The Magic had extensive talks with the Seattle SuperSonics about attaining veteran power forward Kurt Thomas. But because Thomas has an expiring contract, teams had to sweeten a potential deal with more than just expiring contracts, meaning throwing in other players or draft picks.
Seattle originally sought three first-round picks from the Magic in addition to the expiring deals of Carlos Arroyo ($4 million) and Pat Garrity ($3.8 million). When the Magic obviously passed on that deal, Seattle dropped its demand to two first-round picks and the two expiring deals.
Smith would have been willing to give up one first-round pick and $8 million worth of expiring deals, but not first-round picks in 2008 and 2010. He deemed that to be too steep a price to rent the 35-year-old Thomas for 26 regular-season games and the playoffs.
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