NBA Trade Deadline: Acquiring a superstar too unrealistic for Orlando Magic at trade deadline
People are hoping for the Orlando Magic to make a big splash, but to get a superstar the asking price is typically high, even unreasonable.
The Orlando Magic are a team without a superstar, without a true alpha dog. It is hardly a secret that to be legitimate contender (or anything close) it requires at least one superstar, often two. But what can the Magic do to obtain one?
Is there any way the Magic could obtain a player like Blake Griffin or Jimmy Butler? Clearly the Magic have tried.
And even if the Clippers are not ready to trade a player like Griffin, as Doc Rivers stated late Tuesday night, the answer is the Magic probably do not have enough presently to acquire that star, at least not without drastically weakening the depth by giving up too many core players and not after giving up Tobias Harris in Tuesday’s trade.
The Chicago Bulls already seemingly asked too much for Butler’s services, hoping for Victor Oladipo, a first round pick, “and another player.” Rest assured that “other player” was likely either Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris (reports are that he may already be headed to Detroit for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova)—or even Aaron Gordon.
It was not an insignificant bench cog, or the Magic likely would have jumped on the offer if the conversations were at all serious.
And that is just it: To get a lot, a team has to give up a lot. For the Magic that “a lot” means a lot of players because the team lacks any defining talents to bargain with other teams for or big-salary players that are worth trading for straight up.
More from Orlando Magic News
- Orlando Magic completing training camp roster with length, athleticism
- Arnie Kander refreshes Orlando Magic’s performance training
- Orlando Magic 2023-24 Full 82-Game Schedule
- Orlando Magic’s In-Season Tournament Group play will challenge young team
- Orlando Magic stars prepare to take on the world
Sure, Channing Frye has drummed up interest and many teams may feel the Magic will deal Victor Oladipo for pennies on the dollar, but general manager Rob Hennigan is too prudent to get into a game of dealing half of his core for one superstar.
Touching on Griffin (if the Clippers are interested in trading him at all, the asking price certainly is reportedly very high), he has just one year after this season remaining on his contract. The Magic would basically be renting a superstar for a season and a half with little assurance he stays in The City Beautiful.
Butler is more realistic as he just signed an extension and has four years remaining on it following this season. But he has an injury at the moment and the amount the Magic would have to give up along with Butler’s absence would send the Magic tumbling down the standings.
John Paxson and Gar Forman are not ones to pull many deals anyway. That is mostly because they both tend to ask the world for players that are not worth anywhere near as much as Chicago thinks. For proof, look no further than the fact the Bulls have not made a substantial trade any time in recent memory.
That is not to say Butler is not a superstar. He is very close to fitting that mold.
And yes, Griffin is a superstar and defining talent, but where have the Clippers gone in the playoffs to substantiate the notion that acquiring him would radically change the Magic’s fate other than to increase their national profile?
Most especially, after trading two core players and a pick, Griffin would be finding his way onto a depleted roster that may be worse than the Magic’s current prospects.
What is there to keep him when his contract runs out?
Fans want to see the Magic acquire that missing superstar, but a better method of doing it would be to clear cap room and entice a free agent — to get a guy who chose to be in Orlando, not had his fate twisted by a general manager. That would be the case with Griffin, and Butler could whine his way out of Orlando if he did not like fighting just to make the playoffs.
And that appears to be what the Magic are doing in trading Tobias Harris to the Pistons for Brandon Jennings and his expiring contract and Ersan Ilyasova and his non-guaranteed deal for the 2017 season.
The Magic are not in a position of luxury, and it may be the most important revelation to come from this trade deadline. Hennigan is finding out exactly what others teams think of the Magic’s players. And their lack of development into even solid secondary options is holding the team back from making the necessary splash or steps forward.
How much value does Vucevic hold? What teams would give up a major asset for Griffin? Would the Magic even deal him without an offer to blow them away?
Is Evan Fournier likely to be dealt or re-signed?
We have answers to none of these questions, at least not yet. It is difficult to wander into a dark room and find the light switch, which is essentially Hennigan and the Magic’s young talent’s task.
We just do not know at this point what other teams think of the Magic’s stars. But judging by the Bulls’ reported demands, the answer is likely “not as much as Magic fans and management think.” That is usually the case with any team. Compromise has to set in to fill needs or strike a deal.
Of course, with Harris’ contract being unloaded for Brandon Jennings, that opens up the possibility of Orlando luring a major max-contract superstar this summer. The goal now may be to get that star without giving up any piece of the core which the team would surely have to do in a trade.
This is the route that makes the most sense, and as of the time of publishing it appears to be likely.
The team is improving and there are some valuable players on the roster, but to obtain a superstar, the best route is still likely free agency — given Orlando makes the right decisions to clear the cap room to sign one and players develop enough to attract them to the team.
The bottom line is it is unrealistic to expect the Magic to make a blockbuster deal in the next three days. It is not out of the realm of possibility, but it may be that most deals for the likes of Griffin, Butler or even DeMarcus Cousins (also unlikely to be dealt) or some other “star-quality” player are going to be ones that would deplete Orlando’s overall talent level.
And in short, that is just not how trades are done — not in real life. Many fans have fun with the NBA2K series making trades, or even tinkering with ESPN’s Trade Machine.
But that is not reality.
It is tinkering with chips that are only valued on the basis of contracts, while in fact there are many bargain players and many guys worth substantially more than their numbers would indicate.
NBA general managers know this. Wise fans know this.
Next: Have the Orlando Magic made progress in year after firing Jacque Vaughn?
And those groups are the ones who likely hold the most realistic hopes for Orlando Magic trades this season.