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MagicMadness
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Magic GM: We want to keep Milicic; The saga continues....
Topic Started: Jul 5 2007, 09:06 PM (942 Views)
Cyclonus
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http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...S/70705037/1086


Orlando Magic general manager Otis Smith said Thursday that he can still envision a scenario in which Darko Milicic returns to the team, despite claims from the power forward’s jilted agent that he’d never play with the Magic again.

When the Magic and Seattle forward Rashard Lewis agreed to a five-year, $75 million pact on Tuesday, Milicic’s camp felt he had no future left with the Magic. Orlando then withdrew a $6.8 million qualifying offer to Milicic so that it had enough salary cap space to sign Lewis.

The Magic had hopes — and still do — of working out a sign-and-trade agreement with Seattle that would create enough cap room to keep Milicic in the fold in Orlando.

“I’ve said from the start that I’d like to keep Darko here and I’ve never wavered from that feeling,” Smith said Thursday. “It may not have appeared that way at times with the process that we’ve used, but I didn’t feel like I had to disclose my process to everybody. It’s just unfortunate that it came to the name-calling that it did.”
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TheFalcon
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Air Gortat
I still don't really see any possibility of Darko coming back...
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gomagic33
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Mr. Anderson
If Darko fires his agent, maybe this will happen.
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Ben Q Rock
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3QC
Cornstein won't ever let Darko play here. Still, I'd like to have him back as well. I think he was stunted by Brian Hill's offense and that he'd thrive in Stan the Man's more wide-open offense.
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The Archduke
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Sixth Man
It's a hand I think Otis had to play to ensure Rashard coming here. Seattle has to believe they could lose Shard for nothing.

There's still a lot of time! :lol:
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True Magic
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The Franchise
Nelson
Redick
Rashard
Dwight
Darko

Sick starting 5, but I don't see him coming back.
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Cyclonus
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I just don't see Darko coming back, it would sure be nice. Unless Otis comes with a rabbit out of his hat he's going to look like a idiot for letting Darko go for nothing.
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Black and Blue
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Have You Hugged Your Van Gundy Today?
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I really think that Otis went around the demands of Darko and kicked the chair right out from under them as far as negotiating. I'm sure this infuriated Darko and his agent because they were standing to make a lot more money by holding the Magic's free agency hostage until they had their demands met.

Meanwhile Otis somehow goes around them and gets a verbal agreement from Rashard. I say Bravo.

It's a big slice of humble pie Darko and his agent will have to eat.
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MagicMadness
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I don't know if I really believe this. I just think Otis would have at least called Darko and/or his agent to let him know that he was working on something back on the first day of free agency.

It just seems fishy to me.
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Ben Q Rock
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3QC
Maybe someone will write a book about this summer a few years from now. Is Pat Williams busy? It seems like he writes a book every week.
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magiclive
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Ben Q Rock
Jul. 5 2007 08:20 PM
Cornstein won't ever let Darko play here. Still, I'd like to have him back as well. I think he was stunted by Brian Hill's offense and that he'd thrive in Stan the Man's more wide-open offense.

The agent works for Darko, not the other way around. If Darko really wants to play here, he'll play here. In the end, it's up to the player, not the agent.

The only problem I have with Otis' comments was he felt that he didn't need to disclose the process to everybody. That's true, but you should atleast disclose the process to the player's agent. It was a bad move by Otis not to keep Darko's agent informed, but his agent still shouldn't have reacted as immature as he did.
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Black and Blue
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Have You Hugged Your Van Gundy Today?
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That may be true magiclive, but I'm wondering if my theory has any weight. I thought about why Otis didn't contact Darko, and besides stupidity the other (more credible) option was trying to keep our actions secret in order to take Darko's negotiating leverage away.

If this were the case, would be a bad idea for Otis to basically say, "Hey Darko, we know you want to force us to try to speed through negotiations and meet your crazy $10mil demands so we can sign other players, but we're going to go around you and speak to Rashard Lewis and see if we can get a verbal agreement from him to erase the leverage you thought you had."

We already told him we wanted to keep him several times during the season and that he was one or our priorities. It was contacting Rashard that they were pissed off about because it cost Darko AND his agent (key point there) millions of dollars that they were trying to extort.
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The Archduke
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Sixth Man
If Cornstein's plan all along was to hold the Magic hostage to get the most money out of the deal, I could see why the sour grapes appeared. :lol:
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MAGICMANEVAN
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Cornstien basically jumped to conclusions according to Otis, and probably burned some bridges along the way. This is a bad situation to be in especially if we want to get Darko back because its not looking too good unless we do a S+T for Lewis to get more cap space. But either way were gonna be losing some guys.
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iceveins333
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Rocks blocking shots on guys with dreadlocks
i agree with black and blue on the assessment because I think Cornstein was going to hold the team hostage with darko just like B&B said and even though people may say Otis did some underhanded moves he probably didnt trust Cornstein either after he mislead the organization about Fran that whole time
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