Ranking every Orlando Magic player by trade likelihood
Ranking every Orlando Magic player by trade likelihood
4. Chuma Okeke
Chuma Okeke has barely played this season and would be higher on this list if he had any trade value. He is averaging 5.5 minutes per game and is typically only playing during garbage time.
Injuries threw Okeke into the rotation for Wednesday's game against the Sacramento Kings and he showed why there might be a reason for someone to give him a second draft chance. Okeke scored 11 points in the fourth quarter on three 3-pointers. Okeke still has something that can be developed if there is a team willing to take the risk.
Okeke is shooting 34.6 percent from the floor in those minutes and is at risk of not being able to find a suitor this summer in free agency to sign him.
Orlando would look to use his $5.2 million contract in a trade if a rebuilding team is looking to create cap space. If a team is intrigued by Okeke's college tape and the potential he showed in his rookie season he could find a suitor.
The 25-year-old has great size to be a 3-and-D caliber rotation player. But he needs to knock down shots. A change of scenery could revitalize his career. But he does not have a path to playing time with the Orlando Magic.
3. Markelle Fultz
The Orlando Magic have surely missed Markelle Fultz during the last 28 games.
The defense has not missed a step but the game tempo and distribution of the basketball has been difficult to watch at times.
Fultz looked to have taken a significant step last season. He was shooting better than 30 percent from deep, averaging 14.0 points, 5.7 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game. Those were all career highs as a 24-year-old.
He seemed ready to improve his shooting with more reps and would be willing to shoot open jump shots.
Through five games, this was not the case. Fultz looked like a shell of himself on the perimeter and missed most of his midrange pull-up jump shots that seemed automatic just a season ago.
Fultz has been sidelined for 29 games with left knee tendinitis, but there seems to be a bigger story developing here than tendinitis.
Since the 2020 season, there has only been one other player who has sat out based on knee tendinitis for more than five games. That was 21-year-old Ziaire Williams at the start of his sophomore season in which he missed four weeks due to left knee tendinitis.
Fultz has already missed two months and has continued to attempt to practice and go through pregame workouts but has not been able to get clearance to play. The tendinitis is in the same knee he tore an ACL in three years ago.
At this point, the once promising first-overall selection is losing his luster as an injury-prone, non-shooting point guard. And losing whatever trade value he might have.
All in a contract year too.
If the Magic are ready to make a trade for a player with a larger contract, Fultz would likely be in that deal. In either case, it feels like the Magic need a clearer and more consistent answer at point guard to help this team grow to its next level.
He would be higher on this list but Jeff Weltman does not like to trade assets when they have lost their value. Fultz has an uphill battle to retain half of what he was worth last season.