Orlando Magic Pod Squad – Pat Garrity

Orlando Magic Pod Squad – Pat Garrity

And welcome everyone to the latest installment of Orlando Magic pod squad n marelli George galante Jake Chapman and we’re joined by Pat G 10-year NBA veteran nine of them right here with the Orlando Magic worked for four years in the front office with the Detroit Pistons television analyst a front

Office Insider on the stadium but probably most noted for his time carrying the pregame show here in Orlando uh on Valley Sports Florida right Pat you you what is it going to take for us to get you back as an analyst here in Central Florida my wife

And I talk about that all the time because after I retired I went to business school I had big ideas of like making my making something out of myself and I say why didn’t I just stay in Orlando and continue to play golf at Bay Hill where we lived and just done pre

And postgame shows with Dante yes why not and where’ you land and where’d you land can we Circle back on that because Bay Hill’s still open right you could still come back and Golf you still do some pregame shows and still here and so am I although I have some competition now

From Q rich I don’t think he’s given up that seat and he has a lot to say as we all know yes he does you’re familiar with you’re familiar with him as well so when so for as you look at what you’ve done right you went back you got your

Degree you moved on you’ve had success wherever you’ve gone is it is it unambitious that George and I are still here or is it amazing that is it amazing that we’ve been able to hang on this long you’ve been you’ve been doing something right you’ve surv way I would

Look at it is you’ve survived the rebuilds and now you’re coming out on the other side um no I think that that’s like one of the more impressive things about Orlando is and again I was we were talking about this just getting ready for the trip to come up there is just

How many people are are still there from when I was there um which I think it is a testament a lot to you know kind of ownership and and how Mr DeVos always like treated people and um I I think it’s a a special thing especially like

In sports where you do see kind of a lot of turnover in the things that you guys do that’s a very good point see it that way because Dante and I usually see it as laziness so I’m glad that you we can bring you on just to make us feel a

Little bit better about ourselves so Pat catch everybody up with what you’re doing now we know you’re all over I mean every time I turn on the TV it’s you and Shams breaking down breaking down trades and moves and critiquing on NBA Radio he’s I know it’s rating spikes everywhere when Pat’s

There yeah so um you know I was after a few different things um was with the Pistons started in Detroit with with Stan um and was there for six years four four with him and then two kind of in a transition period before um Before Troy

Weaver came in um and then after that you know really didn’t put too much effort to trying to get back into a front office job at that time my son was right in the middle of high school and um I wanted to enjoy like being around

Around him in his Sports career and I I I liked some of the media stuff that I had done you know 10 years ago that was really my only exposure to it and um you know I I known Shams over the years um didn’t was never really close to him but

He called me up and he said hey we’re doing this show would you like to come on and and you know try it we have an opening we’re looking for like an analyst and uh that was on inside the association which is carried all on the all the ballet sports channels up until

Um kind of the beginning of this year when there was some restructuring so uh I did that for a few seasons I still do specials with them on on Stadium um which are streamed on Twitter and get uh and a lot of it because of Shams get incredible engagement of of people

Watching these trade deadline specials and free agency previews and draft uh things like that so that’s been a lot of fun but but now that uh we’re empty nesters and our son is off to college um I’m kind of giving it one I don’t know

If it’s you’d say one last but one kind of final good effort to to hook up back up with the team um and get back to work I’m only I’ll be 48 I’ll be 48 this summer so I don’t think I’m quite yet ready to retire I tell people I’m

Semi-retired so that leaves the door open that’s what I tell people too but I gu here it’s amazing they they come in semi-retired well so how so how has the game changed P because you got obviously I mean it seems to change yearly but when you when you first went this route

With the Detroit Pistons to now right I mean these the staffs are enormous I can remember when you were here in Orlando right what was that front office Gabe right gab gab Gabe Dave T Otis at the end there yeah yeah now we’ve got we’ve got at least 30 people in our analytics

