Why can't our FO do simple things like

[Rccanes2311]

Trade for Ramon Sessions and drastically improve the offense? I know myself and others on this board were asking for him all year. Of course we don't trade for him because Jameer Nelson was an all star one time in his amazing 9 year career. Instead we sit on our hands and allow the rich to richer out in LA.


So depressing......

[Nemesis21]

Otis doesn't have street credit with other GMs in the league, Kupchak rapes other GMs on a daily basis. Seems every team is willing to deal with the Lakers.

[ChosenSavior]

Trade for Ramon Sessions and drastically improve the offense? I know myself and others on this board were asking for him all year. Of course we don't trade for him because Jameer Nelson was an all star one time in his amazing 9 year career. Instead we sit on our hands and allow the rich to richer out in LA.


So depressing......

I am pretty sure we didn't "sit on our hands" otherwise Dwight would be gone from this franchise already. People seem to forget that both sides have to agree on a deal. I'm sure we were looking at options but it is kinda difficult to improve when your franchise player wasn't completely invested in the team at that time.

If you want to be depressed, angry, etc., be mad on the fact that the Lakers seem to be able to swindle GMs whenever they need to make a move.

[Rccanes2311]

Lakers also attempt to make a move. We should've been up graded the point guard position and never have even bothered. I'm depressed we wasted money on trash like Jrich and Fat Baby in the offseason. How hard can it be to get a back up point guard on a .500 team? We don't have any basketball minds in the front office.

[damo[23]]

Otis doesn't have street credit with other GMs in the league, Kupchak rapes other GMs on a daily basis. Seems every team is willing to deal with the Lakers.

This.

I've been saying for a long time (years it feels like) that Otis is not perceived as a "power player" or whatever you might use to describe it, in the GM world (and I think somewhat Orlando is viewed as a soft target as well).

I personally believe that pretty much every GM (and agent) feels they can get value from Otis Smith in a deal. With that, few GM's are willing to let Orlando "win" a deal, even if its very close in value, while they might not blow Otis out, they just plain refuse to give him the upper hand. Pair this with I think Otis just doesn't have that personality to force his way through.

[Bensational]

Trade for Ramon Sessions and drastically improve the offense? I know myself and others on this board were asking for him all year. Of course we don't trade for him because Jameer Nelson was an all star one time in his amazing 9 year career. Instead we sit on our hands and allow the rich to richer out in LA.


So depressing......

I am pretty sure we didn't "sit on our hands" otherwise Dwight would be gone from this franchise already. People seem to forget that both sides have to agree on a deal. I'm sure we were looking at options but it is kinda difficult to improve when your franchise player wasn't completely invested in the team at that time.

If you want to be depressed, angry, etc., be mad on the fact that the Lakers seem to be able to swindle GMs whenever they need to make a move.

yeah, this is what confuses me the most by far. i don't understand why other teams wouldn't boycott dealing with the Lakers, unless there is some kind of unspoken rule that "what's good for the Lakers is good for the league"?

[J-Mezzy]

Otis doesn't have street credit with other GMs in the league, Kupchak rapes other GMs on a daily basis. Seems every team is willing to deal with the Lakers.

This.

I've been saying for a long time (years it feels like) that Otis is not perceived as a "power player" or whatever you might use to describe it, in the GM world (and I think somewhat Orlando is viewed as a soft target as well).

I personally believe that pretty much every GM (and agent) feels they can get value from Otis Smith in a deal. With that, few GM's are willing to let Orlando "win" a deal, even if its very close in value, while they might not blow Otis out, they just plain refuse to give him the upper hand. Pair this with I think Otis just doesn't have that personality to force his way through.

That makes no sense though. If I am a GM, my job is to get the best deal possible for my team. So if Otis offers me a better package than Kupchak, I am taking Otis' deal regardless of how incompetent I think the man to be.

[wowski]

second season without a back up center ftl.

[CraZyPraiZ]

Otis doesn't have street credit with other GMs in the league, Kupchak rapes other GMs on a daily basis. Seems every team is willing to deal with the Lakers.

This.

I've been saying for a long time (years it feels like) that Otis is not perceived as a "power player" or whatever you might use to describe it, in the GM world (and I think somewhat Orlando is viewed as a soft target as well).

I personally believe that pretty much every GM (and agent) feels they can get value from Otis Smith in a deal. With that, few GM's are willing to let Orlando "win" a deal, even if its very close in value, while they might not blow Otis out, they just plain refuse to give him the upper hand. Pair this with I think Otis just doesn't have that personality to force his way through.

I agree.He simply is too smug and thinks he's better than everyone else. too bad he's always the low guy on the totem pole?

[WeAreVenom]

Otis doesn't have street credit with other GMs in the league, Kupchak rapes other GMs on a daily basis. Seems every team is willing to deal with the Lakers.

This.

