The contestants in this year’s NBA Finals have the Orlando Magic to thank (in part) for their Finals runs.
I doubt either will send the Magic a card in the mail — no debt of gratitude is in play when ripping off a team via trade (plus, the Thunder and Pacers actually played the winning basketball to get themselves in this position). But both teams can trace the core of their rosters to one of, if not the single most ill-advised trade in Orlando Magic history.
In June 2016, the Orlando Magic acquired Serge Ibaka from the Oklahoma City Thunder, sending former No. 2 overall pick Victor Oladipo and draft selection Domantas Sabonis to the Thunder in return. The Thunder later flipped both players to Indiana for superstar Paul George, then traded George seasons afterward for a massive haul that included this year’s MVP selection, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Oladipo and Sabonis led the Pacers to the playoffs, but the move’s greater contribution to the Pacers’ current championship contention came in another blockbuster trade. Indiana sent Sabonis to the Sacramento Kings for guard Tyrese Haliburton, who has blossomed into one of the best players in the league over the past two postseasons.
Two NBA Finals teams, two All-NBA players, and none of it could have been possible without the Orlando Magic. Well, considering Ibaka’s poor play and the Magic’s decade-long rebuild afterward, that is not a significant point of pride for Orlando.
Bold trades have been a major reason behind the ascensions of Finals contenders outside of Indiana and Oklahoma City, too. The teams that lost in the conference finals, the Timberwolves and Knicks, engaged in the biggest trade of last offseason, with the Timberwolves sending former top pick Karl-Anthony Towns to New York for Julius Randle and a couple key role players. The trade worked pretty well for both sides, as evidenced by their playoff dominance. Toronto’s deal for Kawhi Leonard in 2019 led to the franchise’s first title months later, and the Lakers’ seismic move for Anthony Davis was pivotal in the Lakers’ 2020 title in the bubble.
All the while, Orlando’s trades have been few and far between, limited to low-cost acquisitions of role players like Markelle Fultz and demoralizing sell-off trades of its own established stars, like Aaron Gordon to Denver and Nik Vucevic to Chicago. Those smaller moves have paid off to varying degrees, but with the Magic coming off back-to-back playoff appearances without a series victory, a blockbuster trade looked like a promising avenue to capitalize on Orlando’s young core and launch into championship contention.
On Sunday, the Magic finalized a blockbuster trade of its own. Orlando acquired sharpshooter Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies, but gave up guard Cole Anthony, veteran wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and a staggering haul of four first-round picks and a pick swap. After seasons of staying put and developing its internal talent, the Magic opened its offseason with an ultra-aggressive move with massive implications for the rest of the decade. But the number one takeaway: the Orlando Magic are true contenders in the Eastern Conference, next year and for the foreseeable future.
Orlando President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman swung the trade for the 26-year-old Bane for one reason primarily: Bane’s excellent three-point shooting. Bane has made 41 percent of his three-point attempts in his five seasons in the NBA and averaged more than 20 points per game across the past two years. That accuracy would be a boon to any team, but no team needed a shooter like Bane more than the Magic. Not only did Orlando finish dead last in the NBA with a 31.8 percent three-point shooting clip in 2024-25, but that percentage was the lowest of any NBA team in nearly a decade and somehow dipped to an abysmal 26.3 percent in the playoffs. Orlando is a historically bad three-point shooting team in an era that rewards the three, and while stars like Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner will need to step up in their long-range shooting, Bane’s acquisition should accelerate the Magic’s improvement in this area and address its greatest weakness.
“The player is almost the guy you would design if you could start from scratch,” Weltman said on June 16. “Obviously, we’ve spoken a lot about our need for shooting, but we’ve also talked about playmaking, I’ve talked about adding skill. Desmond is such a unique player because he’s one of the best shooters in the NBA, but he’s also a gifted playmaker. … He checks every box.”
One of the prominent criticisms of Orlando’s trade for Bane is the amount of draft capital jettisoned to Memphis in exchange for a player that has yet to make an All Star Game and does not slot in as a team’s first option. But the Magic don’t need Bane to accomplish either to make this trade successful. Orlando has its top option in forward Paolo Banchero, who already has a Rookie of the Year award and All-Star appearance on his resume and is an offensive dynamo. Bane doesn’t need to be the Magic’s second option, either — Franz Wagner is one of the league’s best young playmakers and thrives in driving to the rim.