Team right it’s it’s amazing how this how this whole front office system has morphed it it has um and you know it it even in the 10 years from when I started with Stan so we joined in 2014 he put together at the time a like what was

Considered a giant staff um and that was like four Pro Scouts four College Scouts three assistant GMS um and like two analytics guys that’s like an average staff now yeah oh yeah yeah so so number one you know and I think that I think that what you see

And you Pro you don’t see a lot of this actually being reported one of the challenges is actually managing all of those people well right because that if you think about what a GM is really supposed to be good at it is supposed to be identifying

Talent um having some kind of sort of like strategic plan to you know depending on where you’re at in your team’s life cycle um and then like really good negotiate good relationship with agents and other teams to kind of get done what you need to get done um

Those are really hard skills to have and then layer on top of that being able to manage a bunch of Scouts a bunch of people people at different points in their career uh analytics people who might have worked uh kind of in the corporate world outside of basketball

That aren’t used to that culture it’s a really difficult job so I think the guys that have done it well are are unique p as far as the analytics go you You’ sort of presided over or at least been able to observe the development of that world and obviously the amount of

Resources pumped into it but then I think the way that we understand it and now all of a sudden there’s like backlash and I I I always hear people you know sort of make it the Boogeyman and I don’t think they have any idea what they’re talking about where where

Do you come down on all of that how how is it best applied is it just a tool when you do get back in how are you going to use it yeah no it’s a it’s a good question I mean the way I always uh like break it down is there’s there’s a

Really like two ways that you can use it one is like descriptive and one is predictive right and I think that there’s no question that using kind of data to understand what happened is like invaluable and you have to do that just because you just don’t have there’s so much going on in

The game that it’s just hard to understand so even the people that bash you know analytics are like using it to kind of confirm confirm you know the record or what they thought happened right um so that’s number one and and like especially like on the coaching

Side like there’s no coaching staff in the NBA that’s not using data to determine their game plan you know whe whether or not they want to admit it like how they cover pick and roll like how the type of players and teams that they’re defending that’s going into all

Of their decision making and every single coaching staff has like a coaching analytics analyst on their on their staff um I think the difficult thing and like the more um disparity among teams how you use it is is kind of from a front office perspective like when you’re talking about the extent it

Plays into the draft or into free agency and things like that because that’s predicting the future and you know it’s easy to use like big data sets when you can make you know a million decisions and you’re hoping to have a hit rate of

You know 55 or 60% um a lot of times in the NBA a 55 or 60% hit rate like you get four of 10 draft years wrong like your first four wrong like you could still be on track but you’re out of a job that’s that’s I think what’s a

Little more difficult but you know teams teams obviously put money into it and they have kind of analytic models to predict player success um at the end of the day though it’s the GM’s the the GM is not going to go in front of a press conference and defend his raft pick

Because he said look we had these 10 guys from Mi and women from MIT that built this awesome model I was doing what the model said like how can you blame it on me like then take it out on MIT if you don’t like it yeah that’s right talk to him

How was it Chang with the agents you know as far as agents right because it seems like there there there’s there’s so many of them now it seems you know I’m not saying it’s it’s for better or worse but it it seems to have changed that relationship piece with agents is

Huge too for front office folks yes uh I think um I think a lot of that has to do with the consolidation in the in the agency world and so maybe if you look at 10 or 20 years ago there were many more smaller agents uh spread out they were

Still power agents like David F and Mark barin you go but now with how powerful agencies like C and clutch and um obviously like you know wer man Excel like those are those are those are the big ones they cover so many guys they they do just because they have so many

Guys they have a great deal of power and so if you’re a team you can’t look at it as a you know this is a one-time negotiation that we’re going to you know we’re going to try win or you you have to think about you know you know the

Future and the other implications of kind of keeping the relationship going that way I’m looking at I’m looking at the analytics Pat and and my analytics say that if you were playing in today’s game yes I I mean how rich would you be first of all because I I mean we’re all

