Trade Deadline Passes: Same Ol' Magic

Despite the countless trades and eager GMs wanting to acquire expirings, for just about anything, Otis didn't budge. But other teams traded for talent to shore up their frontcourt; instead we watched as they got better. Here are the big men traded recently:

• Drew Gooden to Chicago
• Cedric Simmons to Chicago
• Ben Wallace to Cleveland
• Joe Smith to Cleveland
• Primoz Brezec to Toronto

I don't buy the whole 'don't want trade Arroyo because we would be left with only two point guards' idea. First off, only one or two of them play the point each night anyways, and Turk handles the ball a lot of the time, especially bringing it up the court frequently. This whole deadline for the Magic has been disappointing mostly because we kept players that we cannot resign anyways. With Nelson's new $35 million dollar extension, we can't resign free agents Dooling and Arroyo both, at seasons end. Unless Otis has a master plan of letting thier contracts come off the books and acquiring a better point guard and/or power forward in the free agency, then hes an idiot. Maybe he has a bright idea of getting a point guard or big man in the draft. No. With our track record of drafting, we sure can't bank on that.

One of the best quotes i have heard all day about this topic came from MagicalMan at the RealGM Magic Board, "you can always pickup a pg on a 10 day contract if you have to. Theres always a safety net. Its not like we would do much worse at the pg with a D league player over arroyo." Great point. If an injury did occur we could do what every other team does who has two point guards. Add another. It would only be in emergency. Plus its not like our PGs do that much really in the first place.

People are already calling for Vanderwiede to axe Mr. Magic GM. So as a message to Otis: Watch out. The fans are starting to rant.

And to inject a little humor into this fun-filled post I will leave you with this quote by y 2 a b from the 'axe Mr. Magic GM' link above: "TRADE OTIS!!!"

UPDATE: Otis attributes his deadline-standstill to "nothing much that was going to make us a lot better".

Orlando has $13.5 million in expiring contracts in Carlos Arroyo ($4 million), James Augustine ($687,000), Maurice Evans ($1.5 million), Keyon Dooling ($3.6 million) and Pat Garrity ($3.8 million). But how much of the money will just go to another Free Agent? We don't even know if there will be better options in Free Agency. And many of the potential acquisitions during the summer are there to make a big payday, and we wont and cant afford that. Good move Otis, doing nothing is just what we needed. At least get a rugged power forward to help in the playoffs. I should have expected what we have been getting from Otis all along...nothing.