3 reasons Orlando Magic shouldn’t trade for DeMar DeRozan

1. What it would cost to get him

The San Antonio Spurs have been among the smartest franchises for the last 20-plus years, so they wouldn’t let DeMar DeRozan go without getting something in return. Jonathan Isaac is off-limits in almost any trade at this point, but even asking for Aaron Gordon would be too much. The same applies to Markelle Fultz, for now at least.

Mohamed Bamba may be a possibility, but again we only need to look at recent history to see why this could be a huge mistake. Victor Oladipo came back to haunt the Orlando Magic in a big way after showing only small flashes that he could be a star during his time in Orlando.

It took Gordon more than three years to begin to figure things out and in year three Isaac is only starting to make the leap now.

Bamba, as a second-year player, is still raw and has a long way to go. As a high lottery pick, however, giving up on him so soon for somebody who may be one of the 30 best players in the league right now, but is not going to get better and his pros and cons are well known at this point, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Giving up on any young player now, when we started to see their potential combined to close out last season, would be incredibly foolish. Even if the Spurs were so desperate to offload DeRozan that they didn’t ask for any of those aforementioned guys, in order to make the salaries work it would mean parting ways with center Nikola Vucevic.

Although he has largely underwhelmed to start the season, the offense flows through him, as it did last season, in a much more modern way. He is a big man who can pass the ball, hit 3-pointers with more consistency than DeRozan (career 32.9 percent from deep) and has even shown an improvement on the defensive end in recent years.

Defending isn’t something DeRozan is known for either and the drop off he would bring on that end is not offset enough by how they would improve offensively. All of which is to say, there just are not enough reasons for the Orlando Magic to trade for DeMar DeRozan and despite their shaky start they are much better off staying the course until a better opportunity comes along.