Everybody’s looking for a 69 610 guy that can bomb threes you were ahead of your time do do you 40% 40% three-point shooter yeah do you think maybe I born a little too early well number one I would have been a center that’s true that’s true but you

Wouldn’t had to go down on the Block you’d be go right where you were exactly yeah we could have found Bo you know that’s what I said if you just pair me with Bo Outlaw Bo out Bo could play defense protect the rim yes yes exactly

No I think there was though even you know the shooting aspect obviously but you know and you would have the way that guys work on their game now is is different too but just the level of skill of even even stretch you know one-dimensional type four men or FIV men

Right now is like Way Beyond um and you watch how these got like everyone can handle everyone can pass um so this the skill level to me is incredible I I think I always thought of myself as a pretty skilled player but then I watch

Like I today I’m like God I might I might I might have had a hard time well you the morphed you the morph like they do I it’s do do you sit back just at that how much it’s changed and some of the we got a

Right with a guy like wenyama and these guys that what they can do bull Bowl Kevin Durant it’s remarkable I do and I think there’s something to the all of the criticism right now that’s going on in the NBA about so much offense and how

Boring the game is to watch because I I talk to people who and it’s not an uncommon thing to say I’d rather just watch college basketball and I’m like are you kidding me like right right the and I think a lot of it has to do with

Just how skilled everyone is and how easy it looks because it looks so e easy and everything looks the same it just it looks like there’s not much going on um and if you but and you brought up Kevin Durant if you watch how Kevin Durant scores like he takes incredibly

Difficult shots yes yes you know contested shots with people game plan to stop him and it doesn’t look like he’s putting in any effort at all well let me ask you let me ask you that’s a very good point but you played with Tracy McGrady in the prime of his career right

And we talked to him a couple of months ago and you know Tracy well you know you’re not surprised Tracy tell you he’ll average 45 in today’s game yeah but but you but you had a front row seat to Prime Tracy McGrady in this day and age defensively where you can’t touch

These guys right and he’s able to get wherever he wants on the floor you can’t impede anybody offensively what what what would he look like today and obvious mc mc McGrady would be I mean McGrady would be a top five player the top 10 player no there’s no question in

My mind about that today and I think that the thing that people don’t and his game completely translated to today and I don’t think the the thing that people realize unless they really watched him back in the day is just how dangerous at all areas of the floor he was like one

Of the best parts of his game was kind of that mid post area where he could where he could ISO and he was also one of the best passers that I’ve ever played with um and so in an era where you do have where he would have had a

Lot more spacing would You’ have been surrounded by four Shooters he he would have been incredibly incredibly difficult to you couldn’t stop him I mean he would have averaged 30 points a game p as far as the scoring goes I mean because it’s a pretty hot topic right

Now is it do you think it’s in a good place because first off anybody who tells you I prefer college basketball over Pro they don’t watch college basketball EAS e either that’s that’s just one of those one of those things people say at the bar um is it but is it

In an okay Place do we need did we kind of overcorrect and now we need to bring it back I I’m not saying we need you know 95 to 93 every night but but is it has it gone a little too far do you think because I’ve seeing people suggest

That we’re change that we alter the dimensions of the Court we’re getting rid of the the corner threes and I’m like okay let’s let’s tap the braks a little bit Yeah like who doesn’t like scoring I mean I think that that’s the thing that always like

Baffles me who doesn’t like a game where the thing that is rewarded is skill like that’s the game is moved and you know I whether or not you know you could allow a little bit more physicality and take take some of the touch SPS out I think

That you probably could like not to the extent that college does college to me is like it’s like a blood bath like you guys you watch like a guy come through the the lane um it’s not fun to watch at all you know I do think that the one

Thing and this is less related I think kind of to the physicality and scoring but then more to kind of the I think the criticism a lot of times in the spotlight that you see on referees I think that the NBA has made such an effort to to you know minimize eror

