NBA Trade Grades: Toronto Raptors Snag Serge Ibaka

Orlando Magic

With another blind gambit to save his job and make a playoff push, general manager Rob Hennigan might have effectively sealed his fate the moment he traded for Serge Ibaka last summer.

With a crowded frontcourt and not nearly enough scoring, the Magic turned down chance after chance for another rebuild when they made shortsighted deals, sending away young players like Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris without getting any sort of future draft compensation in return.

Bearing all this in mind, it’s hard to grade the Ibaka trade in a vacuum considering how much they gave up to acquire him and how little they have to show for it. Well, other than Aaron Gordon FINALLY being able to play his true position (maybe).

Trading for Ibaka was supposed to give Orlando a stretch-4 to spread the floor, make life easier on a non-shooter like Elfrid Payton and help get the Magic back to the playoffs in a season where a record four games below .500 is currently good enough for a playoff spot.

Instead, the Magic are 15 games under .500, and though Ibaka is averaging a respectable 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game on .488/.388/.846 shooting splits, he hasn’t been the difference-maker in getting this playoff-starved franchise back to the postseason.

Orlando had to deal him to mitigate their inevitable loss in free agency this summer, and the return was about as good as it was going to get when everyone in the league knew Hennigan’s desperate situation.

Terrence Ross is a useful bench piece who will help provide some scoring to a team that needs it as the NBA’s 29th-ranked offense. He’s still only 26, he’s a high-flying, entertaining dunker and perhaps on a worse team he’ll get more chances to shine.

However, Orlando’s offense will probably be even worse without its second-leading scorer and second-most accurate three-point marksman in Ibaka. The same could be said of the defense without the team’s leading shot-blocker.

As for the first round pick, Wojnarowski reports that it will be the less valuable pick between Toronto’s own first-rounder and the first round selection they’re owed from the Los Angeles Clippers. If the season ended today, the Raptors’ pick would fall at No. 20, while the Clippers would be No. 25.

A first-rounder of any sort is a decent return for a free agent who had no chance of staying, but over the last year, the Magic basically traded Oladipo, Ilyasova and a lottery pick in Sabonis for a few months of Ibaka in a losing season, Terrence Ross and a first round pick likely to be in the mid-20s.

And that’s BEFORE you remember they traded Tobias Harris away for a few months of Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova without getting a first round pick in return.

Though this deal could finally signal the Magic are heading for the rebuild they’ve long-needed, the Ibaka trade is the end result of piss-poor asset management, and it shouldn’t be any wonder if and when Hennigan loses his job.

Grade: C-