On the critique of his draft history. Drafting Vasquez was his most brutal mistake, any Magic fan will admit that. In his defense though, it wasn’t like Granger was clearly the best player available. 5 other teams would pass on Granger before Indiana took him. As for Reddick, I can’t blame him for that mistake because I wanted Reddick. At the time, it wasn’t looking like Brewer was going to have any affect on the offensive end.

Also, don’t forget the good he has done. He managed to trade away Steve Francis, something nobody thought was possible. He brought in Gortat for “future consideration” and he is now looking like a servicable back up center.

I’m not saying Otis Smith is an elite executive in this league, but I believe he is having a positive imact on this team.

Dumping Mobley a good move? Maybe if we actually got something for him. The whole Christie thing gave me a headache.

Granger was not unanimously the best player left on the board when we picked at 11 in 2005, thats true. But look at our needs-we had Francis at the 1, Grant at 2, Dwight at 4 and Kelvin “Mooninite” Cato at 5. Our primary need was at the 3. Going into that draft, Granger would have been a godsend at 11. He was considered a lottery pick, and became the drafts biggest slide in 05-a lot of people felt he was the best player on the board when the Magic were up.

And as far as moving Francis…well, Otis was part of the Weisbrod-Twardzik braintrust that brought Francis to Orlando in the first place. Maybe he wasnt the one puling the trigger, but he’s as culpable as anyone short of Weisbrod.

Well, I understand your logic. At the same time though the draft is simply educated guessing. Granger is a solid athlete but something must have happened for him to drop that far. It wasn’t even clear that he was the best SF left. Of the players picked between 11 and 17 Antoine Wright, Yaroslav Korolev, and Joey Graham were selected. I’m not justifying the pick, I’m just saying that picking Danny Granger was not a no brainer.

Besides, what happened with Fran is unprecidented. I can’t remember this happening with any other pick in recent history. I can’t imagine there was any evidence showing what would happen. My main problem with it is how he has handled the situation. If it were me, I would have put the fear of God into Vasquez. I would have threatened to ruin his entire career. I think the organization has babied him a bit too much, thats my biggest problem with Otis. With that said, I think he’s done a damn good job so far.