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By Marc D'Amico | June 25, 2008

It’s the day before the NBA Draft, and at 11:00 am Otis Smith comes into the media room at RDV Sportsplex ready to answer questions. Orlando is one of the 30 NBA cities full of eager reporters looking for answers. But as many NBA general managers do the day before the draft, Smith kept his answer short, sweet and non-definitive.

Still, as Otis danced around questions like “Can you give me your prediction of the top 10?” and “Do you have a short list of the guys at 22 that you have a chance to get?”, he did make a few key points about the Magic and their drafting strategies.

Smith made clear that the team isn’t necessarily drafting by position. The Magic seem adamant on the fact that they will address their pick first by talent and then by position.

“You want to go for the best player available on the board,” said Smith. “That way you get an asset and you can choose to do with the asset as you please, as opposed to trying to get a position.”

He also said that the organization feels there will be a player around when they pick that can help the team in the future.

Assessing the talent and rank of players is only the beginning. Smith and his colleagues have dug into their prospects not just as players, but also as people. Step one was a background check. Step two was the face-to-face interview with Smith, which, according to him, could be as important as anything.

“For me to sit down face-to-face is huge,” Smith said. “I put a lot of value on the sit-down time, probably more than I do on putting them in the gym and watch them hoist up jumpers.”

Smith and the Magic front office hope that with their evaluation, they’ll find a player that will fit in nicely with the team and be hitting those jumpers next season. Where the Magic are going to find that player was the next topic Smith addressed.

The Magic are slated to select with the 22nd overall pick of the draft. From what Smith said, it seems like that’s where they’re going to stay.

“We've explored the option of moving both up and back to get another asset, but at this point there's nothing imminent that's going to happen,” he said. “If I had to sit here and tell you what's the percentage of something happening with us, I'd probably tell you there's about an 80 percent chance that (we) don't trade anything.”

As time ticks away and the Magic selection inches closer and closer, everyone in Orlando knows that whoever is chosen with that pick will be quite the player… and quite the person. And lucky for him, this player probably won’t have to sit and wait tomorrow night past the 22nd pick.