The Orlando Magic should have traded for Dejounte Murray

With the NBA about to hit a fever pitch level offseason with the number of trade rumors milling about, the Orlando Magic look like they’re going to sit on the sidelines and watch. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is perfectly acceptable, because they are exactly where they want to be with the group they currently have.

A core of the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner, Cole Anthony, Wendell Carter Jr., Markelle Fultz, and Chuma Okeke is not a bad place to start. Especially with head coach Jamahl Mosley appearing to have a solid connection with the group and guys bonding on the court already.

There is the inescapable feeling, however, that in failing to trade for Dejounte Murray, the Orlando Magic missed the chance to accelerate their rebuild

Before we examine why this was, please don’t come at us with the need to tank some more to secure the top pick overall again next season. Victor Wembanyama is already the consensus first overall choice and with good reason. But if you think the Magic are going to tank as hard as the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs, who just traded away Murray, you are wrong.

Unless you’ve forgotten, the worst three teams all have the same odds to snag the top pick, meaning if the Magic start off poorly, they can still raise to the bottom to try and take the Frenchman. But at this stage in their development, they look too young and too hungry to be as bad as others are trying to be.

This is where Murray comes in. The Atlanta Hawks paid the altogether reasonable sum of three future first-round picks, a pick swap, and Danilo Gallinari in order to acquire Murray. He’s a 25-year-old guard who was an All-Star last season, and just like his new teammate Trae Young, averaged over eight assists per contest.

The tandem of Young and Murray will be a fascinating one because, on the surface, they seem to complement each other so well. Returning to what the Hawks gave up then, why could the Magic not have done the same thing? When you hear the words “three first-round picks” you likely automatically clam up, but really these picks are only as good as the front office using them.

If you factor in the fact the Magic (had they traded for Murray) would have been selecting outside the lottery anyway, then all of a sudden that aforementioned statement doesn’t sound so scary. The Magic have had plenty of opportunities across two regimes since 2012 to select a superstar in the high to middle end of the lottery. They never have.

While Banchero could wind up being different (and they better hope that he is), you can’t always look to the future. While you could make the argument that the franchise had one All-Star before in Nikola Vucevic and it put a ceiling on how good they could be, we know that it would be different with Murray.

He would be playing with a much younger group, rising their floor initially before hoping Wagner and Banchero blossom into the kind of devastating wings that would look fantastic next to Murray. All at a cost of three picks, a swap, and most likely Cole Anthony, another young guard who has come to personify the Magic’s group, but who is absolutely moveable at the right price.

That price would have been Murray, and it would have been a more than fair one. Imagine a starting group of Carter Jr., Wagner, Banchero, Fultz, and Murray, with Okeke, RJ Hampton, and even Jonathan Isaac coming off the bench. That is a roster with some legitimate depth, even with Mohamed Bamba likely gone and Bol Bol being the biggest enigma they have.

It just seems a missed opportunity to add a really good player who fits the timeline of the organization. Getting free agents down to Orlando is hard, and guys who are 25 getting traded who have shown they can be a top 50 player in the league doesn’t happen all that often. At the cost the Hawks paid, you have to do it.

Only the Magic didn’t, and while they won’t get beat over the head by this decision, it was a real chance to move up the standings. In doing so, they wouldn’t have even put a ceiling on their future, with Murray having two years left on his deal anyway. Fans are fine with the way the franchise is building itself up, but this seemed like a totally fine, well-calculated risk to take.