It is already almost the All-Star Break in the NBA with All-Star voting opening up this week for the next month, which means that the trade deadline is nearing.
For the first time in a long time, the Orlando Magic may be in a position to buy instead of sell. Currently, they sit in the 4-seed in the Eastern Conference which would give them home court advantage if the season ended today.
The Magic are playing great basketball, honestly probably even better then they thought they would be playing so far this year. Orlando has shown the team can hang with the best of the best and that they are not the same lottery pick team they have been in years prior.
This leaves them with a lot of questions about how they want to go about the rest of the season. Getting some playoff experience is critical in the Magic's growth. But they have to decide how high they think their ceiling is and how far they want to push the team for this season, especially with the deadline coming up.
They also have to figure out how close they are to contending.
Maybe they think they are one piece away from being able to compete with teams like the Boston Celtics and Milwakuee Bucks or maybe they think they need a lot of pieces and there is some more heavy lifting to come. Maybe they think their young stars still need to grow before they expend assets to push them over the top.
Who knows? They might not make any moves at the deadline at all and just continue to bank on this team's chemistry and continuity to guide them this season.
However the Magic do have an excess of guards on their team when everyone is healthy and a lack of wing depth. These roster issues will also most likely get accesed at the deadline as well. Who the Magic decide to go after depends on which on which route they decide to take.
Here are the three directions the Magic could go in as we look ahead to the Feb. 8 trade deadline.