Maybe it's just my proximity to the situation talking, but to me, there are few NBA decision-makers more interesting than Orlando Magic GM Otis Smith. And few NBA scribes blend insight, wit, and pure reporting as well as David Aldridge. So when Smith chats with Aldridge about how he approaches the offseason, it's a must-read.
"I usually don't have a knee-jerk reaction to anything," he said Sunday, nine days after his team's season ended. "We didn't finish the way we wanted to finish. Twenty-nine teams have the same problem."
[....] But Smith is not looking to make wholesale changes.
"That doesn't make any sense to me," he said. "We're not that far away."
He neither panics nor over-reacts. Patience characterizes his moves.
Procedurally, he's a bit different too, preferring not to have "exit interviews" with his players once the season ends. Why? He explains:
"It's hard to do an exit interview and get anything positive out of it," he said. "I talk to guys on and off during the season. I know them. I know when something's up usually before they do. So I find them (the interviews) to be counter-productive. It's right at the end of the season. Everybody's hurting ... we were one of the final four teams left. You guys have picked us apart. So the players read that. Their families read that. Everybody reads that. So why should I have an exit interview? They're just going to regurgitate everything that's been written anyway."