Chad Ford "rips" Otis for mis-management of our salary cap! (ESPN Insider)

[ibonedteribell 0]

The points I like to focus on for you to discuss are his commnents that imply former players usually are not good GM's. What has been the record on winning basketball franchises. For example who was the GM on the original Chicago,Piston and Celtic dinasties? In relation to the Darko fiasco,do you think he really wanted to keep Darko?

[pneu 0]

great article, I agree with every single point

 

btw: in my opinion, we were in our route to make a new NBA dynasty for next decade until our management ruin it

I still believe in this team and our ability to be a contender in the future,

but I lost all my confidence to our management and Otis especially

[GoM@g!C$ 0]

although everything in this article is very true, there is a spanish saying that goes: "it is easy to tell if it's a male after you see his balls".

 

Now that is all said and done, that the top players from free agency have been signed and the numbers are known... everybody wants to have a word in what Otis should have done, this and that... it just a bounch BS!!! if you ask me.

 

I'm sure Otis and the rest of the front office looked at all of these things before making their moves. But in this business you have to gamble if you want to give yourself a chance, cause the future is unknown to all of us. After they looked at everything they believed that signing Lewis for that much and letting Darko go with nothing in return, was the best they could do. That was what made sense to them!!! Do I think we overpaid Lweis? YES! Look at the players that have similar contracts and IMO Lewis doesn't match up to them. At the same time, Is Lewis the RIGHT PIECE for the MAGIC? You bet he is!

 

Let it play out guys!! Otis knows he's not playing NBA live on XBOX or anything like that. He knows this is the real deal, and that the wrong move can cost him his job. For what I've seen from Otis, he's taking the business kinda like a chess game. Making a move thinking of 3 or 4 ahead, so give him time... we'll all see 3 or 4 moves down the road.

[LJ Magic 0]

quote:

Originally posted by ibonedteribell:

The points I like to focus on for you to discuss are his commnents that imply former players usually are not good GM's. What has been the record on winning basketball franchises. For example who was the GM on the original Chicago,Piston and Celtic dinasties? In relation to the Darko fiasco,do you think he really wanted to keep Darko?

 

I found that comment very interesting as well and I think he has a point. If you look at some of the best general managers out there today you will find that a lot of them were not players. For instance, Jerry Colangelo, R.C. Buford, Ernie Grunfield, Kevin O-Connor, and Carrol Dawson all had to work there way up the ranks. Since they didn't play in the NBA they had to become good business men first and learn about players and team building second. Sure, these guys have made some mistakes but not nearly as many as their NBA experienced counterparts. They usually make shrewd financial decisions all always get the biggest bang for their buck.

 

As support for this argument look at how many teams are in shambles and are being run by former players. Guys like Danny Ainge, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Elgin Baylor, and Kevin McHale don't seem to have the patience to wait for the best deal. They all have repeatedly gone after the big name guy and overpaid putting their teams in a stranglehold.

 

Of course with any blanket statement like that there are going to be exceptions. Jerry West, Joe Dumars, John Paxson and others have done very well while some business type GM's have faltered. However, I do think Chad Ford is onto something. How can a team expect a former player GM to negotiate well with a professional lawyer/agent when they never negotiated their own contracts as players? Agents are experts in the art of negotiation and know every contract loophole. They also know how to create pressure when there actually isn't any. Sending a rookie, like Otis Smith, against these guys is inviting disaster.

[nbr 15]

Harsh but fair, more than fair. Its deserved! We placed ourselves in a position that really could've been a hell of a lot better. Sure its happened, we suck it up, but what the hell have we done. People should be disturbed by this. I mean I don't pay for tickets or attend games but for those who do, these are the issues that require people to speak up. I've tried to come to terms with the move and am happy that we got Rashard, it may prove successful but its really put all the eggs in one basket which has been my sole thought of not what to do.

 

I'll quote for me some of the key points that have reflected my thoughts this off season.

 

quote:

Manage it well, as the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs have done over the last five years, and your team has a shot to remain relevant and competitive year after year.

 

quote:

But because of bad trades and poor cap management, their teams have been unable to put the right players around them.

 

quote:

don't pay a player more than you have to. Billups' contract is far smaller than Lewis'.

 

quote:

Here are the players who deserve it: Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash (the only guy on the list who doesn't have a max contract), LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Garnett and Yao Ming. You might consider a max deal for these players as well: Chris Bosh, Gilbert Arenas, Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony -- and for Dwight Howard, who signed a max extension on Thursday.

 

 

We can grandfather in a few other players who have shown they were max players in the past -- Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady and Jason Kidd -- though now those contracts seem pretty burdensome.

 

 

But here are some others players with max contracts: Zach Randolph, Andrei Kirilenko, Paul Pierce, Pau Gasol, Ray Allen, Joe Johnson, Antawn Jamison, Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis.

 

quote:

Orlando will have very little flexibility to make significant changes.

 

quote:

Had they decided to keep Darko Milicic (with a three-year deal) and pursue free agent Gerald Wallace, they would have potentially made themselves both more competitive and more capable of making moves in the future.

 

quote:

5. Don't give away assets.

[ibonedteribell 0]

quote:

Now that is all said and done, that the top players from free agency have been signed and the numbers are known... everybody wants to have a word in what Otis should have done, this and that... it just a bounch BS!!! if you ask me.