Error and and provide transparency to the fans and you know with the replay and all this kind of stuff I think that actually taking a step back and and going more toward on the path of like look these are humans they’re fallible like in the end it washes out yeah um

Would be a much it would make for a much better product like we don’t need to know the names of these officials they don’t they’re not part of the show right um that’s a great point it dep it depends on who you ask it depends on who

You ask though it it depends on who you ask and I and I think what I think what just happened for if you’re a younger official like there’s no reason why you wouldn’t do anything other than buy the book and that means the way that you interact with players and coaches and

You know know I I and maybe this is kind of like a little bit like the Nostalgia coming out but I kind of like look back in the day when you had Steve Javy or Jess kiry or some of these guys and you knew that like if you said something to

Them or they didn’t like your coach they were going to like call it a certain way and that was just part of the game that’s part of the G Joey Crawford right you couldn’t comat Joe craw Jo think about the Dante the LA uh the other night against Brooklyn we had a a

Situation where there’s three three and a half minutes to go in the game we’re up we were up by 30 or whatever the game was well in hand and we had a 5 six minute delay for a a challenge or challeng minutes just and you’re just

Like oh my God like let’s we there has to be put some common sense back into it too when it comes to the officiating as well it’s like listen like he one of those guys could have went and talked to Kevin Oly and been like listen Kevin

Like we we have reservations at 945 like it’s time to get out this one’s you know through the door George speaking of the size of staffs though there’s a guy behind the bench with a clipboard whose entire job is challenges and he’s he’s living and dying with that challenge

That’s a good point and you know what’s sad is I don’t even know if he got it right I don’t even know he he I think he missed it I think what would you tell Pat what would you tell magic fans about this team as you kind of put on your

Your analyst hat and and I know magic fans are are excited there’s a buzz in town they haven’t been this many games above 500 in February since 2012 been a long time coming a lot of excitement here Town what what can this team do what do you like about this group I I

Think that one of the really impressive things about this team is is and it has to do with how the team is built but how they’re actually doing it which is on the defensive end I you know I think I looked and they were you know on basketball reference at least top five

Defensively like at this point of the season with this young of a team that is incredibly impressive I I think one of the difficult things and you’re seeing this a little bit with Minnesota although with Minnesota a lot of it has to do with Rudy goar is that’s the route

That they’ve gone as well they’re number one in the west um they’re the number one defensive team and the question is going to be once the playoffs start are they going to is is their the way they play and is their fire fire power offensively going to be able to

Translate and I think that that is going to be the the interesting thing to watch with the magic as the years go forward is what type of you know development that you you need from your own players and you know what else do you need to

You know improve till you’re at least an average offensive team um because I I think that it’s really hard it’s really really hard to to win be going all in on offense right just the number of players that can carry you not only through the regular season but be successful in the

Playoffs it just there’s just so few of those guys so to have a group of players like the magic do right now that can be an elite defensive team um you know it gives you a little bit of it gives you a little bit of leeway saying like look we

Just need to add some peripheral pieces here and we don’t need to be the number one offensive team we just need let’s get kind of 15 16 and and then you’re talking about you know then you’re talking about hosting Home Fort playoff games um so that that to me is like the

Really impressive thing about that team and then you know I was just looking at this the other night kind of preparing to come on I was looking at kind of Paulo’s first couple years wait a minute you said you prepared to come on [Laughter] here watching the guy’s always ready at least somebody

Prepared to come on here I okay go ahead I’m sorry no but I was looking at you know the question in my mind really is is you know can Paulo be and this is a little bit of a cheap comparison because they’re both like Duke guys but can he

Be can he be Jason Tatum can he be like the number one guy that’s eventually moving into like MVP and if you look at his you look at you look at the stats um you know kind of overachieving relative to Tatum did in his first first couple

