The Orlando Magic made an aggressive play to upgrade their supporting cast Sunday.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Sunday that the Magic are sending guards Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony along with four first-round picks and a pick swap to the Memphis Grizzlies for guard Desmond Bane.
Bane averaged 19.2 points on 48.4 percent shooting in 2024-25. He’s a career 41 percent shooter from beyond the arc, and his long-range prowess is sorely needed in Orlando. The Magic ranked last in both average three-point makes (11.2 per game) and three-point percentage (31.8).
Having played alongside Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., Bane shouldn’t have much trouble adjusting to a roster in which Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are high-volume scorers, either.
Still, the Magic are paying a high price for a player who has yet to make a single All-Star, All-NBA or All-Defensive team.
This is also a franchise coming off back-to-back first-round playoff exits. When Orlando got bounced by the Boston Celtics in five games, there probably weren’t many fans who thought the roster was one Desmond Bane away from winning a title. And that’s kind of what the front office is signaling with trade of this scale.
Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury has opened up the Eastern Conference title race in a big way, so maybe this bet will pay off for the Magic.
On the other side, flipping a key contributor for four first-rounders is often a signal of shifting priorities. In this case, the Grizzlies may not have gotten that much worse, and they now have more assets to chase a marquee trade target.
In the aggregate, Anthony and Caldwell-Pope can offset some of what the Grizzlies lost with Bane.
The draft picks are probably the more valuable part of the trade return.
Between firing head coach Taylor Jenkins with nine games left and then getting swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder, things weren’t trending in the right direction for Memphis. Now, general manager Zach Kleiman can retool the roster without giving up Morant or Jackson.
In a trade where both sides clearly gained something, the Grizzlies may have come away as the slight winners.
