Orlando Magic: 3 scenarios for sixth pick in 2018 NBA Draft
By Luke Duffy
2. Trade up
This is the flip side of the previous argument, and it’s something that would not be nearly as straightforward to achieve.
Most would agree, however, that after Deandre Ayton and Luka Doncic, there is uncertainty about who could be picked and where.
Even Doncic himself could end up falling out of the top three, and there’s no telling how many times the big board will change before draft night.
Orlando Magic
What would it take for the Magic to move up? There’s different criteria to different people, although if they want to embrace a renewal of their tanking efforts, they could even take on a bad deal to move up for a player they really like.
The Magic should be able to find a trade partner for Nikola Vucevic, freeing up additional funds for the roster this offseason.
The Atlanta Hawks currently have the third pick, but they also have Kent Bazemore on the books for just under $40 million for the next two seasons.
If the Hawks want to go another direction but are still confident of landing their man with the sixth pick, they could shed Bazemore in the process.
This might seem strange for the Magic to do, but perhaps they want to take this rebuild more seriously, and go all the way to the bottom before bouncing back up again.
It’d be a more process-like approach for a team that — for all the losing — hasn’t had the draft success to vindicate the product on the court.
The third pick and a bad contract, as well as Isaac and possibly letting Aaron Gordon walk (probably a bad idea) would really represent starting over on a blank canvas again.