The Orlando Magic sit at 12-18 and 12th in the Eastern Conference with the season almost halfway over.
While they are within striking distance of a playoff spot and even closer to having a legitimate shot at the play-in game, it seems to make more sense for the Magic to be sellers at the trade deadline.
The Magic will have until March 25th to make the decision on which way to push their franchise. So, obviously, they may vacillate between being a seller and a buyer in that timespan.
The Magic rightly feel they are not what their record says they are. Injuries have defined their season. But they also must feel like their team has reached something of a ceiling. Orlando likely was not going to do more than make a first-round cameo if they make the playoffs for a third straight year.
Yet, the Magic seem to be preaching patience. Zach Lowe of ESPN Insider reports the Magic so far seem to be projecting patience in the market with their healthy core.
The team certainly cannot stand still for long. Nor should the Magic accept the stagnation that has come with stalling out in the bottom end of the playoffs.
The Orlando Magic are at a turning point as they begin to enter the next phase of their rebuild. The trade deadline will present an opportunity for the team to hit reset at long last.
It just seems to make more sense to build for the future when this season has a low ceiling with three key starters from last year currently injured and only one likely back later this season. Having no Jonathan Isaac, Markelle Fultz and even Aaron Gordon, out for at least the rest of February if not later, are major blows. James Ennis, Michael Carter-Williams and Gary Clark are not good enough to pick up the slack with this next-man-up mentality.
Of course, the obvious move for the Magic is to deal Evan Fournier. His contract is set to expire and keeping him likely would push the Magic into the luxury tax, a place the team almost certainly does not want to be.
There is still always the chance the Magic retain Fournier. But even if the Magic are planning to keep this group intact, a Fournier trade still feels very possible and even likely.
Potential Fournier deals will deserve their own post because there will likely be a much more robust market for him and a lot more urgency and interest in dealing him.
So now that Orlando should decide to build for the future going forward, there are a plethora of trades that make sense for Orlando to pursue.
A restart for Mo Bamba
The first one involves sending a young center back to his hometown. Mohamed Bamba, who is originally from Harlem, should be traded to the New York Knicks.
The former Texas product has never really fit in or developed much of a rhythm with the Magic. Some of that is because of injury and then his bout of COVID in the offseason. Bamba has fallen behind because he missed key offseason time to improve his skills.
To compound matters, he has never earned the trust of the coaching staff. In fact, Steve Clifford did not play at all for much of the season and rarely has he played significant minutes at all this season or in his Magic tenure period.
Giving him a change of scenery makes sense for both sides. Even better, the team who plays in the world’s most famous arena is interested in pursuing him and their interest level dates back to the 2018 Draft, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
Orlando should try to get back somebody like Kevin Knox from the same draft class. Like Bamba, he has largely fallen out of the rotation and has had trouble finding his niche with the Knicks’ current regime.
Like Aaron Gordon, he is a good defender who can play either forward position, too. Orlando should roll the dice on him, especially if they eventually trade Gordon soon, too.
A reset for Aaron Gordon
Speaking of Aaron Gordon, it makes sense to move him now.
Gordon has shown flashes of being a player deemed worthy of being drafted with the fourth pick back in 2014. But he has never put it all together over a full season.
His consistency and injury issues just make it too tough to rely upon him.
Throw in the fact Chuma Okeke looks like a promising rookie power forward in Gordon’s absence and it makes sense to trade him. Especially since Jonathan Isaac can play strictly at the 4 when he is healthy next season.
Gordon is a good defender, can create his own shot, handle the ball and even can hit mid-range shots at a respectable rate. But he often is too inefficient because of his struggles with over dribbling, shot selection, costly turnovers and a proclivity to over-rely on his athleticism.
Trading him and even Al-Farouq Aminu to the Golden State Warriors for Andrew Wiggins and a lottery-protected first-rounder or at least a second rounder makes sense from a pragmatic standpoint.
Wiggins may not have ever lived up to his billing as the number one pick back in 2014, but he can still be a borderline All-Star in the right situation. He also would improve Orlando on the offensive end instantly because he is the Warriors’ second-leading scorer and has always been a solid player on that end of the floor.
Let’s not forget that so far this season, he is averaging his second-most blocked shots per game, crashing the glass with a career-high in rebounds, has his highest three-point percentage of his career and his best defensive rating, too. He has grown tremendously on defense in the Warriors’ highly stable and structured system. He might find similar comforts in Orlando under Steve Clifford.
He has also been remarkably durable throughout his career, playing in more than 80 games four times in his career and so far, he has not missed a game so far for the Warriors this season.
His contract is not ideal since he is due approximately $30-million annually for the next two years beyond this season. But it is cancelled out by moving on from two injury-prone players.
Plus, Aminu is unequivocally the Magic’s worst contract on the roster. If Orlando can accrue a pick in this hypothetical trade, then it is definitely worth it to pull the trigger on this move.
The Hard Reset
This third hypothetical trade hurts the most because he’s easily Orlando’s best player on not just this team, but for the last three years.
An unquestioned leader who should be venerated since he is one of Orlando’s best players in franchise history, Nikola Vucevic would make sense to trade if the team wants to hit the reset button.
After all, he has the most trade value on the team with a reasonable contract and numbers that should warrant another All-Star selection.
One team that makes the most sense to trade for him is the Boston Celtics. A team who has underachieved immensely this season, but are still above .500 and a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference. They are only a year removed from an Eastern Conference Finals appearance.
Vucevic could put them right back in finals contention.
Even better, they have multiple young assets who could help Orlando. That is what happens when you have so many recent first-round picks.
Grant Williams, Aaron Nesmith, Robert Williams, Payton Pritchard, Romeo Langford and Carsen Edwards all come to mind. One of them was even discussed in depth as a potential draft pick target mentioned by this website for this team.
Orlando Magic
They still have their own first-round pick and even would be amenable to including somebody like Marcus Smart, who is a scrappy role player who always makes his team better when he is on the floor. Smart would be a terrific fit to start the rest of the way in Orlando’s backcourt or at least be a sixth man.
Even a guy like Tristan Thompson or Daniel Theis could suffice as a stopgap center. A trade that makes sense would be something like Nikola Vucevic and Michael Carter-Williams for Marcus Smart, Daniel Theis, Aaron Nesmith, Payton Pritchard and a 2021 first-rounder.
This entails that Orlando is willing to give up on this year, but likely improves their long-term prospects.
Plus, it would lead them to likely have a better pick in the lottery. This is definitely an option to consider if they still believe Mohamed Bamba can turn it around and live up to his draft potential.
He would have an opportunity to start and hopefully produce. Orlando likely has to choose soon between him and Vucevic going forward.
Why not get it over with at the trade deadline — one way or another? This will definitely be an intriguing next month to see what the future holds in the Magic Kingdom.