Orlando Magic Daily Roundtable: It is trading season
By David Iwanowski (@davidiwan1)
Orlando Magic send Jeff Green to the Golden State Warriors for a Google Glass. Too steep of an asking price for the Warriors? You’re right.
Orlando Magic send C.J. Watson and the rights to the next Tomorrowland attraction at Magic Kingdom to the Boston Celtics for the pick swap with the Brooklyn Nets. Can’t do that one?
Hmmm.
The situation for trades is extremely difficult for the Orlando Magic. They would ideally want to trade any combination of Serge Ibaka, Jeff Green and Nikola Vucevic. Bismack Biyombo, D.J. Augustin and C.J. Watson likely are not tradable at the moment. And they definitely do not want to trade Aaron Gordon.
The most likely player to be moved is Serge Ibaka. The Magic do not want to lose him without any return at the end of the season, and the team’s lack of success means it is pretty much a sure thing he would not return beyond this year.
The hard part is finding a trade partner for Ibaka. The only teams that would take the chance on a veteran with an expiring contract are teams who feel they are one piece away from contending for a championship.
The teams in that range would be the Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, Boston Celtics and LA Clippers.
The Clippers likely have no assets to trade besides recent first round draft pick Brice Johnson, so it would not be possible to match the salaries to make a trade work. The Rockets have some interesting young assets in Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell, but again a deal would likely not work out salary wise. The Celtics do have an Amir Johnson expiring deal, a top-11 protected first round pick from the Memphis Grizzlies and a surplus of young guards. Would a deal involving Johnson, Terry Rozier and the Grizzlies pick entice either team?
The Raptors have been the most common name thrown out in terms of possible destinations, especially after they showed significant interest over the summer.
They have a solid trade chip in Terrence Ross, as well as a bunch of young bigs who do not see much playing time. A potential trade could be Terrence Ross, Jared Sullinger, who is on an expiring contract, and either Lucas Nogueira or Bruno Caboclo (who at this point in time is only a year away) for Ibaka.
Although Ibaka is having a good season, the limited market demand for him will push his price down to what Magic fans may feel is a disappointing return for a guy they so recently traded a lot for.
As much as I would like to be unique in my proposal here, I truly see Toronto as the most likely destination. They are in the peak level of success for their franchise right in the prime of their two best players, and they feel they could have a good shot at inking Ibaka to a long-term deal to stretch out their window.
A roster of Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Serge Ibaka, Jonas Valunciunas, Patrick Patterson, DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, Jakob Poeltl, Norman Powell and Pascal Siakam would be an elite team and could give the Cleveland Cavaliers serious problems in a potential playoff series.
That is why I am marking them as the most realistic trade scenario for the Magic.