What the Magic offense needed was a third option who could space the floor as a three-point threat and contribute in key moments, and Bane checks those boxes. This trade isn’t an instance where a role player from a successful team is handed a massive contract and expected to be “the guy” (cough, cough Jordan Poole) — the Magic want Bane to be exactly who he has been in Memphis, with further growth in his game a mere bonus. Considering how dire the Magic’s need for three-point shooting has been and the promise of the Magic’s existing young stars, the accomplishment of getting a strong fit who can bolster the starting lineup is a compelling rationale for the trade.
What were the Magic’s alternatives for fast-tracking its roster for championship contention? Sending out an even costlier trade package for 36-year-old Kevin Durant? Banking on internal improvement from a core of players the team has sent out for the past couple seasons? Relying on the acquisition of a role player in free agency like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or a rookie in the middle of the first round to spark an immediate turnaround? And would any of these options be a threat from three and an asset on defense like Bane?
“That’s a pretty easy decision for us, honestly,” Weltman said. “We’ve valued him very highly for a while, and there are few guys in the league … that if they become available, you’re going to be aggressive. When I stood here in front of you guys after the season, I honestly didn’t expect him to be available in these conversations, but when we learned about that as we did our laps around the league, we shifted gears and made this a priority for us.”
The Bane trade is risky, no doubt, but the Magic’s three-point problem — and talent deficiencies — wasn’t about to resolve itself. Each of these alternative avenues were arguably riskier, given the timeline of Banchero and Wagner entering their prime.
The most exciting aspect of the trade is that Bane’s arrival is not a short-term patch or a one-and-done gamble — Bane is under contract through the 2028-29 season, when he will be 30. Orlando’s projected starting lineup features a 26-year-old Bane, a 23-year-old Wagner, a 26-year-old Wendell Carter Jr., a 22-year-old Banchero and a 24-year-old Jalen Suggs, with 21-year-old Anthony Black off the bench as a sixth man candidate. Sure, the Magic used up much of its trade ammunition in sending four draft picks to Memphis, but these established contributors are just entering their primes and give the roster tantalizing upside via internal growth.
Regardless of Bane’s fit, the Magic gave up key assets in the trade, making this a high-risk, high-reward move rather than a highway robbery of a deal. Cole Anthony was an essential piece of the Magic’s culture but never developed into a regular starter and offensive force, while veteran Kentavious Caldwell-Pope fell flat as a 2024 offseason addition and became a financial liability with his contract. Their departures will not damage the Magic’s title hopes.
Instead, it’s the draft picks in 2025, 2026, 2028 and 2030 and a 2029 first-round pick swap that sting the most. The 2025 pick, which is the 16th overall selection, could have been an immediate difference-maker for the Magic (Orlando will also select at the tail end of the first round with a pick Denver sent them for Aaron Gordon), and Bane himself was the 30th overall pick of his draft class. The significant loss of draft capital eradicates four opportunities to acquire low-cost, young talent for the rest of this decade, while also limiting the Magic in its ability to pursue All-Star talents in the trade market. The flipside is the hope that the Magic’s winning ways will send these picks to the bottom of the first-round order and diminish their value, and that the immediate and long-term impact of Bane, an established borderline star at the NBA level, will offset the cost.
In the immediate aftermath of the trade, the Magic project to be in the top tier of the Eastern Conference. The reigning Eastern Conference champs, the Indiana Pacers, will be the team to beat next season, and the Cleveland Cavaliers will have an opportunity to show that last year’s dominant regular season, not their second-round flameout, is their true identity. The Knicks and Celtics have major question marks — the Knicks with their head coaching change, the Celtics with Jayson Tatum’s injury — while the Bucks, Sixers and Heat have sizable star power but are even greater question marks. Detroit surpassed the Magic last season and is a similarly young, ascendant team but last made back-to-back playoff appearances in 2008 and 2009. Of that cast of teams, the Magic slot in around fourth or fifth, with the upside to challenge Indiana and Cleveland for the top seed and make serious noise in the playoffs.
With no playoff series wins since 2010 and over a decade of misery and rebuilding since, the Magic are hungry for postseason success and its first NBA title. The talented trio of Banchero, Wagner and Suggs has set a promising foundation in place, but this playoff bracket and past seasons have proven that bold moves are required to take home the NBA’s ultimate prize. By trading for Desmond Bane, the Magic addressed its greatest weakness and by doing so, is accelerating its championship contention window and building a core that can compete for the Eastern Conference for the rest of the decade. The Magic are a markedly better team then the squad that walked off the floor after losing in the first round to the Celtics, and the starting five that tips off the 2025-2026 season will be one that is well-equipped to hold its own with any team in the league.
Riker's Block 