Mark Price is the Orlando Magic’s New Shooting Coach

The greatest free-throw shooter in NBA history, Mark Price, has joined the Orlando Magic’s coach staff. From the Sentinel: “The Magic will add four-time NBA all-star and former Magic point guard Mark Price to their staff as a player-development coach, and his primary focus will be on helping players with their shooting. The Plain Dealer reported the news first. ‘Anytime you get an opportunity to add somebody like him to your staff, you do,’ Magic General Manager Otis Smith said. ‘He’ll work a lot with guys on their shooting. That’s big for us. Hopefully, he can help Dwight with his free throws and get his free-throw percentages up.’ Price, 47, will travel with the team. He’ll sit in on coaches’ meetings, although assistant coaches Bob Beyer, Steve Clifford, Patrick Ewing and Brendan Malone will continue to share responsibility for prepping for specific opponents. Last season, Price worked as the Golden State Warriors’ shooting coach. The previous two seasons, he served as a shooting consultant for the Atlanta Hawks. Before that, he held a similar consulting position with the Memphis Grizzlies. Price made 90.4 percent of his foul shots and 40.2 percent of his 3-pointers during his NBA career, which ended with his lone season with the Magic in 1997-98. ‘It’s not just him being able to shoot, but he’s someone who’s spent a lot of time studying shooting and studying the teaching of shooting,’ Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. ‘To be able to add someone like that, we thought, was a great opportunity for us. I was grateful that, at a time when a lot of people around the league are looking to cut their staffs, that our organization was willing to add somebody like that.’ Coming off of screens, shooting on-balance and developing a quicker release are all areas Price will examine, Van Gundy said.”