The Orlando Magic have had significant roster turnover in the last 10 years. This is a result of two roster rebuilds.
After the Dwight Howard mega deal, former Magic general manager Rob Hennigan built a young core of high draft picks looking to make their mark on the Eastern Conference.
Unfortunately, we know how the story goes with him. Several of those lottery picks did not work out in Orlando. Hennigan made some questionable trades and free agency signings to move the core toward playoff contention which came back to really hurt the Magic’s future.
To say the least, the Magic never reached their full potential and got lost in the wilderness.
Trades can define a front office executive’s tenure and determine whether a team takes the leap up to the postseason or gets stuck mired in a perpetual rebuild. We look back at some of the best Orlando Magic trades of the past decade.
When president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman was hired in 2017, he did a lot of evaluation of the current roster. He squeezed as much value out of the former regime’s roster as he could as the team made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons in 2019 and 2020. He has made some brilliant deals in his tenure.
Weltman knew the Orlando team centered around two-time All-Star Nikola Vucevic had a low ceiling, so the roster has been transformed in three seasons.
The current team is young and full of promise. And credit is due to the front office.
Here we look at the best five trades in the last 10 seasons for the Magic. There have been several trades focused on dealing veteran players for young players that end up blossoming in Orlando as they are given more playing time.
Orlando Magic’s 5 best trades of the last 10 years
1. Chicago Bulls panicked, Orlando Magic capitalized
The Chicago Bulls deal at the 2021 NBA trade deadline has been one of the better trades that have occurred in the NBA in some time. The Orlando Magic were in full rebuild mode and traded three of their best players in Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier all in quick succession on the same day. The team pivoted from a back-end playoff hopeful to a team fully embracing a restart.
Vucevic was the first domino to be dealt, and the return value became two perennial players of the Magic’s core and one prospect who is just now entering his rookie season.
Wendell Carter, the former seventh overall pick, was the only player to come to Orlando immediately minus Otto Porter Jr. (Porter Jr. only played 6 games in Orlando).
Wendell Carter struggled to develop an offensive game in Chicago, and the Bulls were looking to bring in another All-Star to pair with Zach Lavine.
Carter struggled with his shooting in the 22 games he played to finish the season with the Magic that year, but he has improved dramatically in the last two years.
He has averaged 15.1 points per game the last two seasons which is roughly 4.3 points more than his Chicago averages. Carter was re-signed for a team-friendly deal of four years, $50 million after his rookie contract.
That is a significant discount to Vucevic’s $25 million per year salary he had on the remaining years of his contract and his recently signed three-year, $60-million deal he agreed to this offseason.
Vucevic was traded right after turning 30 years old, and after two years have passed since the trade, Carter is heading into his sixth season at 24 years old.
When comparing the two, Vucevic is the all-around better player. He scores, rebounds and passes at a better rate than Carter. However, Carter is a better defender when guarding the pick and roll and is intimidating when defending the paint.
The Magic needed an athletic big man to run the floor with the rest of the young playmakers. Carter can do that much better than Vucevic, and he has plenty of room to improve as time progresses as Wendell is under contract for the next three seasons.
Orlando also traded Al-Farouq Aminu to the Bulls. He was one of the biggest disappointments when it comes to free-agent signings in Magic history.
Injuries tell the story for Aminu, and he only suited up for six games for Chicago after the trade. He averaged 1.5 points per game for the Bulls and will probably never play in an NBA game again.
The two draft picks are where this trade becomes so one-sided.
Franz Wagner is one of the best NBA players who are 25 years or younger. And he has yet to turn 22.
He was the diamond in the rough with the eighth overall selection in the 2021 Draft. He could end up being the best player from that draft class. He might already be.
Wagner averaged 18.6 points per game last season and is arguably the best asset that the Magic or Bulls possess besides Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero.
Wagner will continue to show how lopsided this trade was as his career progresses, and hopefully, an All-Star selection is the next step. He is one of the best offensive creators in the NBA and can score on all three levels.
At 6-foot-10, Wagner can get to his spots and shoot over the top of smaller wing defenders, but he also is a great passer who can see over the top of the defense and initiate the half-court offense.
Not only is he great on offense but he is one of the better Magic defenders to boot.
There are 19 players in the NBA that are in the 85th percentile or better on both offense and defense. And Wagner is one of them.
Jett Howard is the icing on the cake. What he contributes will be a bonus to this deadline deal, and he has already shown promise in the NBA summer league.
Howard looked comfortable in his first NBA action shooting the basketball well, but also creating shots for himself and others. He averaged 13.3 points per game and 3.3 assists per game. That is a solid stat line playing for one of the worst summer league teams in recent memory.
This trade is one for the ages and has expedited the rebuild for the Magic. The deal will only improve in value when Carter, Wagner and Howard continue to improve and Vucevic starts to decline with age.
Orlando Magic’s 5 best trades of the last 10 years
2. Rob Hennigan’s highlight moment.
This is the best trade in Rob Hennigan’s time with the Orlando Magic and it was at the beginning of his tenure as he still worked to wipe away the old and clear the decks for the new.
Trading J.J. Redick at age 28 seemed to make sense with the roster turnover after Dwight Howard’s departure.
Redick was averaging 15.1 points per game that season which was the highest in his career at that point, so Hennigan sold high. He traded a veteran who was likely leaving a rebuilding team in free agency for a young player who needed a second chance.
Redick would go on to play eight more seasons. But at the time of the trade, this would have been difficult to predict.
The emergence of Stephen Curry revolutionized the game and this was perfect for J.J. Redick. He could be counted on as one of the best shooters in the league who could hide on defense.
He would have been an awkward fit with the young Magic roster if he stayed on the team, so the deal was predicated on the Magic’s direction. It helped too that the Milwaukee Bucks were desperate to make the Playoffs, even if it meant renting Redick for the rest of the season.
Ish Smith was a head-scratcher to be included in the deal as a 23-year-old, but he had bounced around the NBA before playing for the Magic so had little time to show his skill set on the court.
Smith was salary filler to make the deal work, but he ended up being a true NBA journeyman playing for 13 teams in 13 years. If not for playing on the dreadful “Trust the Process” Philadelphia 76ers, Smith might have never received significant playing time to showcase his talent.
Gustavo Ayon was clearly not worth a roster spot and only played 38 more games in the NBA after this trade. Rob Hennigan had seen enough through his first season in Orlando to move on — although fans will not let him live down making him part of the acquisition of a sign and trade of Ryan Anderson with the then-New Orleans Hornets.
The Magic traded an older shooter who did not fit the rebuilding timeline and a solid backup point guard for Tobias Harris, Beno Udrih and Doron Lamb.
Harris was the clear prize of this trade. After struggling in his rookie season, the Bucks offloaded the former 19th pick in a win-now move and the rest is history.
Harris finished that season starting 20 of 27 games while averaging 17.3 points per game.
At 20 years old, Orlando knew the change of scenery was exactly what Harris needed to jumpstart his career. He went on to play two and a half more seasons in pinstripes as the starting small forward.
He averaged 15.6 points per game throughout his Magic career and felt like a cornerstone talent to the Hennigan rebuild. Regardless of how Harris exited the organization, this trade still holds as a positive for Orlando.
Tobias Harris was a young, tall, athletic wing who would complement Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic. He would go on to play excellent basketball for the Detroit Pistons and end up traded to the LA Clippers for All-Star Blake Griffin.
That is a pretty significant value for a 25-year-old at the time to be traded for a five-time All-Star.
Harris has had one of the more solid NBA careers for a player to never be named on the All-Star team, and that is a testament to how good this trade was. Hennigan took a gamble on a young second-year player and it paid off.
Beno Udrih also had a really good 27 games to finish the season with the Magic and a clear upgrade from Ish Smith. He averaged 10.2 points per game for Orlando and started in nine games.
Udrih made up some of the shooting that the Magic lost in Redick, and even though he was only with the team to finish the year, he brought value to Orlando.
Doron Lamb was also worth a look. He was 21 years old when the Magic acquired him after playing 23 games for the Bucks. He struggled with his efficiency through those games. But Lamb was a promising guard who scored 22 points in the National Championship game the year prior to win Kentucky’s eighth NCAA title.
Lamb went on to play 77 games for the Magic in two seasons, but those were his last NBA games. He ended up putting together a solid overseas career and is still playing, but Hennigan received another option at the guard position for the rebuild.
This deal helped Orlando rebuild a younger team with added cap space. Harris emerged as one of the focal points of the rebuild and a future borderline star. The value of Tobias Harris tilts in the Magic’s favor over a 28-year-old Redick and an unproven Ish Smith.
Orlando Magic’s 5 best trades of the last 10 years
3. The French guy can play
The Orlando Magic acquired Arron Afflalo in the Dwight Howard trade and he played two seasons for the team before the Maigc traded him to the Denver Nuggets.
He started in every game in those two years and was the Magic’s leading scorer and borderline All-Star in the 2014 season. Afflalo averaged 18.2 points per game on a 52 percent effective field goal percentage and 42.7 percent shooting from three.
Afflalo was the focal point of the Magic offense and averaged a career-high in points, assists, and steals. The five-year veteran at the time built quite a resume and increased his value in his time with Orlando.
With Rob Hennigan building a young team to grow together, an Arron Afflalo trade was imminent.
He was traded in the summer for an unproven second-year player out of France and the 56th pick in the draft, Devyn Marble.
Marble was a young shooter with size coming out of Iowa. He played in 44 games for the Magic but never established himself as a consistent player. Marble never scored more than nine points in an NBA contest, and as the 56th pick in the 2014 draft, this is expected.
The real prize though proved to be that second-year player, the little-used Evan Fournier.
Marble and Fournier were not a great haul for a player coming off of a career year at the time, but Afflalo only had one year left on his deal at the time of the trade. This limited his value as he was turning 29 years old, but this trade paid off for the Magic.
Fournier was a 6-foot-6 former 20th selection who can shoot the basketball. Hennigan was revamping the roster and bringing in younger talent to grow together.
Fournier had a solid second year in Denver, averaging 8.4 points per game and shooting 37.6 percent from three. Hennigan was building a team comprised of non-shooters in Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo and Aaron Gordon. Fournier was acquired to accommodate those players and stretch the floor.
The first season in Orlando, Fournier split time coming off the bench. Once he proved he could be one of the better offensive scorers on the roster, he was given the opportunity to start and he produced.
This sure worked out for the Magic, as the 23-year-old continued to improve his game while Afflalo started to regress elsewhere.
Fournier went on to have an impactful seven-year career for the Magic. Fournier finished ninth in games played, ninth in minutes played, eighth in field goals made, third in three-point field goals made, 10th in two-point field goals made, ninth in free throws and 10th in assists.
He has been a staple of Orlando basketball for several years and played in the only two playoff berths in the last 10 years for the Magic.
Hennigan did his homework on Fournier and took a chance on an international player. Fournier went on to establish himself as a NBA starter and offensive threat.
Orlando Magic’s 5 best trades of the last 10 years
4. The Fultz experiment is paying off
The trade to acquire Markelle Fultz showed Jeff Weltman was ready to be patient with the roster. He bought low on a former first-overall pick and gave him room to find himself. All while his team on the floor was building momentum for a surprise playoff run.
The Philadelphia 76ers were deep into playoff contention so they wanted to find win-now talent and acquire what draft capital they could for Fultz, whose injuries kept him from even seeing the floor.
Jonathon Simmons was a lackluster acquisition for the Sixers. He only suited up in 15 games averaging 5.5 points per game. He did not last in Philadelphia after the season in which they acquired him.
Fultz was given the remainder of that season after the trade deadline deal to rehabilitate and be ready for the following season. He ended up starting 60 games and found a lot of his former self during the 2020 season with really only the pandemic slowing down his ascent and confidence.
Injuries have plagued Fultz’s career so far, but the Magic are excited to give Fultz a full offseason to work on his game and prepare for next year.
Whether Fultz takes a step remains to be seen. But at the time the deal went down it seemed like a huge win for Orlando, only giving up a late first-round pick and second-round pick for a former number-one pick.
It was a gamble the Magic front office was willing to take, and through 158 games it seems like Orlando made a reasonable decision to find a future starting point guard who is starting to gain confidence in his game.
The deal would be much higher on the list, but the 76ers used the 2020 1st rounder to select Tyrese Maxey.
Maxey is unlike most late first-round picks and has the second-highest win shares out of the entire draft class behind All-Star Tyrese Haliburton. Maxey averages 15.4 points per game and is a much better shooter and scorer than Fultz.
However, Fultz runs the offense and averages more assists, rebounds and steals over his career. Fultz is only two years older than Maxey but has technically been in the NBA for three more years.
Fultz averaged 5.7 assists per game last season which is 40th in the NBA. However, he also averaged the sixth fewest minutes played out of the top 40. Fultz can facilitate, and he is doing so on a team without a lot of knockdown shooters.
Maxey and a second-round pick for Markelle Fultz seems like a win for Philadelphia, but Fultz still has an extra step in his game. We will see if he gets there, but his skill as a distributor on offense is vital for the Magic.
The overall grade on this trade remains to be seen, and if Fultz can take a big leap in the coming seasons it might be farther up this list. Before Maxey stepped on an NBA court Fultz had played his best season playing in 72 games and leading the team to the playoffs.
In five playoff games, he averaged 12.0 points per game and shot 37.5 percent from three. He looked to take a significant step before tearing his ACL 8 games into the following season.
Fultz has shown promise, but for now we have to compare Markelle to who the 76ers acquired in the deal.
Orlando Magic’s 5 best trades of the last 10 years
5. Low-risk move prevents logjam.
The final trade in the top 5 was difficult. I wanted to include the Dwight Howard trade, but unfortunately, that was in August of 2012 beyond our 10-year timeframe. I also liked the deal where the Magic acquired Joe Harris and a 2017 2nd round pick in exchange for a 2020 second-round selection.
However, Harris was waived immediately after Orlando acquired him. He signed with the Brooklyn Nets and ended up having a great career averaging 11.6 points per game in seven seasons for the Nets. But I wanted to focus on the value the Magic actually received.
Bismack Biyombo was signed to a significant contract when he was brought to Central Florida after a playoff run with the Toronto Raptors that turned heads. Unfortunately, he did not live up to his hefty deal and was outplayed by Nikola Vucevic for starting center minutes in that crowded frontcourt that also had Serge Ibaka and Aaron Gordon fighting for comfortable minutes.
On June 21, 2018, the Magic selected Mo Bamba with the sixth overall pick in the NBA Draft. Clearly, Bamba needed minutes to blossom with the team and Biyombo became the odd man out.
Orlando ended up dealing Biyombo 16 days after drafting Bamba which cleared a significant logjam at center. The team brought in Jerian Grant and Timofey Mozgov. Trading a player with such a large contract for a former first-round pick in Jerian Grant is solid.
Grant struggled for the Magic, but he was well worth the flier at 25 years old at the time. He played in 60 games for the team and played 15.7 minutes per game shooting 36.4 percent from three.
Jerian Grant also fit the Jeff Weltman mold of being a 6-foot-4 ball handler with a 6-foot-8 wingspan. He was acquired for a player in Biyombo who simply didn’t have a path to playing time.
What sweetens this deal to bring it into the top five is the career-ending injury exception for Timofey Mozgov. At the time of the trade, Mozgov was owed $16 million and $16.7 million in the final two years of his deal.
After not playing for the Magic during his first season in pinstripes, the team waived his contract and applied for an exception due to a career-ending injury. The NBA approved, and Mozgov’s contract was removed from Orlando’s payroll.
The Magic essentially took on two expiring contracts in Grant and Mozgov and cleared $17 million in Biyombo’s final year of his deal.
Grant probably played more than Biyombo would have that season and was still under his rookie contract. Mozgov never suited up for the Magic in his tenure but was a role model in mentoring Bamba in his rookie year.
Bamba was drafted to be the future at the position for Orlando, and dealing Biyombo to Charlotte opened the door for immediate minutes for the rookie.
This is a smaller transaction but an underrated deal by Jeff Weltman reorganizing the roster while saving cap flexibility in the coming seasons.