Steve Clifford was there the last time the Orlando Magic were a playoff contender.

He’s being asked to make them one again.

Clifford was announced Wednesday as the new coach of the Magic Shelby Harris Jersey , a team that has missed the playoffs in each of the last six years. Clifford – who spent the last five seasons as coach of the Charlotte Hornets – was an assistant coach on Stan Van Gundy’s Magic staff for five years, including during the team’s most recent playoff run in 2012.

”I’ve had 18 great years in this league and I’ve enjoyed every year, but none more than the five years here,” Clifford said.

Magic president Jeff Weltman said the team used a ”deliberate approach” and took its time, but insisted that the franchise made the right hire.

”We are very excited to welcome Steve back into the Magic family,” Weltman said. ”Steve is widely regarded throughout the NBA community as an elite coach and developer of players at all stages. His teams have always been disciplined and prepared, and have embraced the concept of playing for each other.”

Clifford is replacing Frank Vogel, who was let go after two seasons. Clifford, who missed 21 games this past season while dealing with severe headaches brought on by sleep deprivation, was fired by Charlotte at the end of this season after going 196-214.

Hiring Clifford is easily the biggest move made so far by Weltman. He took over the club a year ago after the team fired Rob Hennigan and ended his five-year run that never got on solid footing.

Weltman made the decision after this season to part with Vogel, who was a proven winner in Indiana but simply didn’t have a playoff-caliber roster in Orlando.

Neither does Clifford, at this point anyway. It will take more than a coaching change to improve Orlando’s fortunes.

”The old saying in the NBA, and it’s so true, is you never know a player until you coach them,” Clifford said. ”I’m going to start to try and establish the right kind of relationships with these guys tomorrow, or tonight. I want to be able to impact each one of these guys in the right way.”

Clifford was ousted in Charlotte after a front-office shakeup. Owner Michael Jordan fired general manager Rich Cho and eventually hired Mitch Kupchak to replace him in April. Kupchak fired Clifford not long afterward.

The Hornets went to the playoffs twice in Clifford’s five seasons, never winning a series.

”The NBA isn’t about winning – the NBA is about winning in the playoffs DJ Chark Jersey ,” Clifford said at the end of Charlotte’s season.

Clifford is coming to a franchise that has lost more games than any NBA club over the past six years, 335. That’s four more than Philadelphia, a franchise that was openly tanking for years before turning things around this season.

The Magic weren’t tanking. They’ve just been bad.

Orlando hasn’t had longer than a five-game winning streak at any time over the last six seasons. But over that same span, the Magic have had 23 losing streaks of at least five games. On their way to a 25-57 record that left them 18 games out of a playoff spot, the Magic had two seven-game slides and two other nine-game skids.

Since Van Gundy left, the Magic have gone through a series of resets.

There have been 62 players in uniform over the last six seasons – none an All-Star while in Orlando – and now five coaches. Van Gundy was replaced by Jacque Vaughn, who was let go after 2 1/2 seasons and replaced on an interim basis by James Borrego. Scott Skiles then took over for one year, and Vogel ran things the last two seasons.

Weltman said Clifford is the one who can stop the revolving-door look to the coach’s office.

”I think it’s crucial,” Weltman said. ”Fifth coach in seven years, it’s very important that we start to establish our identity and be able to build on something that doesn’t get turned over every season.”

Seeding means nothing in the giant game of rock, paper, scissors that is the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Top-seeded Tampa Bay lost all three meetings this season against eighth-seeded New Jersey, Toronto beat Boston three out of four times and records don’t matter when Pittsburgh and Philadelphia meet in another battle of Pennsylvania. The Penguins are the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions while the Lightning and Bruins are among the best teams in the NHL – and yet there isn’t one obvious team to beat.

”In the East, anybody can beat anybody,” said Devils defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who won it all with the Penguins in 2016. ”When we’re playing our best game, I think we can beat anybody Al Woods Jersey , and I think that the opposite is true. We have to be dialed in no matter who we’re playing, and we’ve done a really good job of that against the best teams in the league this year.”

