Fran Vazquez Magic's 2005 Lottery Pick Who Never Came Over Retires

[Howard Mass]

The Fran Vazquez saga really ended close to a decade ok but this pretty much puts it in the books as he has retired.

https://www.heraldo.es/noticias/deportes/baloncesto/2020/05/05/el-pivot-del-casademont-zaragoza-fran-vazquez-opta-por-la-retirada-1373184.html

Vazquez coming over was rumored for years but it was always about leverage for him.

The Magic should have picked Danny Granger. I thought that the moment they picked him and till this day.

Anyway, hopefully The Magic formally renounce him one day amid a flurry of transactions so no one notices.

[MagicStarwipe]

You gotta laugh

[RookieStar]

LoL what couldve been

[MoMM]

Now we can finally consider it is over

[I Rasharted]

[drsd]

The Magic should have picked Danny Granger. I thought that the moment they picked him and till this day.

I guess many here are too young to recall the RealGM arguments on this pick. Pre-draft, the names we discussed were largely:
Sean May, Joey Graham, Danny Granger, and Gerald Green.

Frankly all of those player evolved in to be worthy of a tenth pick. From memory: I recall most here liked Gerald Green. And that would have been a high-value selection.


..

[Howard Mass]

The Magic should have picked Danny Granger. I thought that the moment they picked him and till this day.

I guess many here are too young to recall the RealGM arguments on this pick. Pre-draft, the names we discussed were largely:
Sean May, Joey Graham, Danny Granger, and Gerald Green.

Frankly all of those player evolved in to be worthy of a tenth pick. From memory: I recall most here liked Gerald Green. And that would have been a high-value selection.


..

11th Pick.

It's crazy how long ago it was.

Those were all discussed and Gerald Green was also a big favorite.

Brings back memories......

[j-ragg]

I remember being so happy Gerald Green was about to fall to us. Then we took this bum. Never facepalmed harder (not that my Green fantasy was all that great).

[Max Power]

Worst draft pick in our history bar none. The guy never intended to play NBA ball in my opinion. My guess is he knew the nba was over his head and used the girlfriend thing as an excuse to stay in Europe. Wasn’t very good there either after his initial media push around the draft. The saga can be put to bed now.

[MoMM]

Well, it's not only his fault, but our GM didn't even talk to him before the Draft, IIRC.

[UCFJayBird]

Yea I think I was on the Green train. I've never been so outraged at a pick. I remember just screaming "WHO?!" because we had literally never discussed the guy.

I also recall our outrage when we learned that neither Smith nor Twardzik had ever spoken/interviewed Vazquez before the draft. They just assumed he'd come over, and I think the talk was that other teams had him lower on the board because of that very reason, they didn't think he intended to come play in the NBA right away (though I don't know if anyone thought he'd never come)., I seem to recall that his talent was late lottery worthy, but to pick a foreign player in the 1st round, let alone the lottery, without having spoken to him was so mindnumbingly stupid.

*sigh* Pretty funny that we never gave up his cap hold either. Basically our way of ensuring he never played in the NBA (unless in a Magic jersey).

[drsd]

Worst draft pick in our history bar none.

Given the expectations at #11 (Thanks Howard for your corrections!), you might be right.

But Orlando has had a bunch of proven Stinkers:
1991 1 23 Stanley Roberts
1993 1 26 Geert Hammink
1994 1 27 Brooks Thompson
1995 1 25 David Vaughn
1996 1 27 Brian Evans
1997 1 17 Johnny Taylor
1998 1 13 Keon Clark
2000 1 13 Courtney Alexander
2001 1 15 Steven Hunter
2001 1 22 Jeryl Sasser
2002 1 18 Curtis Borchardt
2003 1 15 Reece Gaines
2010 1 29 Daniel Orton
2012 1 19 Andrew Nicholson
2015 1 5 Mario Hezonja




In conclusion: i) Orlando is terrible in drafting in the 20s, where a solid bench player is projected as the outcome. And ii) this is Hezonja for me, not Vázquez.



