The big news yesterday, obviously, was that the Orlando Magic finally traded away superstar big Dwight Howard in a 4-team deal in which Dwight goes to the Los Angeles Lakers. Guh. The Lakers.
The terms of the deal are as follows:
Lakers get: Howard, Chris Duhon and Earl Clark
Nuggets get: Andre Iguodala
76ers get: Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson
Magic get: Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless and three first-round draft picks.
Really, good on every team in this deal... except for the Magic, right? In giving up Howard they get back Harkless, who is a nice rookie, some garbage and three first-round picks which are likely going to be late first-rounders. Sure, they "blew the whole thing up," but this trade does seem reminiscent of the Pau Gasol for "garbage" deal the Grizzlies made with the Lakers, which was essentially saved by the Grizz netting Marc Gasol in that deal.
Which begs:
Hennigan isn't following OKC model, which used high picks. He is following Memphis model in Gasol deal. So who's Marc Gasol in this trade?
— NetsDaily.com (@NetsDaily) August 10, 2012
Is there a Marc Gasol in this deal? Is it Harkless? Probably not. But the similarities are certainly there, especially in the sense that the Magic will have high draft picks over the next few years (meaning, their own), which can turn into talent (Mike Conley) or garbage (Hasheem Thabeet). They'll also have the cap space to bring in a veteran All-Star talent (Zach Randolph). But, again, what made the Grizzlies turnaround so brilliantly "lucky," if I may, was that they returned a talent like Gasol.
And in this deal, while on some level it makes sense for the Magic, they unfortunately don't seem to have that "whoopsie" future All-Star coming back to them in this deal. Unless... Vucevic? Nah.


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