Orlando Magic
Magic Receive: G Gary Harris, G R.J. Hampton, DEN 2025 first-round pick (Protected)
There was a growing belief that the Orlando Magic would be “sellers” at the NBA trade deadline this year, but nobody was expecting them to make everybody on their roster available! Nikola Vucevic was traded to the Bulls, Evan Fournier was traded to the Celtics and Aaron Gordon was dealt to the Nuggets in this trade.
Now, the Magic face yet another rebuild, but this time, things have a chance to be different because they actually have some young talents and future draft picks to build with. While Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac and Cole Anthony are all injured and unlikely to return at any point this season, they are all focal points of the Magic’s young core and pieces to build with for the future.
At this point in the season, given all of their injuries and struggling to find success, the Orlando Magic were not going to be a playoff team and even at full strength, they probably did not have enough firepower to compete with some of the other teams in the East to make it out of the first-round if they somehow did make the playoffs.
Trading away Aaron Gordon was an easy move for the Magic to make not only because he wanted out of Orlando, but because this team needed to continue to gain young assets to build with for the future. They got just that in this trade with R.J. Hampton and a future first-round pick.
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Gary Harris is also not a bad player for the Magic to have on their roster through the end of this season and through next season. He is owed $39.6M through the end of the 2021-22 season, which is definitely way over value for him, but when he becomes a free agent, the Magic will have some much needed cap space to play around with either in free agency or to re-sign their young players to long-term deals.
R.J. Hampton is a player the Nuggets were really high on, hence why they spent a first-round pick on him this past year. After electing to play professional basketball instead of playing college basketball, Hampton kept his first-round status during the draft and was taken 24th overall in this past year’s draft.
While they do have two young backcourt players that they will continue to build with in Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony, R.J. Hampton will definitely get his chance to earn some playing time with the Magic, especially with Fultz and Anthony currently sidelined with injuries.
This is not a terrible trade for the Magic, but they definitely could have got more value for Gordon somewhere else, or they could have received more value from the Nuggets in this trade. The Celtics were reportedly offering two first-round picks for Gordon and a young talent like Aaron Nesmith or Romeo Langford, but Orlando felt more comfortable getting Harris, Hampton and a first-round pick, so that is what ultimately finalized this deal.
The Magic are now facing an up-hill climb with a rebuild, but they are not in a terrible position. This trade gives them some more young and future assets, but they probably could have received more value for Aaron Gordon.
GRADE: C+
