The Orlando Magic's season is only nine games old and already there is at least a little tension.
The team is sinking to the bottom of the standings and is in desperate need to find its identity to turn things around.
For many around the league, it is never too early to think about trades. And the Magic -- nearing the second apron, dealing with injuries and disappointment in the standings -- seem like a prime candidate for a liquidation sale of sorts.
A disappointing team like the Magic with a bloated payroll is going to be fresh meat for a lot of the sharks when the trade season really picks up.
Orlando has already seen Wendell Carter rumors pop up. Bill Simmons idly endorsed a Ringer idea to swap Franz Wagner and Darius Garland -- in a ridiculous and lopsided deal.
The Portland Trail Blazers and Brooklyn Nets are among the fan bases pining for Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. Even the Detroit Pistons are thinking big.
Nobody is considering what the Magic want back. Most of these fan bases are just window shopping. The Magic are expected to be a team selling. There are plenty of national pundits who want to see a complete teardown.
Bleacher Report listed the Magic's three primary trade assets as the Anthony Black/Jalen Suggs decision, their now-available 2032 first-round draft pick and Franz Wagner.
All three of those should be on the table.
But the more you look at the Magic's situation and their likely approach to the trade deadline and next round of transactions, the more it becomes clear the direction the Magic might head.
The Magic's real trade deadline offer is the player they spent so much to acquire: Desmond Bane.
He is the player who could help resolve the team's financial crunch the most and net them the most in return.
President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has already publicly acknowledged that this group will not stick together after this season. The financial realities make it clear that the team must cut payroll.
Improving and cutting payroll is a difficult needle to thread. It will inevitably lead to some hard decisions.
The sunk cost
The most difficult thing for the Orlando Magic will be admitting that their plan did not work.
It was only a year ago that the Magic pushed all their chips in to acquire Desmond Bane. It was a bold move that addressed a clear need for the team in adding a volume shooter.
Bane has mostly delivered. He played in all 82 games in the 2026 season and averaged 20.1 points per game and shot 39.3 percent from three. He has started off solidly this season, averaging 17.5 points per game and shooting 36.8 percent from three on 9.5 3-point attempts per game.
So much of the movement the Magic will make has little to do with what happens on the court, beyond deciding what is vital and what is not. They are trying to cut salary and gain more flexibility under the league's cap rules.
Their next move is clearly moving one of their two big contracts. If Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are off the table, then it comes down to Desmond Bane's salary, sitting at $39.4 million this season and increasing to more than $40 million next year, and Jalen Suggs' salary, which is $32.4 million this year and decreases in the final three years.
As the Boston Celtics surmised, it is difficult to build a new team with so much money put into its top stars. The Magic have almost the entirety of their salary cap space tied up in their top four players.
Putting Bane on the market would be painful.
It is not his fault that he came with the heavy cost -- four first-round picks -- that the Magic paid or that the team was not as prepared to take that big swing as the team imagined.
It is simply about what the Magic can do and what they can get for that money.
Orlando is not likely looking to do a complete teardown. The team does not own its own draft picks without conditions until the 2031 season. The Magic must remain competitive.
And if they are not ready to split Banchero and Wagner, they need to move around the supporting cast with players to fill in gaps in their games.
At this point, just about everything must be on the table. And the Magic must explore every avenue to improve once they have decided which players stay for the future.
The waiting game
It is inevitable that the Orlando Magic will make a move.
Whether they make it at the deadline or wait for the offseaosn likely depends on where the team sits in the standings. The Magic may have more urgency to act immediately and reduce their tax bill if they are fading out of the postseason chase.
The easy prediction is to try to move Jalen Suggs, anticipating a new contract for Anthony Black.
From a financial standpoint, Suggs may end up cheaper than Black. There are still a lot of questions about how both would fit into this team long-term. They both need to play and give the team some more feeling on how to move forward.
But that does not change that this kind of move is coming.
It could be the start of a move or making deals like the Minnesota Timberwolves did to deal with the aprons and restructure their roster -- they dumped Julius Randle's contract, traded a big deal in Naz Reid for LaMelo Ball and re-signed Ayo Dosumnu while staying under the first apron.
The Magic will need to think outside the box. That has not always been Jeff Weltman's strength.
In any case, the Magic are not making any decisions in early November. With both Jalen Suggs and Paolo Banchero likely to return in December, the Magic still want to see what this roster looks like on the floor.
That was the animating reason for the Magic's quiet summer. Orlando is not making any big decisions until the team has to.
But change is coming whether they want it to or not. Slow start, recovery or not, the Magic will be active in the trade market.
Add us as a preferred source on Google