Breaking down a potential DeMarcus Cousins deal involving the Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic were implicated in a three-team deal involving DeMarcus Cousins. How would that deal actually work? Not easily.
Late Monday, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported the Los Angeles Lakers were seriously pursuing DeMarcus Cousins in a trade.
This was an otherwise innocuous trade rumor at the NBA Draft that would turn the NBA world on its head, of course. This was something that would get talked about.
It would not have caused much of a ripple with the Magic except Stein added this nugget:
"Sources say that the Lakers, Kings and Orlando Magic have had exploratory dialogue on a three-way Cousins trade that would land the 24-year-old in Los Angeles. All three teams hold top-6 picks in Thursday’s NBA draft, and Orlando has a young top-flight center of its own in Nikola Vucevic, who could theoretically fill the Cousins void."
And then Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports threw gasoline onto the fire when he released a report that George Karl has been actively persuading people inside the Kings organization to trade Cousins, signalling the inevitable is coming.
And so began the speculation.
How would the Magic get the second pick out of this deal? What would happen to Nikola Vucevic? Could the Magic nab DeMarcus Cousins? Could the Magic keep the fifth pick in this deal? Could get grab a second lottery pick?
The questions go on and on and on.
There are two important things to remember before proceeding any farther.
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First, Stein’s report says the three teams have had “exploratory dialogue.” These kind of discussions likely happen all the time and rarely come out to anything. The only difference is this happened to find its way to the media somehow. Who leaked it and who would benefit — possibly Cousins and his agent Dan Fegan, possibly the Lakers, who knows?
It seems clear someone is determined to create a market for Cousins now and there appears to be one now.
Second, Stein’s report only mentions the Magic as a third team. This means they are not getting Cousins and are likely helping salaries match. Their goals or who they would even offer in the deal are not entirely clear. They probably are not even offering anything solid that we know about. Stein’s report suggests Vucevic could be involved as it would make sense for the Kings to replace Cousins with another big.
That does not necessarily mean Vucevic is involved at all. That seemed to be pure speculation. Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports the Magic are not part of any three-team deal that could include Vucevic.
So let us dive in some. Why do the Kings and Lakers need the Magic?
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