Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 19: Everyone is thinking about it already

As you can tell by the sheer volume of tweets on this slide, this is the question I probably get asked the most.

Who will the Magic trade? What will they target? And who can they actually get?

I will note a few things — which I also talked about on a recent episode of Locked On Magic.

First, I think the Magic are looking to keep most of their team intact and push for the Playoffs. They have no reason to give up on that. So they will do everything they can with the roster they have now to stretch it out.

Second, I do not think the Magic will be willing to deal Serge Ibaka until the season has hit the point of no return. That is unless they get some deal that absolutely blows them away.

And third, I think the Magic will still have some reticence to taking on a lot of long-term salary unless they truly believe it will take them over the top and get into the Playoffs. There is no reason to take on Brandon Knight and his $43.9 million and three more years if the team does not believe he can truly be a major part of their core. Maybe they do, I do not.

So having said all that . . .

I do think the Magic need to make a trade and fish for a way to balance the roster a bit more. The Magic have a lot of defensive pieces, but their lack of offense is pretty evident. The reports the Magic are looking for a scorer is not surprising. They just need one more player in the starting lineup who can create his own shot and get into the paint.

To get that, they are probably going to have to fish around for teams looking to clear some cap. Jeff Green is probably the player they are most looking to deal. They probably view his expiring contract as a big piece for a team looking to unload some salary and clear space for free agency. His value will peak right at the deadline.

Outside of him, Nikola Vucevic is probably the next big trade piece. The writing is on the wall for him with the signing of Bismack Biyombo. It is hard to justify leaving that much salary on the bench. And I just do not see the Magic going Nikola Vucevic–Bismack Biyombo long term, despite its relative success so far this season.

His contract is very team-friendly and he can still produce — and is producing — at a high level. The only thing the Magic have to make sure is they get a backup center in return to keep their roster relatively balanced.

C.J. Watson and Jodie Meeks are also valuable as expiring contracts. And, at this point, Mario Hezonja is a sweetener. Some team somewhere will believe they can salvage him (and it may still be the Magic, who knows?).

So who are the realistic targets? This is the question everyone ultimately wants to know.

My answer right now is much more reserved. The trade market in December simply is not developed enough. Teams are not sure whether they are buying or selling quite yet unless both teams are trying to give up a lot. December trades are typically panic trades.

December trades are typically panic trades. Teams are just doing their homework right now and making calls and assessing their needs. Names will pick up in about a month.

The early trade market is very murky. I do not want to speculate on who the Magic are targeting. But I could see them making a call for a player like Rudy Gay — a pure scorer, who does not do much else. Magic fans have found Jrue Holiday, Danilo Gallinari and Brandon Knight popular options.

Gallinari is intriguing for his potential pairing with Aaron Gordon at forward, but would fundamentally change how the Magic play — a risk in itself. Wilson Chandler is also an intriguing name coming from Denver — the bigger question there is are the Magic willing to stomach Kenneth Faried, his contract and his drawbacks?

Gallinari is intriguing for his potential pairing with Aaron Gordon at forward, but would fundamentally change how the Magic play — a risk in itself. Chandler is also an intriguing name coming from Denver — the bigger question there is are the Magic willing to stomach Faried, his contract and his drawbacks?

Again — and I repeat this for the fake rumor sites — it is far too early to attach any names to any teams. And this is pure speculation.

Between now and February, teams will falter and fall out of the race. The Magic may be one of those, changing their posture from looking to improve the roster and push for the Playoffs to reloading the draft and young player cache.

So patience is still the word of the day when it comes to trades. There is still a long way to go.