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NBA: Magic hope Skiles as coach will end playoff drought

Scott Skiles was named coach of the Orlando Magic on Friday, the 13-season NBA coach tasked with ending the club's three-year run of failing to reach the playoffs. Skiles, whose first season as a coach was for Greek side Thessaloniki in 1996-97, takes the job from which Jacque Vaughn was fired last February, one taken on an interim basis by James Borrego. The Magic went 25-57 this past season, only a slight improvement on 23-59 the season before and 20-62 in 2012-13 but not nearly enough to satisfy fans of a team that reached the NBA Finals in 2009, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers, and 1995, losing to Houston. Skiles, 51, has an overall NBA regular season record of 443-433 guiding Phoenix, Chicago and Milwaukee, the team from which he and club owners agreed to his resignation after a 16-16 start to the 2012-13 campaign. Skiles has guided six teams into the playoffs, reaching the second round in 2000 with Phoenix and 2007 with Chicago. "Scott clearly distinguished himself as a tremendous fit," Magic general manager Rob Hennigan said. "Our young roster will benefit greatly from Scott's extensive head coaching experience and commitment to teaching smart, physical, unselfish basketball. We believe in Scott's ability to establish a culture of winning habits and accountability that will help guide our team in a positive direction." As a player, Skiles appeared in 600 career NBA games over 10 seasons with Milwaukee, Indiana, Orlando, Washington and Philadelphia, averaging 11.1 points, 6.5 assists and 2.5 rebounds a game. His .889 percentage from the free throw line during his career ranks as the eighth-best in NBA history. Skiles was an original member of the Magic and played in 384 games during five seasons with Orlando from 1989-94, and in 1990 against Denver set an NBA single-game record of 30 assists that remains today.