NBA Rumors: Orlando Magic Trade for Monta Ellis Failed Due to "Inexperience" of CEO Alex Martins, According to Report

In his report that the Orlando Magic have interviewed Adonal Foyle for their General Manager position, Jarrod Rudolph of RealGM.com included another interesting fact: Alex Martins' decided to strip Otis Smith, the team's President of Basketball Operations, of his ability to negotiate trades and instead took command, along with Foyle, of trade talks with the Golden State Warriors for high-scoring guard Monta Ellis. That decision backfired, says Rudolph, as it "is believed to have been the primary reason the team failed" to land Ellis. Golden State ultimately sent Ellis, Ekpe Udoh, and Kwame Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks for Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson.

When a reader asked Rudolph, via Twitter, for more insight into that aspect of the story, Rudolph says Martins' "inexperience" with the basketball part of Orlando's operation led to the trade's undoing. "The word is he knows nothing about the basketball ops side," according to Rudolph.

Martins took over as CEO in December following the abrupt resignation of Bob Vander Weide. He previously served as the team's President and, prior to that, Chief Operating Officer.

Trade rumors have long linked Ellis and Orlando, perhaps because he's rumored to be one of the players whom franchise cornerstone Dwight Howard has asked the team to target, according to David Baumann of Bright House Sports Networks. The seven-year pro owns career averages of 19.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.7 steals on 46.4 percent shooting. He earned the league's Most Improved Player honors for the 2006/07 season.

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