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[drsd]

Yea I think I was on the Green train. I've never been so outraged at a pick. I remember just screaming "WHO?!" because we had literally never discussed the guy.

I also recall our outrage when we learned that neither Smith nor Twardzik had ever spoken/interviewed Vazquez before the draft. They just assumed he'd come over, and I think the talk was that other teams had him lower on the board because of that very reason, they didn't think he intended to come play in the NBA right away (though I don't know if anyone thought he'd never come)., I seem to recall that his talent was late lottery worthy, but to pick a foreign player in the 1st round, let alone the lottery, without having spoken to him was so mindnumbingly stupid.

*sigh* Pretty funny that we never gave up his cap hold either. Basically our way of ensuring he never played in the NBA (unless in a Magic jersey).

Well we can play a what-if game based on his European stats.
i) he is the EuroLeague all-time leader in blocks and the Spanish League all-time leader in blocks; so he would have been a good rim protector in the NBA.
ii) he won a bunch of titles, so he likely would have competed hard.
iii) his PPG and RPG stats were not-good to very-poor on teams where he was expected to be a key contributor.

In conclusion, looking backwards, he looks like he would have emerged as a Khem-Birch type player.

SO: even if he had come to Orlando: he would have sucked.



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[NEM]

So he’s not coming over?

[TheChaser]

I wanted Green or Hakim Warrick, but my God what a bad draft.

[fendilim]

Damn. Gerald Green. Great times

[UCFJayBird]

Yea I think I was on the Green train. I've never been so outraged at a pick. I remember just screaming "WHO?!" because we had literally never discussed the guy.

I also recall our outrage when we learned that neither Smith nor Twardzik had ever spoken/interviewed Vazquez before the draft. They just assumed he'd come over, and I think the talk was that other teams had him lower on the board because of that very reason, they didn't think he intended to come play in the NBA right away (though I don't know if anyone thought he'd never come)., I seem to recall that his talent was late lottery worthy, but to pick a foreign player in the 1st round, let alone the lottery, without having spoken to him was so mindnumbingly stupid.

*sigh* Pretty funny that we never gave up his cap hold either. Basically our way of ensuring he never played in the NBA (unless in a Magic jersey).

Well we can play a what-if game based on his European stats.
i) he is the EuroLeague all-time leader in blocks and the Spanish League all-time leader in blocks; so he would have been a good rim protector in the NBA.
ii) he won a bunch of titles, so he likely would have competed hard.
iii) his PPG and RPG stats were not-good to very-poor on teams where he was expected to be a key contributor.

In conclusion, looking backwards, he looks like he would have emerged as a Khem-Birch type player.

SO: even if he had come to Orlando: he would have sucked.



..

Agreed. I just meant that at the time people thought he was lottery worthy if he was coming over. He most likely would've wound up being a serviceable backup player, which is a disappointment for a lottery pick for sure. Then again, playing the what if scenario, you never know how he would've panned out with NBA facilities, the lifestyle, different coaching, training, opportunities, etc. We'll never really know whether he would've been any good in the NBA. Odds certainly suggest though that he would've been ok at best.

Easily the worst draft pick in Magic history if you ask me. There were other busts and players who we expected more out of that didn't work out, but combined with the sheer lack of due diligence from management this is #1 for sure.

[drsd]

Easily the worst draft pick in Magic history if you ask me. There were other busts and players who we expected more out of that didn't work out, but combined with the sheer lack of due diligence from management this is #1 for sure.

[j-ragg]

Easily the worst draft pick in Magic history if you ask me. There were other busts and players who we expected more out of that didn't work out, but combined with the sheer lack of due diligence from management this is #1 for sure.

Yeah, we haven't had a lot of success with mid-late firsts like everyone but we had a pretty good lotto track record up until Hezonja. Easily biggest bust in franchise history imo too.

[MoMM]

Except for #1 picks, we are really really bad in terms of drafting and when we draft a good player, we trade them before they making a real jump in terms of production.

I just hope that Fultz will become another #1 great for Orlando.