A Comedy of Errors: The Orlando Magic Draft History of Otis Smith and Dave Twardzik

by Ben Q Rock on Feb 28, 2008 1:16 PM EST in Evaluations Comment 7 comments

The Magic appointed Otis Smith and Dave Twardzik co-general managers of the team on June 27th, 2005. Smith was later promoted to general manager, while Twardzik remains in charge of scouting. 3QC examines their draft history.

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Year	Player	Pos.	Pick No.	GP	Picked ahead of	Notes
2005	Fran Vazquez	PF	11	0	Danny Granger	Re-signed with FC Barcelona; eligible for buyout in summer 2009.
"	Travis Diener	PG	38	49	Monta Ellis	Played sparingly over two seasons; left as free-agent in summer 2007.
"	M. Andriuskevicius	C	44	0	Ryan Gomes	Traded to Cleveland for cash.

Note: The Magic also bought the rights to Marcin Gortat, whom the Phoenix Suns selected with the 57th overall pick in this draft.

Essentially, the Magic spent four draft picks on four players who have played a combined 49 games over two-plus seasons. Only one -- Gortat -- is still with the team, although it still has the rights to Vazquez. This draft probably could not have been worse for Orlando. Grade: F

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Year	Player	Pos.	Pick No.	GP	Picked ahead of	Notes
2006	J.J. Redick	SG	11	66	Ronnie Brewer	Hasn't cracked the rotations of Brian Hill or Stan Van Gundy.
"	James Augustine	PF	41	22	Paul Millsap	Spent his rookie season as the 15th man. He's up to 14th now.
"	Lior Eliyahu	PF	44	0	Leon Powe	Traded to Houston for cash.

Redick at least practices hard, but his poor defense has kept him on the bench behind Keith Bogans, Keyon Dooling, and Maurice Evans. Augustine had value last week as an expiring contract, but the Magic didn't trade him. Still, the fact that Redick at least has potential makes this draft look a little better than the previous one. Grade: D

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Year	Player	Pos.	Pick No.	GP	Picked ahead of	Notes
2007	Reyshawn Terry	SF	44	0	D.J. Strawberry	Traded draft rights to Dallas for the rights to Milovan Rakovic.

Note: The Magic were without their first-round pick because they sent it to Detroit as part of the trade that brought Carlos Arroyo and Darko Milicic to Orlando; Detroit used that pick on Rodney Stuckey. Additionally, the Magic sold another second-round pick, 54th overall, to Houston, which drafted Brad Newley.

The Magic have literally nothing to show from this draft, but that's actually not so bad. Otis Smith knew his team would be strapped for cash after signing a premiere free-agent, which Smith did just days later, when he reached a sign-and-trade agreement with the Seattle SuperSonics, who sent Rashard Lewis to Orlando. Still, the other teams in the division got an infusion of young talent (Atlanta: Al Horford; Charlotte: Brandan Wright, used to obtain Jason Richardson; Miami: Daequan Cook; Washington: Nick Young), while the Magic stayed the same. Still, the view from atop the Southeast sure is nice... Grade: C-

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Smith and Twardzik have presided over three drafts for the Magic, yet have have not improved the team at all. Imagine Monta Ellis throwing lobs to Dwight Howard on fast-breaks, or Paul Millsap hauling down some much-needed offensive boards. To be fair, plenty of teams passed on those players, but the fact remains: the draft is a viable way for teams to acquire young talent. For Smith and Twardzik to fail this miserably, year-after-year, is unacceptable.

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Stay tuned for more evaluations of Otis Smith's tenure as Orlando Magic general manager.

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Comments

I hear ya, but...

Who knew that Vazquez would pull a fast one on us and go chicken s***? As for drafting J.J., I was glad they did then and still am. If he would play more he'd be our best bench scorer and may be in line to be this teams 6th man next year. Also, since 2007 was the year they brought in Lewis, who is the ultimate complimentary player for this team, I give him an A and a pass on lousy negotiating (as far as we know).

Really this next summer will tell the tale because I think this team may be a minor piece away from contending for the title.

by Eyriq the Red on Feb 28, 2008 3:30 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: I hear ya, but...

Who knew that Vazquez would pull a fast one on us and go chicken s***?

Nobody. We had no way of knowing, so some of the blame ahs to go to Vazquez. But why would Smith/Twardzik roll the dice on a Euro anyway?

Really this next summer will tell the tale because I think this team may be a minor piece away from contending for the title.