The Devils certainly match up better against the Lightning than they would have against the Bruins, who are in for a tough series against the Maple Leafs. Washington has had a lot of success in recent years against Columbus but has a big question of who to start in goal and the Capitals have not played the Blue Jackets and their additions at the trade deadline.

Before stubbing their toe in game 82 and failing to win the Atlantic, the Bruins looked like they had the potential to be a buzz saw with Tuukka Rask in goal and enough depth to withstand injuries all season. They still might be.

”You don’t want to downplay how good every other team is, but you want to be the team to beat,” Boston defenseman Torey Krug said. ”We try to play like the team that we are and play to our strengths and make sure that other teams are changing the way that they play to play against us.”

That’s half the fun of the playoffs, where matchups matter more than anything than points earned during the regular season.

”There’s no sitting here saying, `Who’s the best matchup?”’ Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. ”You need health. You need luck. You need so many things to go your way to win in the playoffs.”

Goaltending doesn’t hurt, either. If Tampa Bay gets the kind of Vezina Trophy-caliber play out of Andrei Vasilevskiy that he delivered for much of the season, it could go on a deep run, though the same could be said for Pittsburgh with Matt Murray, Washington with Braden Holtby or Philipp Grubauer, Columbus with Sergei Bobrovsky or Toronto with Frederik Andersen.

LIGHTNING VS. DEVILS

The East’s top team for much of the year, Tampa Bay hopes Steven Stamkos is healthy after dealing with a nagging lower-body injury late in the season. Stamkos, 100-point scorer Nikita Kucherov and top defenseman Victor Hedman make the Lightning a scary opponent. The Devils aren’t scared. They have Hart Trophy candidate Taylor Hall, star rookie Nico Hischier and enough veteran playoff experience to not look out of place.

”We’ve been in a playoff spot all year long and we’ve earned the right to be here, so that’s what we understand as a group Joel Heath Jersey ,” said Devils center Brian Boyle, who went to the 2014 final with the Rangers and then the next year with the Lightning. ”We believe in what we have. The way we play, our foundations, systems, are what got us here.”

BRUINS VS. MAPLE LEAFS

Plenty has changed since Boston beat Toronto in seven games in 2013.The Maple Leafs added Mike Babcock as coach, Andersen in goal and have young stars Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander.

”It’s a very exciting team, a very dynamic team,” Maple Leafs deadline addition Tomas Plekanec said. ”A lot of young talent on this team.”

The Bruins can go punch-for-punch with the Maple Leafs and just about anyone in the league. Led by the top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, they have handled injuries to Bergeron, Rick Nash, captain Zdeno Chara and others and just keep clicking.

”We feel we’ve got a pretty strong lineup and that’s been a constant all along even though we’ve missed guys,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. ”That’s just what it’s been this year. It’s just how we’re going to be. It’s become a bit of our fight song, so to speak, that, hey Mike Ditka Jersey , we can do it and different guys in and out, guys are prepared to step in and play with whoever they’re asked to play with.”

CAPITALS VS. BLUE JACKETS

Despite losing several key players last offseason, the Capitals won the Metropolitan Division for the third consecutive year. Their reward: a matchup against Bobrovsky, Artemi Panarin and the John Tortorella-coached Blue Jackets.

”We’ve always thought that they’ve been a pretty good team for the last few years, not just the last couple where they’ve had more success,” Holtby said. ”I think we’ve always had a good challenge against them. We play better against solid teams, teams that are coached well and it’s always fun to play against them. I think it’ll be a good series.”

At the very least, it probably won’t be a short series.

PENGUINS VS. FLYERS

These two teams don’t like each other, which should make for some fireworks in the first round. Since they last met in 2012, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins have won the Cup twice, but something about Philadelphia-Pittsburgh makes for good games.

”They’re really fun games to play,” Flyers MVP candidate Claude Giroux said. ”They’re not easy games to play, but it’s ea Luka Doncic Jersey ,