The Magic should go all-in at the NBA trade deadline, and there is 1 perfect target

With an awesome team already and nearly all their own assets available to upgrade it, the Orlando Magic are ready to win now.

The Orlando Magic should be on the cusp of something special. Before his oblique injury, Paolo Banchero looked like the next thing. And then before his own oblique injury, Franz Wagner looked like the next-next thing. Jalen Suggs might be the next slightly-less-important thing, and it all seems like a perfect, patient draft rebuild in the style of the now-ascendant Cleveland Cavaliers. But wasn’t there that one thing…

…oh yeah, the Cavaliers traded for Donovan Mitchell instead of waiting around for Darius Garland and Evan Mobley to turn into the next Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. And even if it didn’t work immediately for the Cavs, their historic pace this season shows that’s exactly the type of aggressiveness needed in Orlando.

Because of injuries, the Magic have been middle of the road since their rip-roaring start, snagging some quality wins along with some understandable losses. They spent (roughly) a trillion dollars on Franz and Suggs this offseason and can’t wait until they can give Banchero a quadrillion dollars as soon as next summer.

It all seems like a happy ending waiting to happily end, but wake up: it probably won’t. This isn’t some cute teen drama on Disney XD. This is the cruel, physical world, which always moves faster than the best-laid plans, and never waits around for guys to “develop” like you’re running a MyLeague rebuild on NBA 2K. To avoid that, Orlando is going to have to take a hard look at the league, NBA history and themselves, which can only lead to one conclusion:

It’s time the Magic get real and go all in.

I don’t believe in self-help books, so I’m not out here on some cutesy mission to help the Magic actualize and achieve their full potential. I’m here to actually help, which might include some gory details like trading three first-round picks and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Recent NBA history is hardly subtle about the necessity of going all in. For every one developmental success story — think the mid-2010s San Antonio Spurs or the 2022 Denver Nuggets — there are three examples of a team that didn’t do enough when they had the chance and wound up sad and alone. Think the Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden Oklahoma City Thunder, the Paul Millsap and Al Horford Atlanta Hawks, and the last decade of the Philadelphia 76ers.

There’s only one championship each year, so most developmental projects that look totally promising end up totally disappointing, with their fans wishing they had traded this 21st pick they now have five years ago when it was worth roughly one whole Cam Johnson. Now, they’re drafting a 19-year-old combo guard from UNC with a broken shot and beanpole frame. Maybe in four years he’ll be a poor man’s LaMelo Ball.

Sitting on assets is a waste of time, and in the era of NBA superstars being able to demand a trade literally whenever, when you have guys in the building who can win… well, get more guys in the building who can win more. The Magic have kept their powder completely dry during this post-Nikola Vucevic*-era rebuild, and have all the first-round picks you could ever want to go get one of the stars to make this Disney XD teen drama into an Oscar-winning blockbuster.

*what a world we live in where an era can be called “post-Nikola Vucevic”

So who’s the guy? I’m 100% in on De’Aaron Fox for this squad. The maybe disgruntled, maybe not star would probably take multiple firsts and the Caldwell-Pope contract to acquire, along with maybe one of the Magic’s interesting young guards — let’s say Cole Anthony. That should be enough, but if the Kings get cagey and want to keep their poster boy, the Magic have more than enough gunpowder to crank this thing up to “we literally can’t say no to this” levels for Sacramento’s front office.

Fox is completely additive for this team. He’s a slashing, playmaking point guard with mature scoring ability and polished skills. But he’s still only 27, and fits Orlando’s general timeline. I love Suggs, but he’s more of a natural two than a true point. At the Magic’s best, Fox is the straw that could stir a pretty awesome drink. He would be the perfect addition, addressing many of this team’s weaknesses and roster concerns single-handedly.

Among other names available at this year’s NBA trade deadline, I know the name on the tip of everyone’s tongue is Mr. Jimmy Butler, but I’m cooler on that idea for Orlando. Forgetting for a moment that the Magic probably wouldn’t pay him, something likely to cause…uh, issues in the Magic locker room, he just wouldn’t be nearly as complementary as Fox. In a pure basketball sense, he’s pretty similar to Franz Wagner and infringes on Paolo’s territory as a face-up forward more comfortable around the basket. If both he and Fox are available, the latter is way, way waaaaay better for this team. And maybe in general, at this point.

If creativity is your thing, feel free to suggest an even better trade in the comments below. But the trade itself isn’t the lede: the Magic simply have to do something. It doesn’t have to be Fox or Butler, they just can’t waste time and stand totally pat again.

In fact, here’s a non-exhaustive list of some players they could acquire, all ostensibly amping up their ballhandling reserves while upgrading their bottom-five three-point shooting:

• Zach LaVine
• Cam Johnson
• Anfernee Simons
• CJ McCollum
• Collin Sexton
• Brandon Ingram
• Cam Thomas

Whoever it may be, letting this ride is, more likely than not, going to reek of anticlimax, and I can’t live with that. This team is absolutely awesome, with sick players popping out of drawers and a super-modern, physical roster. So let’s hope they make a few moves to go all the way in, and dive through this championship window like basketball Indiana Jones before it closes more quickly than they expected.