Why this trade makes sense for the Orlando Magic

Even at full strength this year, the Orlando Magic would still be a team that would struggle. They could potentially make the playoffs as the 8-seed, but ultimately, they would be a team that would get destroyed by one of the “top dogs” in the Eastern Conference. 

As a result, this team is kind of at a standstill in terms of their potential to be a real contender and do not really have many answers right now in terms of how to get better. Evan Fournier is in the final year of his contract, Aaron Gordon is under contract through next season and Nikola Vucevic’s value is the highest of his career, which is why trading some of these guys to acquire future, young talents makes a ton of sense. 

Cody Zeller is in the final year of his contract, which would free up $15.4M in cap space for Orlando and both Miles Bridges and Malik Monk are younger players that are still growing into solid role players. 

While Bridges is more of an athletic, versatile forward, Malik Monk is more of a catch-and-shoot, sharpshooting guard who lives beyond-the-arc. Both guys could carve out key roles in Orlando and be a part of this team’s young core moving forward. 

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Young talent and draft picks are the two things the Orlando Magic need right now in attempts to try and build something special for the future, which is exactly what they get from this trade. Keeping Vucevic will definitely win them some games, but the Orlando Magic’s peak with Vucevic on their roster is an exit in the first-round of the playoffs.

This team is nowhere close to being real contenders or threats in the Eastern Conference, which is why trading Vucevic and “selling” him while his value is at an all-time high makes complete sense.