Orlando Magic: Pros and cons of trading for Dennis Smith Jr.

Con: His fit with the players in Orlando

We begin with the obvious and that is that the Magic had the chance to draft Dennis Smith Jr. back in 2017. On that night, despite clearly needing a point guard even then (the Elfrid Payton experience was coming to an end), they went with forward Jonathan Isaac.

Worth noting is that this was the first draft that the new Magic front office were in charge for, after taking over from the disastrous Rob Hennigan era.

General manager John Hammond, who had come over for the Milwaukee Bucks and helped build a team of long athletes there, repeated the trick by drafting Isaac.

While we can understand why Hammond did this given his draft history, it is also true that Smith did some pre-draft workouts with the Magic.

If he was that good, surely they would have scrapped their plans and taken him when they’d had the chance to? Instead he fell to the Mavericks at nine.

The Magic as currently constructed have, if nothing else, a cohesive group who appear to have good chemistry. Led by the low profile Nikola Vucevic, you never hear of stories leaking to the media about how unhappy players are.

Head coach Steve Clifford appears to be the no-nonsense type, too.

No matter if it was the organization or Smith himself that made him sit out recently, it is disrupting to the Mavericks as they continue their playoff push.  What is to stop this happening again if he joined the Magic?

If Mohamed Bamba were to make a huge leap over the summer or they drafted a late first-round pick who immediately identified himself as a steal, would Smith again feel put out?

The need for young players with a lot of upside is obvious for the Magic, but there is no guarantee that Smith would mesh well with what is already in place. That has to be worth considering as identity is not easily built.