How every NBA trade deadline deal affects the Orlando Magic – Late Edition

How every NBA trade deadline deal affects the Orlando Magic

Big man destinations dry up

This was a heavy market for centers. There were a lot of teams that needed backup centers and frontcourt help and a lot of players who were available to deal. That includes Orlando Magic big man Mo Bamba. It is still uncertain what his market might be and who might want him.

Throughout the day Wednesday, reports came out that the Boston Celtics could be a team that would be in the hunt for a player like Bamba to bolster their backcourt. They took themselves off the board in that race by going after another shooting big man in Mike Muscala.

Muscala gives the Celtics a similar player to Bamba. He is shooting 39.4 percent from beyond the arc compared to Bamba’s 39.8 percent shooting. This is as like-for-like as a player can get.

It is not clear whether the Magic put an offer on the table. But salary is likely the big reason. Muscala only makes $3.5 million this season. So the savings are significant for the Celtics financially.

That hints at the big trouble of trying to trade Bamba.

Bamba’s salary at $10 million-plus made it difficult to find an adequate trade partner. More than that, it made it difficult to find matching salaries to make the deal work that the Magic would want. Orlando is not exactly a team that has valued second-round picks, although caching them seems to be the currency to get deals done in the league right now.

The rumors going around had the Celtics looking to package Danilo Gallinari (out with an injury) and Payton Pritchard (an interesting shooting idea but a player who is also out of the rotation) to reach Bamba’s salary. The Magic would need to clear one spot to make that happen. But does that solve any problems?

Maybe it did not. Eventually, the Celtics went with this more minor deal. And another team that needs a backup center is off the board. The options to move Bamba are becoming more limited.

The same thing happened with another favorite candidate to acquire Bamba in the LA Clippers.

Bamba was struggling to get minutes and so he was pretty low on the pecking order for teams looking for big-man help. They were going to have to wait to see whether teams could get some of the other big fish.

With Jakob Poeltl going back to Toronto, one of the other shoes to drop was Mason Plumlee of the Charlotte Hornets.

The Clippers became a favored target for the Magic because they had a matching salary in Luke Kennard that served a need for the Magic as a shooter. But they eventually went with another deal for Kennard. And they found a better option to fill that center role in Plumlee.

The Magic never really had a chance if that was the offer on the table.

It again highlights how difficult it was for the Magic to find a workable deal for Bamba. And why they ultimately settled on getting a buyout player and a second-round pick in exchange for Bamba.

There just was not much of a market for someone that far down the list of big-man prospects at the deadline.