The Orlando Magic have a month before the trade deadline and plenty of needs to fill before then. Their focus should be on a point guard and scoring for now.
The NBA Trade Deadline is exactly one month away. NBA teams have until February 7 at 3:00 p.m. to make trades. Today is the deadline to cut any players with non-guaranteed deals before they become fully guaranteed for the season. The period for 10-day contracts is starting soon.
It is time for teams around the NBA to make the final tweaks to their rosters for the Playoff push.
The Orlando Magic are still in the playoff hunt and are currently 10th in the Eastern Conference, two games behind the eighth seed. That will get the team some notice in the next month.
Nikola Vucevic is putting up career numbers with 20.2 points per game and 12.0 rebounds. He is almost a lock to make his first All-Star team and rookie Mohamed Bamba and Jonathan Isaac should find themselves in the Rising Stars game.
A lot of things are going right for the Magic, but they also find themselves at a crossroad. The team’s hopes for the playoffs are dwindling. Orlando has lost its last two games and 10 of the team’s last 15 games. Inconsistent play seems to be a problem.
The Magic’s roster still has weaknesses, but management can address them before the trade deadline. If the team wants to make the Playoffs, they must address them before the trade deadline.
One area the Magic need to address before the deadline is at point guard.
Orlando has been rumored to be interested in trading for a point guard since November — linked to names like Frank Ntilikina, Terry Rozier and D’Angelo Russell. That need has become more apparent as the season has gone on.
Starting point guard D.J. Augustin is having a superb season and playing above expectations, but there is not much behind him. Backup point guard Jerian Grant seems to be falling out of Steve Clifford’s rotation. Jerian Grant has played a total of four minutes the last two games. The Magic cannot continue to use Jonathon Simmons as the backup point guard.
The Magic’s point guard situation was viewed as poor even before the season. It is something the team knew it needed to address. And that has not changed.
But there are still a lot of needs for the team to address.
Another area the Magic need to address is scoring. Orlando is currently in the bottom of the league in almost every scoring category.
The Magic are 27th in the league with an average of 103.4 points per game, and 26th in offensive rating with 104.7 points per 100 possessions. Sometimes the Magic struggle to score and an additional scorer would help get them over the hump.
If the Magic could pair another scorer with Nikola Vucevic, barring a trade and he stays with the team, they would be set for a strong playoff push.
But for the Magic to acquire an additional point guard or scorer, the Magic would likely have to part with one of their veteran assets in Nikola Vucevic, Terrence Ross or D.J. Augustin. Every playoff contending team in the NBA could use their scoring punch and veteran presence. But if the Magic are serious about the playoffs, they need to keep at least two of them if not all of them.
Orlando will have its own decisions to make too. They have valuable trade assets in Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ros. Both are having career seasons on expiring contracts. It is unclear whether the team views either as part of its future plans. Or what market they might get.
If the Magic fall out of the Playoff race, they could very well look to move either of them to extract some assets from them before free agency. The team will almost certainly get inquiries about both as much as they fish around for ways to improve the team.
The ball is in the Magic’s court, they have the ability to make major noise this trade deadline. They can gut the team and prepare for the future if they feel like the eighth seed is not enough or beef up for a strong playoff push.
The feeling is the Magic want to contend for the playoffs. They can do that if they trade a replaceable bench player like Jonathon Simmons or Jerian Grant with future draft picks.
Wesley Iwundu brings the same skills as Jonathon Simmons, and Jerian Grant seems to have fallen out of favor with Steve Clifford. The team certainly has players it can feel comfortable moving around — outside of the two big pieces in Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross.
Evan Fournier is also a valuable player because of his scoring, but his contract may make it difficult to make a deal. He has two years remaining after this one at $17 million per year.
Another player the Magic could trade is Timofey Mozgov. He has not played a game this season and is earning a base salary of $16 million this season with one more year left on his deal. He will be very difficult to trade because of that — not without taking a big salary in return. Timofey Mozgov could potentially help a playoff team. He helped LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers win their first championship in 2015 after a mid-season trade from the Denver Nuggets.
Mid-season trades have proven to work. Teams can upgrade their team and cover themselves in free agency by getting rid of expiring contracts and preparing for the future.
Whatever the Magic decide to do, the options are there, which makes for an interesting trade deadline.