The Magic have fired Jacque Vaughn and water is still wet.

Few will question the decision of the underperforming Magic, but the manner in which the axing went down shows Orlando’s problems go well beyond their head coach.

Almost a week ago — before you had heard the name Malcolm Butler and you still thought Pete Carroll was a good coach — sources told Yahoo Sports this about the possibility of Vaughn getting fired:

“It isn’t a matter of ‘if’ anymore, but ‘when.’”

The Magic should be better than 15-36 with a nice collection of young talent in the underwhelming East, so this came as no surprise. What should come as a surprise is the Magic didn’t deliver the pink slip until six days and three losses later.

Vaughn, to his credit, said a bunch of stuff like this while the Magic hung him out to dry.

“I do my job every day,” Vaughn told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday. “I don’t abide by the tyranny of other people’s attitudes and moods. I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll.”

This is the kind of thing the Magic franchise has become known for after presiding over the Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy debacle. The lowlight there came when their previous coach was backed into such a corner, he went to reporters and told them the star center was trying to get him fired right before Howard had his turn with the media.

It’s a new regime with the same problems, which could make it difficult to lure a quality coach to fix.

Yahoo reports that former NBA coaches Scott Skiles, Mike Malone and Vinny Del Negro are the early candidates being mentioned in Orlando, but they have not reached out to any candidates, yet. Assistant James Borrego will be the interim coach replacing Vaughn.