Orlando Magic President Bob Vander Weide announced today that Otis Smith has been promoted to the position of General Manager. Dave Twardzik will maintain his role as Assistant General Manager.
?In a short amount of time, Otis has done a tremendous job in regards to player acquisitions, while at the same time, setting us up for the future,? said Vander Weide. ?He brings a wide range of experience, great energy, dedication, leadership and vision to our basketball operations.?
Smith, who was promoted to Assistant General Manager on June 27, 2005, will be responsible for overseeing basketball operations, including player acquisitions via the draft, free agency and trades, player development, scouting and salary cap management. During the last eight months, he?s played a key role in obtaining Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo from Detroit (Feb. 15), while also gaining future significant salary cap flexibility by obtaining the expiring contract of Anfernee Hardaway from New York, along with Trevor Ariza for Steve Francis a week later (Feb. 22). He also extended the contracts of Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson and Tony Battie. Orlando won 16 of its last 22 games of the season, including 12 of its last 13 at home.
Smith was named Orlando?s director of player development on September 15, 2003.