Orlando Magic Daily
Fansided

Orlando Magic Trade Value Column 2021

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Evan Fournier is likely heading out of Orlando after seven seasons with the Orlando Magic. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
Evan Fournier is likely heading out of Orlando after seven seasons with the Orlando Magic. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
9 of 10
Next
Jonathan Isaac, Orlando Magic
Jonathan Isaac is making progress in his recovery from a knee injury. But the Orlando Magic’s season has felt empty without him. (Photo by Harry Aaron/Getty Images) /

2. Jonathan Isaac (5 years, $79.4 million)

Last Year: 1

Young players with elite skills are hard to come by. That is the biggest thing missing from the Orlando Magic. The reason why this lost season has the potential t put the Magic on the right path still.

Orlando had a playoff team. Even in the low-level Eastern Conference, it did not make complete sense to blow it all up. Except this is the time to turn to a new leaf. This is the time to put the team’s best players in bigger roles. The time has come.

The Magic have one player with an all-NBA skill. Jonathan Isaac’s defense, even when he is just coming back from injury, is a game-changer every time. He positively impacts every game he steps into.

Last year, before his injury, he led the league in “stock” (steals and blocks combined). He rates among the top-10 percentile of almost every metric available from Basketball-Index that measures defensive disruption. He was near the top of the league last year in shot contests that ended in blocks.

He had the top D-LEBRON in the league last year and ranked in the 97th percentile in Defensive RAPTOR.

Isaac will be on the all-defensive team one day and likely remain a mainstay in that group. As the Magic learned his rookie year after he returned from an ankle injury, even at half speed, Isaac can be a positive and disruptive defensive force.

Live Feed

Mock trade proposal has P.J. Washington situation ending for Hornets
Mock trade proposal has P.J. Washington situation ending for Hornets /

Swarm and Sting

  • Grading a proposed Magic trade with the Spurs for Doug McDermott Air Alamo
  • Grade the trade: Wizards buy low on a potential defensive star in a proposed deal Wiz of Awes
  • Washington Wizards: 3 buy-low candidates to target this offseason Wiz of Awes
  • 4 radioactive free agents the Cavaliers could sign at a discount King James Gospel
  • Bleacher Report misses mark with nonsensical Dallas Mavericks trade ideas The Smoking Cuban

    • It is an understatement to say how much the Magic have missed Isaac since his original knee injury on Jan. 1, 2020. His return will literally transform this team again.

    Isaac is the kind of player who has value even as he gets set to begin a new contract extension (one that will feel like a huge bargain if he does return to full health).

    As things stand right now, Isaac is the most important player in the franchise. He can become an all-defensive team player and if he continues to add to his offense — encouragingly, he made 44.0-percent of his corner 3-pointers last year — he can become a central figure to the team.

    The question as the Magic begin this new phase of their franchise is whether he can become a true superstar and something more than a defensive specialist.

    For now, though, Jonathan Isaac is the one player on the team that does anything at an elite level (Nikola Vucevic is inching closer to that level with his 3-point shooting as a center). And he is by far the most valuable player currently on the Magic’s roster.