Winners and losers of the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline
Winner: Orlando Magic
Markelle Fultz doesn’t immediately fill the Orlando Magic‘s hole at point guard since he’s still out rehabbing his thoracic outlet syndrome. There’s a chance he never will either. He very well could be a major draft bust, which sucks to consider for any lottery selection, let alone a No. 1 overall pick.
However, the Magic were the perfect team to take that gamble. If he pans out, he’ll form one heck of a young core alongside Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon and Mohamed Bamba. Orlando fans have more to be excited about than Nikola Vucevic‘s All-Star campaign, and at the meager price of Jonathon Simmons, a protected 2020 first-rounder and a second-rounder, they may have filled their biggest positional need for the long haul.
Magic a great landing spot for Fultz. Kemba Walker credits Steve Clifford for getting his career on track. Cliff, low pressure environment—best chance Fultz has to rebuild.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) February 7, 2019
Loser: Washington Wizards
With this week’s news that John Wall would miss the next 12 months with a ruptured Achilles tendon, the Washington Wizards‘ off-limits stance on Otto Porter Jr., Bradley Beal and pretty much everyone else had to change. It was time to blow this sinking ship up. They moved Porter and dumped the injured Markieff Morris, but that was it.
Keeping Beal is understandable in the wake of his first All-Star selection and given his youth, but the return for Porter was just meh without a first-rounder attached, and instead of dumping Trevor Ariza and Jeff Green‘s expiring contracts for something, the Wizards kept them … and apparently want to keep them around beyond this summer. Umm … what?