Orlando Magic: NBA trade deadline winners and losers
By Luke Duffy
The 2021 NBA Trade Deadline is in the books, and unlike in previous years the Orlando Magic found themselves as the center of everybody’s attention. The organization deciding at the eleventh hour to blow it up by trading away their core of Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier.
The returns for each player were certainly debated online by fans for days after the deals went down, but now that we have some separation from the initial hysteria of seeing such big roster overturn, we can look at who really came out of the day as a winner and a loser in the deals involving the Magic.
As is so often the case, this goes far beyond the actual players involved, and in fact not every one of those who either left Florida or joined the roster will be spoken about here. The Magic have now entered a phase of rebuilding, and so the big picture needs to be taken into account.
The established players of the last seven years are gone, but new faces have taken over for the Orlando Magic after the NBA trade deadline
Not only are the Magic fully in the hands of their young players in hopes that they grow into consistent NBA players who can play at a high level, their current front office is on the clock now as well having finally made some big moves. As scary as that uncertainty is, you could make the case the Magic now have a young core with one of the highest ceilings in the league.
Jonathan Isaac, Markelle Fultz, Cole Anthony, Chuma Okeke and Wendell Carter Jr. is certainly a good place to start. Factor in a lottery pick this coming summer, as well as whatever Mohamed Bamba can be and the addition of Gary Harris, and suddenly the future doesn’t seem so frightening. We will get answers in time, but for now here are three winners and losers from the the deadline.