3 reasons Orlando Magic shouldn’t trade for DeMar DeRozan
By Luke Duffy
3. We’ve been here before
Orlando Magic fans should have short memories, because to look back into the wreckage of this decade will do nothing but bring sadness to your life. But we need to look backwards in order to truly move on and a look at their most (in)significant trade this decade will give you all the reasons you need not to trade for DeMar DeRozan.
The previous front office decided in 2016 that a big shake up was needed, so as to speed up a rebuilding process that never yielded a first overall pick. They called up the Oklahoma City Thunder,and managed to acquire Serge Ibaka. As a standalone sentence, it isn’t the worst one you will ever read regarding the Magic. It’s what it cost to get him that still gives fans nightmares.
The Magic parted ways with Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the draft rights to Domantas Sabonis in a move designed to get them more wins, but which only served to set them back even further in the long run. The only saving grace is, once Ibaka was sent to the Toronto Raptors, they got Terrence Ross back in return, who has blossomed into a true fan favorite.
https://twitter.com/OrlandoMagic/status/1195520972025192448
With the Magic in a better place now than they were then, the temptation to move the needle and actually see results certainly exists. But why would they want to put themselves through this again? DeRozan is 30 and if you add just him to the players already in place (without even mentioning what you’d give up), you’re not going to win a title.
The free agency class of next summer may not be great and free agents have typically only come to Orlando when there were other budding stars in place. Jonathan Isaac, Markelle Fultz and Aaron Gordon can be those guys; there is no need to add DeRozan to this. He is making $27 million this season, with a further $27 million in 2020-21 before hitting unrestricted free agency.
As somebody who never got to test free agency and was moved out of the Toronto, a place he loved, only to watch them win a championship, don’t you think DeRozan would like to test the market for himself when he can? It will likely be the one and only time in his career he can do that and he will be chasing rings by that stage too.
He would represent being an expensive rental for 18 or so months, bringing them only a small bit closer to winning a title, before either leaving or forcing the Magic to spend big in order to keep him (which would require moving players around too). It took a long time to bring stability back to Orlando and there is no need to go back to these days.