Years now Tatum had Tatum probably shot the ball better from three and he’s he’s continued that on with high high volume and I think that’s NE I don’t know if that’s necessarily Paul’s going but like there’s a chance that he could he could be that for you guys and that’s like the

Hardest thing to have is like the a number one who’s an all NBA level player on a team if you don’t have that you’re not going to be you’re always going to be a fringe team playoff team if you have that number one guy who’s an all type guy you’re you’re in the

Conversation to be a perennial playoff team well can I ask real quick guys I know you guys want to jump in but can I just to expand on that what does that is that one guy that helps this team make that jump is it a couple of you said

Peripheral pieces is it just a couple of guys do you need that third consistent scoring option what what opens things up for Paulo where he can continuously be that kind of guy we because remarkable what he’s doing now without the spacing yeah no I think it’s it’s obviously

Shooting and so that’s you know you can get guys that are you know maybe onedimensional is isn’t what you want but but are available in free agency or through trade because they have some sort of flaw but they can really shoot the ball well and given the right team

And given the right other like above average defensive players are like playable players you know for for the magic I’m kind of curious what happens at the at the point guard position because I think that that’s that’s another area where you know if you’re able to have someone that can have the

Ball in their hand you cut down on your turnovers a little bit all of a sudden you know you become a little bit more of an offensive team and I think that that also puts a guy like Jaylen sugs in a in a much better position just in looking

At his his career possession and correct me if I wrong but but his role has moved a little bit and he was never a point guard but he’s moved even like a little bit more off the ball and by all accounts it’s it’s led to much more much

More efficient play for him yeah you’re right you’re right yeah the drives have been down and and basically you know spotting up and that’s happened with the development of fron Vagner and Paulo banero who are both so good at at just getting to wherever they want to get and

Attacking the bucket what have you seen from France he’s got he’s got a little Manago in him doesn’t he with that with that Euro Step I mean he’s he’s a big special player but he’s very unique is he not he’s he’s unique number one be

For you know such a young player to be as good as def defensively as he was able to be coming in you know I think for that that’s number one and then just overall feel and skill level I think that what you’re pointing to Jake of

Being able to put it on the floor and having good vision and be able to make a play either you know for yourself or for someone else um that’s impressive but I think that he he is the key to me or one of the keys obviously like being able to

Do what you guys have done defensively um just to have those big long skilled two-way type guys um yeah he’s that that was a that was an excellent pick Pat you’re coming into uh to the Kia Center on Sunday night we’re going to recognize you as part of the 35th

Anniversary I I’m looking back now you’re still in the top 10 for us in games played three-pointers made talk about your nine years here in Orlando I mean that was the majority of your embrya did you ever think it would last that long being in in Orlando with all

The things that I mean you saw a ton of different different uh versions of this magic team during your time thing was always you given that I was uh given that I was traded after my first year I didn’t think that I was going to be any

Place for for nine years so yeah number one when I think back about that um in that era no one really you never really heard about tanking right tanking wasn’t like a concept it a much better it was a much better time pat if you look at the moves of that team

That was the that was kind of I came in at the final end of the breakdown of the Shaq Penny Nick Anderson era that was the original tank like that was a tank right like let’s call it what it is and it was the tank gone wrong yeah

Exactly no the funny thing was was like they didn’t know how like they just thought oh G this of course Gabe and the front office thought you know we’re just going to get players these are cheap contracts you know rookies and we’ll have a bunch of cap space for next summer and didn’t

Realize how good Ben Wallace was didn’t realize like how but gu how would you like how John amichi was Gonna Be Daryl Armstrong you know how how good of a coach in his first year and having never coached that Doc Rivers was going to be

Just in terms of how he first of all like motivated everyone how creative he was um and how he wanted to play that team went 41 and 41 and so yeah of anything that you so those first you know four years and obviously playing with McGrady and Grant um what I