 

I'm sure Otis and the rest of the front office looked at all of these things before making their moves. But in this business you have to gamble if you want to give yourself a chance, cause the future is unknown to all of us. After they looked at everything they believed that signing Lewis for that much and letting Darko go with nothing in return, was the best they could do. That was what made sense to them!!! Do I think we overpaid Lweis? YES! Look at the players that have similar contracts and IMO Lewis doesn't match up to them. At the same time, Is Lewis the RIGHT PIECE for the MAGIC? You bet he is!

 

Let it play out guys!! Otis knows he's not playing NBA live on XBOX or anything like that. He knows this is the real deal, and that the wrong move can cost him his job. For what I've seen from Otis, he's taking the business kinda like a chess game. Making a move thinking of 3 or 4 ahead, so give him time... we'll all see 3 or 4 moves down the road.

 

 

 

 

Orlando Magic, Arroyandolos a todos

GoMagic, Fine and Dandy on the fact you trust Otis to the point that if you were to find your girlfriend under the sheets with Otis, you would believe when he told you he was just making sure she was the right one for you.LOL I agree to the fact that our second guessing brings no solution to the team situation now but if you are going to defend him use reasonable opposing arguments against those given in the article. If we got tattoed with this deal we are going to have to live with it and make the best with what we have.

[Buzzer Beater 0]

Great article and I am totally agree.

There is a saying in Turkish " you cannot open the umbrella stuck in the asss"

So, I can say that "Otis totally screwed us for the next 5 yrs."

[EnFuego 1]

quote:

Originally posted by Buzzer Beater:

There is a saying in Turkish " you cannot open the umbrella stuck in the asss"

 

LOL. You killed me with that one.

[athena 0]

how long has otis been a gm?

 

all i can say is shard better show his worth this coming season.. or else..

[athena 0]

quote:

Originally posted by EnFuego:

quote:

Originally posted by Buzzer Beater:

There is a saying in Turkish " you cannot open the umbrella stuck in the asss"

 

LOL. You killed me with that one.

 

yeah lmao!

[GoM@g!C$ 0]

quote:

Originally posted by ibonedteribell:

quote:

Now that is all said and done, that the top players from free agency have been signed and the numbers are known... everybody wants to have a word in what Otis should have done, this and that... it just a bounch BS!!! if you ask me.

 

I'm sure Otis and the rest of the front office looked at all of these things before making their moves. But in this business you have to gamble if you want to give yourself a chance, cause the future is unknown to all of us. After they looked at everything they believed that signing Lewis for that much and letting Darko go with nothing in return, was the best they could do. That was what made sense to them!!! Do I think we overpaid Lweis? YES! Look at the players that have similar contracts and IMO Lewis doesn't match up to them. At the same time, Is Lewis the RIGHT PIECE for the MAGIC? You bet he is!

 

Let it play out guys!! Otis knows he's not playing NBA live on XBOX or anything like that. He knows this is the real deal, and that the wrong move can cost him his job. For what I've seen from Otis, he's taking the business kinda like a chess game. Making a move thinking of 3 or 4 ahead, so give him time... we'll all see 3 or 4 moves down the road.

 

 

 

 

Orlando Magic, Arroyandolos a todos

GoMagic, Fine and Dandy on the fact you trust Otis to the point that if you were to find your girlfriend under the sheets with Otis, you would believe when he told you he was just making sure she was the right one for you.LOL I agree to the fact that our second guessing brings no solution to the team situation now but if you are going to defend him use reasonable opposing arguments against those given in the article. If we got tattoed with this deal we are going to have to live with it and make the best with what we have.

 

it's not even like that man. It's just that at the end you got to understand that he is not doing anything to hurt the team or his position. People keep talking and making noise on how Otis screwed us and stuff. Let it play out... future will tell

[Marc Acres 3:16 418]

Chad Ford also ripped Otis for not trading for Vince at the deadline. So in his mind if we don't give up Trevor, Darko, and Grant to overpay for Vince we are in bad shape and if we give up Darko and Grant to overpay for Rashard we are in bad shape.

 

We gambled, just like we have been gambling every other year. One thing I have noticed is timing is everything. When SA drafted Duncan, they had Robinson coming off being injured. What pieces did they need to add to win? When PHX signed Nash, they were not good the year before and drafted Amare, they already had Marion. Both of those guys were on rookie deals that cost much less so they didn't have to break the bank. Shoot look at Toronto! Bosh now has Bargnani, they didn't have to overspend at all! We haven't been anywhere near as fortunate with timing and maybe that is what it all comes down to, luck. We draft Dwight, we get just good enough to get a high lottery pick but not bad enough to get a really good player. If we stunk the year after drafting Dwight maybe we have a team with Chris Paul and Dwight. If Grant came back at his full ability after we drafted Dwight, if Tracy stayed, if, if, if.

 

None of that happened, this is what we had to work with. Ford says Wallace was the way to go. Wallace said he wanted to stay in Cha, we would have had to overpay and that is assuming they wouldn't just match. He says no one else had the assets to get Rashard so we were bidding against ourselves. So Isiah and his magic trade machine weren't out there? Houston wasn't calling?

 

There are no sure things, if there were, no GM would ever be fired. Sure Otis probably could have done things better. He could have cleared cap better, he could have gotten something (ANYTHING!!) for Darko, Grant, and Diener, but this is what the choices were as of July 1, 2007.