magicblue 315 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 At least he helped us get to the playoffs and the finals. Anyone could have done that honestly. Everyone in the world knew Rashard Lewis was coming to Orlando and we already had Dwight. Otis gets way too much credit for building that team. Without Dwight he'd have been far worse than Henny Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LaVar 108 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 Anyone could have done that honestly. Everyone in the world knew Rashard Lewis was coming to Orlando and we already had Dwight. Otis gets way too much credit for building that team. Without Dwight he'd have been far worse than Henny Otis was part of the team that picked Howard over Okaford and picking nelson. Lewis was no guarantee. VC was available that year. he brought in Stan the man. There was also the Alston deal. Drafting of Courtney Lee. Picking J.J. Reddick. We don't make it without these moves. such short memories we have of the glory days. We went to the finals in 2009. Otis was here in 2004. Co manager in 2005. There is a lot of time to mess up in between. Sometimes you need get give credit when credit is due. I know the bad: agent 0, being back turk, Chris doo doo and big baby. Lets not act like he did nothing. We had great years when he was here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HeHateMe 697 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 Otis was part of the team that picked Howard over Okaford and picking nelson. Lewis was no guarantee. VC was available that year. he brought in Stan the man. There was also the Alston deal. Drafting of Courtney Lee. Picking J.J. Reddick. We don't make it without these moves. such short memories we have of the glory days. We went to the finals in 2009. Otis was here in 2004. Co manager in 2005. There is a lot of time to mess up in between. Sometimes you need get give credit when credit is due. I know the bad: agent 0, being back turk, Chris doo doo and big baby. Lets not act like he did nothing. We had great years when he was here. Yea Otis had his moments. I always liked that he never stayed content and tried to always make us better (even though some of these moves are what buried us). Honestly the way Otis Smith GM'd reminds me of how Doc does. Draft picks mean nothing and veterans playing out their final couple seasons are gold. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
magicblue 315 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 Otis was part of the team that picked Howard over Okaford and picking nelson. Lewis was no guarantee. VC was available that year. he brought in Stan the man. There was also the Alston deal. Drafting of Courtney Lee. Picking J.J. Reddick. We don't make it without these moves. such short memories we have of the glory days. We went to the finals in 2009. Otis was here in 2004. Co manager in 2005. There is a lot of time to mess up in between. Sometimes you need get give credit when credit is due. I know the bad: agent 0, being back turk, Chris doo doo and big baby. Lets not act like he did nothing. We had great years when he was here. You have your opinion, I have mine. Having Dwight largely masjed Otis Smith's horrendous drafting and overpaying against himself to sign Rashard. Only an incompetent GM could have messed up the situation but a great GM could have built a long lasting and potential dynasty. For example, imagine we had taken Granger, who fell right into our laps, instead of Fran Vasquez and then used the money spent to sign Lewis on fools gold Vince Carter two years before we wound up with him. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HeHateMe 697 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 You have your opinion, I have mine. Having Dwight largely masjed Otis Smith's horrendous drafting and overpaying against himself to sign Rashard. Only an incompetent GM could have messed up the situation but a great GM could have built a long lasting and potential dynasty. For example, imagine we had taken Granger, who fell right into our laps, instead of Fran Vasquez and then used the money spent to sign Lewis on fools gold Vince Carter two years before we wound up with him. Ehh it's easy to go back and look at drafts and say "if we drafted this guy...". Another 5 teams passed on Granger after us. If he went the next pick or something I get it. Also, the only reason way we were going to get Lewis, who was the biggest free agent at the time, was by overpaying him. I don't really think Otis messed up the chance to have a potential dynasty as you stated. There were no dynasty players here. Granger only had 6 productive years in the NBA so he would have been short lived for a dynasty. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fan for too long 2 531 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 Ehh it's easy to go back and look at drafts and say "if we drafted this guy...". Another 5 teams passed on Granger after us. If he went the next pick or something I get it. Also, the only reason way we were going to get Lewis, who was the biggest free agent at the time, was by overpaying him. I don't really think Otis messed up the chance to have a potential dynasty as you stated. There were no dynasty players here. Granger only had 6 productive years in the NBA so he would have been short lived for a dynasty. He picked fran nuff said period Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HeHateMe 697 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 He picked fran nuff said period Did you see the next 5 picks? That draft sucked. The Fran thing is completely overstated as being some issue that held this franchise back for years. It really wasn't. That pick sucked but nearly that entire draft sucked. Yaroslav Korolev Sean May Rashad McCants Antoine Wright Joey Graham Any of these players ring a bell? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fan for too long 2 531 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 Did you see the next 5 picks? That draft sucked. The Fran thing is completely overstated as being some issue that held this franchise back for years. It really wasn't. That pick sucked but nearly that entire draft sucked. Yaroslav Korolev Sean May Rashad McCants Antoine Wright Joey Graham Any of these players ring a bell? I don't care who was picked next. Otis never even brought him in to talk or workout. That is inexcusable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fan for too long 2 531 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 Also the pick could have been used in a trade. How anybody can defend the way Otis handled this organization. Is beyond my comprehension. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
magicblue 315 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 I don't care who was picked next. Otis never even brought him in to talk or workout. That is inexcusable. Agreed. I could care less where Granger actually went, the ineptness of other GM's doesn't excuse Otis. All those other players mentioned at least played in the NBA. Granger was projected lottery and slid due to some rumor which wound up being incorrect. Again the failure of GM's, including Otis, doing their due diligence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HeHateMe 697 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 Agreed. I could care less where Granger actually went, the ineptness of other GM's doesn't excuse Otis. All those other players mentioned at least played in the NBA. Granger was projected lottery and slid due to some rumor which wound up being incorrect. Again the failure of GM's, including Otis, doing their due diligence. No one is defending Otis as being some great GM. He clearly wasn't close to that. But to give him no credit for the run we had with Dwight (whom he selected over Okafor) is taking it a little to far. Saying we could have had a dynasty with a different GM is taking it to far as well. I'm not excusing the Franz pick, but people still whining about that act like there were all-stars just waiting to be selected. Also, saying he could have traded the pick, sure he could have. But that draft was viewed as a very weak draft at the time and it was an outside the top 10 pick. Not sure you're getting much back there. Vazquez made sense at the time. Pairing him next to Dwight was the right idea and worth the risk outside of the top 10. He was supposed to stay in Spain for year, but then signed the 4 year deal that no one saw coming. To further discredit your point, the Magic scouted Vasquez in Europe rather extensively-- a total of 8 times leading up to the draft. This was actually probably one of the few picks Smith did his homework on surprisingly enough. The guy just got scared of the brightlights and decided not to come. Came from a city of 2,000 people. I believe he actually ended up getting a really big contract close to 10 million to stay home too. Again, Otis was not a good GM. But he did make some good calls that helped reach the level we did during the Howard era. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HeHateMe 697 Report post Posted April 16, 2017 I don't care who was picked next. Otis never even brought him in to talk or workout. That is inexcusable. False. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites