Everyone around the league expected the first weight to drop in the arms race that is expected to be a busy offseason in the NBA.
National reporters have been on the hunt for where Kevin Durant will end up for weeks now. We seemingly get moment-by-moment updates on his thinking and what teams are angling to acquire the future Hall of Famer.
Everyone expected him to be the first domino to fall, allowing everyone else to follow suit after this seismic move set the market. Everyone was bracing for a shift throughout the league.
Then the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies jumped the gun. They rattled cages throughout the league with a blockbuster trade between two teams with playoff aspirations but coming to different conclusions about their rosters.
In the end, it was the Magic who pushed their chips in on their roster to compete for something more than a Playoff spot and the Grizzlies who had pause over the cost of their growing roster.
After years of patience and careful and slow building, the Magic took a giant leap into contention. Or at least raising the expectations that the team will compete for a title in the near future.
Orlando has entered a new level of conversation. That is a pressure they embrace.
"We would have made this trade at any point," president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said during a press conference Monday. "Our goal isn't to win the East, it's to win the championship. The first step to doing that is to move our team forward and get ourselves into that conversation. We're hopeful this trade will do that."
Orlando certainly seems to be a better team, adding a shooter and playmaker like Bane. And the Magic are moving toward their goal of winning a championship.
This is as bold a move as it seems. And the timing was critical for it -- not merely because the trade would not have been legal if executed after July 1 when the salaries flip to 2026 amounts.
The time to make a move was now
Everyone sensed throughout the offseason that the Orlando Magic would make a major move this offseason. Jeff Weltman previewed that as he said the team would begin making moves with a "win-now" lens after the season ended.
This was the opportunity to make a major move. The timing was right. It was critical to make this kind of a move.
It was not critical merely because this was the last window for the Magic to have this kind of trade flexibility. With Paolo Banchero's likely max extension clocking in for the 2027 season and extensions beginning for Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner, the Magic are dancing around the aprons and are almost certainly a second apron team in 2027.
If the Magic had let that moment pass, they might have been left behind.
That Durant trade is still hanging in the background. By all reports, he has listed the Miami Heat as one of his preferred destinations. The Magic are not the only team with title ambitions this summer.
Orlando is certainly not trying to keep up with the Joneses. The Magic are running their own race. But teams that stand still often get passed up, especially when the team's needs are so clear.
If it is not Durant going to a competitor, it will be some other big player. The Eastern Conference is not going to look the same as it did last year. Especially with how open everything feels in the East.
The East is wide open to be contenders
With Jayson Tatum out presumably for the year and the 4-seed Indiana Pacers making their way to the NBA Finals, it feels like anyone can claim a spot atop the East right now.
As Kevin O'Connor put it on The Kevin O'Connor Show, teams in the East should be aggressive for this reason. Teams in the middle like the Magic should go for it. They surely will not be the only ones.
It indeed feels like the Magic made the first strike in an arms race this offseason.
Jeff Weltman acknowledged that the Eastern Conference landscape and the opportunity to get deeper into the Playoffs were part of the conversation and are out in the universe. But he said the team wants to compete for championships, not merely just for the East title.
The team needed to improve. And the Magic feel like they have opened the window to compete about as wide as you can in the current collective bargaining agreement environment.
"The beauty of this trade is they are all of the age profile and contract profile where we will be able to keep them together for a little while," Weltman said Monday. "I don't look at it as we're chasing the East or Boston has injuries or anything like that. I look at it as we're a factor now. We're a real factor."
Orlando did not need to make drastic changes to improve the roster because the team has two stars. But the team had -- and still has -- clear weaknesses to fill. If the Magic did not make a big move to improve their roster, somebody else will. And that could have left the Magic chasing more aggressive teams.
Adding Desmond Bane fills many of those needs. The Magic improved their shooting and playmaking significantly in this deal, even with the huge cost.
The Magic have a clearer path to competing next season. That is what ultimately matters.
They could not afford to wait or see if their group as constructed could develop. They needed to make a push and a major move to improve the roster. And that is what the team did.