John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com chatted with GM Otis Smith to get his take on the free-agency period. Among the highlights:
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Smith doesn't foresee pursuing Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, or Amar'e Stoudemire, the three top free agent power forwards.
``I got power forwards sitting on my bench right now who can help us and until they play a lot then how do we know that won’t work?’’ Smith asked. ``I think a lot of our guys will make a big jump with another season of playing under (head coach) Stan (Van Gundy).’’
The Magic have identified Steve Blake and C.J. Watson as desirable backup point guards for Jameer Nelson. To be clear, Smith did not comment on either player directly, at least not in this story. Read my take on Blake here and Watson here.
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Smith is taking a wait-and-see approach, as he tends to do, during free agency:
``The ones who need to jump out of the gates early are the ones who have lots of cap room and the top free agents. We’ll let the top guys go do their thing, let the market re-set and then we’ll be ready.’’
It's possible that Smith's talking point about the power forwards is a smokescreen; Alan Hahn and Adrian Wojnarowksi (scroll to "Stoudemire meets with Heat") have linked the Magic and Stoudemire via a sign-and-trade, while numerous outlets have reported the Magic's interest in Boozer.