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I remember when he was drafted, it wasn't popular. But fans hold out hope.

It's been 10 years, he is never coming to the magic.

Is there a hardcore long time magic fan that can describe the situation?
The ride of it, back in 2005 the magic were on the upswing, and totally missing on pick 11 was bad.
But how long did it take to recognize?
When did the last defenders leave the boat?
Is there still someone defending him?

Not trying to rub sand in the wound, just 10 years since he was drafted, wondering about the feelings.

Man I wanted Gerald Green so bad that draft. I remember the Lakers before us took some kid from New Jersey and I thought they were so stupid. Until we took this Fran guy.

I can honestly say since I can remember he's the only real lotto pick bust we've had.

I'm sure there won't be any misinformation in this thread at all.

Im pretty sure 99.9% of the magic fanbase from back then has forgotten about Fran. It was 10 years ago and alot of picks, trades, and signings have happened to make fans forget about it.

Orlando learned their lesson about drafting overseas and letting them stay there for couple of years. Good luck to Hinkie with Dario Saric and thank you for giving away Elfrid Payton for nothing.

I'm not convinced Fran would have worked next to Howard and likely would have been just a back up center. Neither Fran or Dwight could play high post. Anyhow, Otis had Phoenix's pick and picked up Euro-stash Gortat late in that same draft..he proved to be a very crucial player during the 08-09 run.

Magic missed out on Granger (along with everyone else) but if they pick him then Magic probably don't acquire Rashard Lewis. Which means the stretch 4 dynamic that proved to be such a huge part of Magic identity and success in that span might have never happened...

You cant let past moves bias your judgement against future non related moves. I would not be shocked if Saric turned out to be better. And he really wants to come over. We saw what happened to a lot of the NYK fan base when they started comparing Porzingis to random Euros that were nothing like him.

TKainZero wrote:I remember when he was drafted, it wasn't popular. But fans hold out hope.

It's been 10 years, he is never coming to the magic.

Is there a hardcore long time magic fan that can describe the situation?
The ride of it, back in 2005 the magic were on the upswing, and totally missing on pick 11 was bad.
But how long did it take to recognize?
When did the last defenders leave the boat?
Is there still someone defending him?

Not trying to rub sand in the wound, just 10 years since he was drafted, wondering about the feelings.

Why?

RickB-Orlando wrote:

TKainZero wrote:I remember when he was drafted, it wasn't popular. But fans hold out hope.

It's been 10 years, he is never coming to the magic.

Is there a hardcore long time magic fan that can describe the situation?
The ride of it, back in 2005 the magic were on the upswing, and totally missing on pick 11 was bad.
But how long did it take to recognize?
When did the last defenders leave the boat?
Is there still someone defending him?

Not trying to rub sand in the wound, just 10 years since he was drafted, wondering about the feelings.

Why?

Because it is such a strange and unique situation.
There are not any other examples of where a lottery player was taken, and just choose to stay overseas that I can think of.
Late 1sts and 2nd rounders, sure, but how many lottery picks CHOOSE to never come over.

It is certainly a nice nba draft bit of information

i dont remember it as vividly as some but i remember i didnt know who he was and we had dwight at the time so i was like F all

Not a lot of people cared about this at the time of the draft. A bit of a negative reaction when he resigned with his current team when it was expected that he would come over, but at the end of the day, this whole thing was insignificant. It wasn't as traumatic as some people made it out to be.

OrlandoDream wrote:Im pretty sure 99.9% of the magic fanbase from back then has forgotten about Fran. It was 10 years ago and alot of picks, trades, and signings have happened to make fans forget about it.

Orlando learned their lesson about drafting overseas and letting them stay there for couple of years. Good luck to Hinkie with Dario Saric and thank you for giving away Elfrid Payton for nothing.

I think Saric won't come over because the 6ers are just so terrible (Feel like there most likely will be a buy out in 2-3 years). Fran just didn't come over because he was terrified of making the transition.

stop trolling dude

TKainZero wrote:Is there a hardcore long time magic fan that can describe the situation?

This question reflects back to RealGM being a key access point for Magic fans. When Fran Vázquez was drafted, Orlando thought Howard was the PF of the future and that the team needed a Center. It was fairly clear that he would stay in Spain for at least one year, and at the time, most fans were projecting just that. In such a time frame, it is critical to remember that Orlando planned this all around Darko Miličić.

Many(most) fans in 2005 were imagining the greatness of the three headed-force of Howard/Miličić/Vázquez . Certainly id read as a dominant front court rotation.

..

Not long into the season we also got Darko in a trade with Pistons, who we were very high on at the time, flashes of twin tower scenarios were all over this board. Shot blocking potential of Dwight & Darko were huge, unfortunately it didn't work. When Darko left in FA, we brought Rashard and people were growling at Fran until we realised that playing Shard as stretch 4 next to Dwight (and coupled with Hedo at SF) made huge difference.

Fran not coming over was mostly a joke at Otis Smith part later on (there was a fake Fran account on RealGM still, I believe, saying he is almost here), as we went to Finals and were contenders for couple of seasons after.

OrlandoDream wrote:Im pretty sure 99.9% of the magic fanbase from back then has forgotten about Fran. It was 10 years ago and alot of picks, trades, and signings have happened to make fans forget about it.

Orlando learned their lesson about drafting overseas and letting them stay there for couple of years. Good luck to Hinkie with Dario Saric and thank you for giving away Elfrid Payton for nothing.

we didnt get Payton for nothing, it took another 1st round pick

ezzzp wrote:I'm not convinced Fran would have worked next to Howard and likely would have been just a back up center. Neither Fran or Dwight could play high post. Anyhow, Otis had Phoenix's pick and picked up Euro-stash Gortat late in that same draft..he proved to be a very crucial player during the 08-09 run.

Magic missed out on Granger (along with everyone else) but if they pick him then Magic probably don't acquire Rashard Lewis. Which means the stretch 4 dynamic that proved to be such a huge part of Magic identity and success in that span might have never happened...

We didnt have Phx's pick. Phx drafted Gortat and then we traded future picks for Gortat

Reverse_Angle wrote:Not a lot of people cared about this at the time of the draft. A bit of a negative reaction when he resigned with his current team when it was expected that he would come over, but at the end of the day, this whole thing was insignificant. It wasn't as traumatic as some people made it out to be.

i would disagree it was insignificant. If we had drafted Danny Granger instead of Vazquez, Dwight gets his running mate earlier and maybe never leaves Orlando.

I think part of what made the FV pick so bad in my mind, were the continually bad first round picks before and after that pick.

The FV pick became the cornerstone of front office criticism by fans, media..... which was warranted given the poor vetting process with the Spaniard.

tiderulz wrote:

ezzzp wrote:I'm not convinced Fran would have worked next to Howard and likely would have been just a back up center. Neither Fran or Dwight could play high post. Anyhow, Otis had Phoenix's pick and picked up Euro-stash Gortat late in that same draft..he proved to be a very crucial player during the 08-09 run.

Magic missed out on Granger (along with everyone else) but if they pick him then Magic probably don't acquire Rashard Lewis. Which means the stretch 4 dynamic that proved to be such a huge part of Magic identity and success in that span might have never happened...

We didnt have Phx's pick. Phx drafted Gortat and then we traded future picks for Gortat

thanks for straightening that out, everyone is better for it

dont feed the troll!