True. I hope we can draft an impact player in the first round, or obtain one via trade... but I'm not holding my breath.

by Ben Q Rock on Feb 29, 2008 10:41 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Wow

Great analysis. Very informing. Good stuff.

by MagicManEvan on Feb 28, 2008 10:15 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Wow

Thanks.

by Ben Q Rock on Feb 29, 2008 10:42 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

well how bout 2004

Can forget about 04'
If i remember correclty, we were not sure if we were gonna draft howard or Okafor.

A++ for 2004 on getting Howard....

and............

I like 2005..... we got my man crush.. Carlos Arroyo.
and that one other guy.. marko... something... lol.

but it was logical to get Redick in 2006....
we had the worst 3-point shooting in 05' and although Redick doesn't play, his presence gives us all the 3 points we get now... or maybe we just got better.

by Boricua on Feb 29, 2008 12:37 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

2004

Can forget about 04'
If i remember correclty, we were not sure if we were gonna draft howard or Okafor.
A++ for 2004 on getting Howard....

Right, drafting Howard was a good move... by John Weisbrod, a.k.a. "The Hockey Guy." Additionally, he traded for Jameer Nelson's draft rights and signed Hedo Turkoglu. Yes, Weisbrod, not Smith, is responsible for acquiring three of our top-four players.

Just sayin'.

by Ben Q Rock on Feb 29, 2008 10:43 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Magic Draft History

... I can sum it up in about ... two words.

It sucks.

I'll start from '07 down because I'm in a journalistic mood. It sucked. We should have sold our 2nd-Rd. pick ...

'06 ... how can people say it was logical to draft Redick? How is that logical? He was an overrated Duke player that benefitted from Coach K's system. I don't doubt Redick's shooting ability, but everything else? ... yeah ... we were better off with Thabo or Brewer, versatile wingmen that can play multiple positions and imitate a poor man's Shawn Marion. Instead ... we got a shorter Pat Garrity. Great ...

'05 ... don't get me started on Vazquez. Arguably one of the worst picks ever in NBA history. Why risk a pick on a European dude? I mean ... honestly Otis ... honestly. When your a young team trying to build through the draft, you NEVER risk a pick basically in the Top 10. Unbelievable ... as for Diener, I actually liked him. Personally, I thought we should have re-signed him ... but w/e.

'04 ... pass. You can't mess up drafting Dwight, or even Okafor. It's the #1 pick, you don't get bonus points. I will give credit for Nelson, that was one of our rare, savvy trades that I liked at the time. The jury is still out on Nelson now, but I'll give Weisbrod credit there.

'03 ... Reece Gaines. Could have had David West ... Josh Howard ... Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw were lesser-known international players and with our incredibly horrendous scouting, we still could have gotten West or Howard on the safe side if we didn't know a lick about Barbosa/Diaw. In the second round, we drafted Zaza, which was nice ... except we didn't keep him ...

'02 ... Curtis Borchardt, which turned into Ryan Humphrey ... amazing. Our scouting is impeccable. We could have taken Tayshaun Price, a more proven commodity at the time. Shoot, even Kareem Rush and his troubles, would have sufficed.

'01 ... this is the draft of INFAMY for the Magic. Steven Hunter ... my DePaul homie (he declared too early) ... we could have had more proven commodities like Zach Randolph (head case and all). We then made up for it (for 5 minutes), by trading for Brendan Haywood, which was a great trade for us but didn't last long. Then we draft Sasser because Doc Rivers wanted a player that could guard Iverson. No joke, that's the ONLY reason he drafted Sasser ... amazing. We could have had Tinsley ... when we needed a PG at that time (sound familiar).

'00 ... Mike Miller. Good pick. Again, if we draft in the Top 5, we're fine. If we're outside the Top 5, it's like the Magic roll the dice and just pick a name out of a hat for dramatic effect.

'99 ... two words, Laron Profit.

'98 ... another infamous Magic draft. The curse of Keon Clark. Drafting Doleac and Harpring was good, but ... man, Keon Clark ... he was awesome back in the day. Ask Shawn Bradley.

'97 ... Johnny Taylor. I know .. I know .. who is that? Trust me, we're still trying to find out. Could have had Scot Pollard, Bobby Jackson ... etc.

You see my point, if it ain't a Top 5 pick, you can pretty much watch the NBA Draft knowing we'll screw up somehow. It's good entertainment.

*Bold is a Top 5 pick.

DePaul University, Journalism Major - Class of 2009

by Eddy on Feb 29, 2008 4:41 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs