Magic general manager Otis Smith defended his decision make some significant moves this offseason.

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Smith said it would have been very hard to simply bring the same team back after losing to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

"You can punt around and say our goal is to get back to the Finals, but we want to win championships. And we want to win a championship today. The pieces we added were the pieces we thought we needed to add to win," Smith told the Sentinel.

"I thought it would be virtually impossible to bring back 10 guys and get back to the Finals. It will be equally as difficult to even bring back different guys and win a championship. So the task is equally as great."

The team acquired Vince Carter from the Nets and lost Hedo Turkoglu to free agency, dealing him to Toronto in a three-way, sign-and-trade that also involved Dallas.

As far as the immediate future, the Magic don't plan on trading Marcin Gortat.

"You'd only trade him because you're looking to get better or you have a need; you don't trade him because you are looking to get out from under the money.

"We think with Marcin it's like, 'Break glass in case of emergency.' We didn't know if we needed a Rafer Alston last year, but we had a need [after Nelson's injury] and we were able to fill a need [with a trade].

Via Orlando Sentinel

Orlando Magic

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