I've been saying for a long time (years it feels like) that Otis is not perceived as a "power player" or whatever you might use to describe it, in the GM world (and I think somewhat Orlando is viewed as a soft target as well).

I personally believe that pretty much every GM (and agent) feels they can get value from Otis Smith in a deal. With that, few GM's are willing to let Orlando "win" a deal, even if its very close in value, while they might not blow Otis out, they just plain refuse to give him the upper hand. Pair this with I think Otis just doesn't have that personality to force his way through.

That makes no sense though. If I am a GM, my job is to get the best deal possible for my team. So if Otis offers me a better package than Kupchak, I am taking Otis' deal regardless of how incompetent I think the man to be.

Well, that's taking it in the context of that one particular situation. I doubt that we ever tried to get Sessions, this franchise has a love affair with Jameer, and we already have 3 PGs. So there was no competition for him (regarding us, anyway).

But I think Damo has a point. When a team deals with us, they know they can pump us for a lot more than ssome other teams, and I think that is due to the reputation Otis has garnered for himself over the last few years.

For instance, not only did PHX get us to take back Hedo while also giving up our 7ft C, they also got us to throw in a 1st and 3mil cash. That makes no sense. Considering all they gave up was an expirer (for an expirer), a guy who wasn't even in rotation, and another guy who also wasn't in rotation while also having one of the top 5 worst contracts in the league, they should be giving US extra incentives.

We'll probably continue to get raped in these deals until we bring in someone with a better vision and maybe a stronger reputation.

[rcklsscognition]

Otis doesn't have street credit with other GMs in the league, Kupchak rapes other GMs on a daily basis. Seems every team is willing to deal with the Lakers.

This.

I've been saying for a long time (years it feels like) that Otis is not perceived as a "power player" or whatever you might use to describe it, in the GM world (and I think somewhat Orlando is viewed as a soft target as well).

I personally believe that pretty much every GM (and agent) feels they can get value from Otis Smith in a deal. With that, few GM's are willing to let Orlando "win" a deal, even if its very close in value, while they might not blow Otis out, they just plain refuse to give him the upper hand. Pair this with I think Otis just doesn't have that personality to force his way through.

That makes no sense though. If I am a GM, my job is to get the best deal possible for my team. So if Otis offers me a better package than Kupchak, I am taking Otis' deal regardless of how incompetent I think the man to be.

This is also my opinion. GMs make trades to improve their team, improve their team's chemistry, or to save money. They don't do crap deals just because they're scared of a GM or respect a GM. I think it's a conspiracy theory that there are a few GMs that always win deals. Maybe they win them because they are good negotiators, that I can believe. The other thing I could believe is if Otis and Kupchak basically offered the same deal and they chose the Lakers because of a better relationship. But if we had a better offer, they would take it.

[damo[23]]

By that logic Otis would never do a deal.

You go to GM X with a deal, they counter it with a deal that see's you losing value, you turn it down.
You go to GM Y with a deal, they counter it, with a deal that see's you losing even more value, you still turn it down.

He'd just keep getting knocked back and never pull the trigger. Its a bit extreme, but that is essentially what your suggesting if "you never make a trade where you lose value". Also it denotes that the GM in question (I am not talking specifically about Otis at this stage) is aware what is winning and losing value. I am not saying I do, but hindsight is 50/50 and we do get that benefit of being able to make judgements after the deal and not feel the repercussions ourselves.

There is rarely a "both are winners" deal's in the NBA, not the nature of the business. There are always going to be people better at manipulating the situation, and people more willing to back down.

Otis is unfortunately not a GM that commonly gets things going his way, GM's push him to what they think they can get as a best deal possible. It might not be huge value increases, but more often than not, if Otis is making a deal (FA signing, trade) he is going to be the one giving up ground opposed to making the extra yardage out of the deal.

[Optimus_Steel]

Well I think Otis is just not a good communicator and sales man. Maybe we need someone that is smooth talker. Half the time you cant understand what he is saying.

[wowski]

Also it denotes that the GM in question (I am not talking specifically about Otis at this stage) is aware what is winning and losing value. I am not saying I do, but hindsight is 50/50 and we do get that benefit of being able to make judgements after the deal and not feel the repercussions

In the Shard Gil trade, I understand that it was a gamble. I didn't like it then but at least I was hoping that somehow, Otis knew something we didn't. But the Phx trade, everyone but Otis and the owners knew that the Magic got shafted. It was truly a WTF? moment.

[Hilltop]

It's not just the lack of vision, but leverage too. It was going to be hard to force a trade and get fair market value. Everyone knew Otis was under pressure to make moves before he traded with Phoenix. Likewise, he had to overpay for Big Baby Davis after Dwight's requested a trade and claimed that Otis did nothing to bring in players he asked for. Chances are we would have been forced to sell the entire house to bring in Monta Ellis if that deal was really on the table.

Teams just know we are desperate and do not have a lot of movable assets. It is hard to squeeze out a favorable trade under those circumstances.