Remember about that obviously playing with you know two of the the greatest players that ever played the disappointment a lot of times just with Grant and not him just not being like just such a good person and good player and not ever being able to be you know

Healthy in Orlando and then you know there was obviously like two or three really rough years in between there but being with that next special group of players right at the beginning of theirs career of of jir Dwight hedo you know JJ and I I wish I wish was able to hang on

One more year I would have been able to go to the finals playing know that’s just one more year go think about that you know what’s interesting see so to me what I’m hearing is you don’t have to tank because they got guys in here you

Went 41 and 41 and then the next year had Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill and potentially almost Tim dun that’s all you have to do though Dante is you have to add Tracy McGrady and gr Hill deal well that’s true well that’s true but did you what you know we hear about the

The media’s perception right of of putting that heart and hustle team together what was your perception when you came in did you think also 17 wins what this team was going to look like or was there a certain point in training camp or preseason where you thought man

We might have something here honestly Dante I was too young and and probably dumb in terms of like the of to even have like good expectations because more than who’s this who’s this amchi guy is that what you said who’s amch oh well but you go back and look at

The training camp roster that’s the other thing like we started with like 25 guys you know Chris Gatling and Aran Hill Charles oanon was there like that to get one ornon y my goodness no what when you’re I think the reality is and probably veteran players had other expectations

But you know I wasn’t going into my second year I wasn’t even thinking about what the record was going to be I was thinking about like am I going to be able to like get on the floor and carve out a niche for myself and like survive

In the NBA so at no point in that year I I think until later in the year where we were like in the mix were was anyone I mean I at least wasn’t even thinking about like playoffs fair enough you can’t tank with

A bunch of try hards I mean I mean B bow Outlaw on a tanking roster I mean come on now that was that was a that was that was had a fatal flaw I think probably only did you play you you played all 82 games Pat so that’s not that’s not it’s

Remarkable right I mean those days are gone by the way 82 games don’t happen anymore no no no no chance all right well last thing Pat you’re gonna be coming into town as George said you’re gonna be recognized here in Arena we got

A f we got a Gayla coming up we got a a fun couple of days with you here in town but from a family side I know you’re a proud papa too right you got Henry on uh following dad’s footsteps right at your Alma moer let everybody know what Henry

That’s unbelievable that’s real story yeah so so our our son Henry who was born in in Orlando 2005 um both football and a basketball player growing up really fell in love with football and had an opportunity you know pretty decent opportunities mid mid- major service acmy to to go and play and um

And then also had preferred walk- on opportunities at Notre Dame and a couple other power five type schools and you know we talked about it I think you know for him like being associated with the Notre Dame program and the education that you get from Notre Dame and just

Being able to be part of that was worth it even though you know you’re stepping into the deep end of the pool so he’s just finishing up his freshman year walk on tight end at Notre Dame doing fantastic in school that’s great um would have uh we thought about bringing

Him down but he’s like I got now we got lifts on Monday so I I don’t I won’t be able to make it back for a morning lift so I’m like that’s a good excuse that’s a good excuse yeah yeah yeah I like that but that’s got to be cool watch them I

Mean you get to relive yeah I know you went to the games a lot and it’s got to be cool for you to be a part of that environment oh it’s great yeah it really has and and I had always um stayed in touch with the school and gone back for

A couple games but this has C this has created a whole new reason to be even even more engaged and go back more and it’s a great great place all right Pat well thanks so much it’s always great to catch up with you and good luck the rest

Of the way we’re going to have a fun weekend but as you kind of work your way through the NBA and get back with the team it’s going to be fun to watch keep up the great work on on television and uh we’ll catch up soon all right great

Being with you guys thanks Dante I’ll put in a good word for you don’t worry about it you’re all set put in a good word with yeah put it a good word with the sideline reporter and uh part-time play-by-play guy perfect exact option D on play byplay that’s right all right

That’ll do it for this edition of magic pod squad we’ll see you next time

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