Three superstars greased hands in last week’s Dwight Howard trade, and the Orlando Magic, the team relinquishing the best player in said blockbuster, received none of them. By choice.
Are you kidding me?
I’m all about rebuilding from the ground up, but you have the opportunity to obtain a franchise cornerstone in Andrew Bynum or an athlete to fill seats for the next two seasons in Andre Iguodala, and you pass it up?
Shame on the Magic. Shame on them for attempting to justify this trade. Shame on them for thinking we’ll digest and accept the notion that it gives them a direction for the future. And shame on them for helping drag this saga out for 18 months, and then failing to capitalize off it in any way.
As solid role players as Arron Afflalo and Al Harrington are, they’re just that—role players. They aren’t stars, and neither is Jameer Nelson, yet Orlando has over $22 million committed to all three next season.
This trade wasn’t supposed to make the Magic better, nor was it supposed to instill any newfound sense of hope within the organization and its fanbase, but it certainly wasn’t supposed to breed the type of hopelessness it has in less than a week.
Orlando is not only bad after this trade, they’re borderline horrible. And while the going is supposed to get tough before it can get better, how do the Magic get better from here? With those three certain-to-be late first rounders they received in return? With an unproven Nikola Vucevic?
I don’t think so.
The Magic aren’t going to be good, or even relevant, for quite some time. This deal has crippled the franchise in ways we couldn’t even have imagined a year ago. There were so many better deals to be had, so many other players who would have made more sense, so many avenues for them still to explore.
But they opted to fall, further than they had during the peak of the Dwightmare, and did so in one swift motion.
It takes guts to trade your star player knowing you’ll never receive adequate value in return for his services. But the Hornets and Nuggets did it, and much to the surprise of many, landed on their feet soon after; it is, in fact, possible not to ruin a team’s future in situations such as these.
And yet, by looking at the Magic, where they are now, and where they’ll still be three to five years from now, you wouldn’t know it.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
