s short-term view on things and Hennigan’s long-term view are certainly butting heads. While the relationship seems amicable, it is pretty clear to sense the frustration from Howard’s camp that Howard has not been moved.