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

Pro: He fits the Magic’s timeline

Although the Magic are trying to make the playoffs this season, fans know that their core is still a young one and will not be ready to seriously compete for a couple of years at least. Their trio of Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac and Mohamed Bamba all under 23 years old.

This is why a move for somebody like Mike Conley doesn’t make much sense.

Not only is he making a lot of money going forward ($32 million next season and $34 million the year after that), but he is 33 years old when he hits unrestricted free agency … at exactly the time the Magic hope to be a lot closer to contention.

Smith, on the other hand, would be able to grow alongside the other youngsters and in an ideal world all would begin to peak at roughly the same time. To add to this, the Mavericks seem to have gone from a rebuilding organization to one quickly on the rise, simply by adding Doncic.

With guys like DeAndre Jordan coming off their books in the summer, they have put themselves in a great position to accelerate their growth by going after the right kind of players. Smith is by no means the finished article and still needs a lot of time to grow.

Is he going to get that with the Mavericks now that they look to be going in another direction? Smith also looked like somebody who could be the face of the franchise in Dallas, but again Doncic has quickly established himself as the frontrunner in that regard.

The Magic haven’t had one of these players since Dwight Howard left, with Vucevic not appealing enough commercially and Gordon failing to take the mantle that is right in front of him. Smith could be the aggressive, athletic face of their young core. For these reasons alone, he would be an ideal fit.