BREAKING: Magic acquire Desmond Bane (KCP, Cole + 4 1st Round Picks + 1 1st Round Pick Swap)

[ORLMagicGirl15]

No. We still have a pick this year, the 25th pick, which allowed us to trade the 2026 pick I mentioned.

We only traded the Phoenix 2026 pick, we still have our own 2026 pick.

The 2025 #25 pick is the Denver pick, do they count that as our own?

We didn't have Phoenix's pick outright. We had the right to swap ours with theirs. That pick is now gone.

It doesn't matter that the Denver pick originates from Denver. It's 'our' pick. That allowed us to trade next year's pick (2026). Notice we didn't/couldn't trade 2027, then we traded 2028 and 2030.

Thanks for the correction. I thought we had a pick and then a mess of a swap with another 26 pick. We’ve called it the phoenix pick so I was just confused.

[RookieStar]

Also.. so everyone can understand...

Someonr with knowledge please postnour picks till 2030

Example :

25 - den #25, 2 srp
26 -
27 -
28 -

[FFBlitzace]

For the record here.

I don’t think this trade is necessarily an overpay because it allowed Orlando to get off KCP and Coles deals.

I just question how it’s all going to work within the system itself and how it all fits together. Teams aren’t constructed throwing random players and skillsets together hoping it all works out.

I also just don’t believe Weltman will construct bench depth out of thin air now. He has to move Isaac or Carter or something to make it all work.

What's random about adding Bane and his skillset though? He checks a lot of boxes. Sure, we still have to see it all play out, but I don't think it's random at all.

Bane and Suggs do not orchestrate or run offense. They are not point guards that can operate a pick and roll game.

This is putting more emphasis on Paolo and Franz to “run” on-ball offense neither of which player are considered great from outside and need to improve in that area.

It’s random in terms of taking a risk in assuming his translatable skill set and tendencies will match what we have seen of him in Memphis. The Grizzlies offense is not Orlando’s. They have a point guard that draws in defenses and averages 7.5-8 assists per game. Nobody in Orlando is that player.

I will love to hear what the excuses are IF Bane’s numbers do not match his past production with this in mind.

Ja Morant has only played a combined 59 games over the past two seasons. I really don't think it's fair to suggest Bane has been a product of Ja Morant. Bane is the guy who has had to step up and essentially lead that team amidst Ja's unreliability.

[thelead]

We only traded the Phoenix 2026 pick, we still have our own 2026 pick.

The 2025 #25 pick is the Denver pick, do they count that as our own?

We didn't have Phoenix's pick outright. We had the right to swap ours with theirs. That pick is now gone.

It doesn't matter that the Denver pick originates from Denver. It's 'our' pick. That allowed us to trade next year's pick (2026). Notice we didn't/couldn't trade 2027, then we traded 2028 and 2030.

Thanks for the correction. I thought we had a pick and then a mess of a swap with another 26 pick. We’ve called it the phoenix pick so I was just confused.

no worries. Wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page.

[JF5]

What's random about adding Bane and his skillset though? He checks a lot of boxes. Sure, we still have to see it all play out, but I don't think it's random at all.

Bane and Suggs do not orchestrate or run offense. They are not point guards that can operate a pick and roll game.

This is putting more emphasis on Paolo and Franz to “run” on-ball offense neither of which player are considered great from outside and need to improve in that area.

It’s random in terms of taking a risk in assuming his translatable skill set and tendencies will match what we have seen of him in Memphis. The Grizzlies offense is not Orlando’s. They have a point guard that draws in defenses and averages 7.5-8 assists per game. Nobody in Orlando is that player.

I will love to hear what the excuses are IF Bane’s numbers do not match his past production with this in mind.

Ja Morant has only played a combined 59 games over the past two seasons. I really don't think it's fair to suggest Bane has been a product of Ja Morant. Bane is the guy who has had to step up and essentially lead that team amidst Ja's unreliability.

This even goes back to 21-22 season when Ja was out many games and they ended up being 56-26. Ja has missed so many games the last 4 years and Bane has been their best offensive option and they were still winning with him being the number one option when Ja was out.

I could see the argument that if Memphis was like a mediocre team when he was out. But Memphis still was a good team.

[RookieStar]

What did our team comment on this esp Paolo and Franz?

[Audi]

Y’all ready to see the ball start going in the hoop?

[BadMofoPimp]

Bane is sooo much better than Poole.

[RookieStar]

Well... wr got the literally biggest guard we all were arguing about.

Poole Reaves Simons etc are all 6'4 and below whilr Bane is a 6'5 and change barefoot. Lol

[Black and Blue]

What's random about adding Bane and his skillset though? He checks a lot of boxes. Sure, we still have to see it all play out, but I don't think it's random at all.

Bane and Suggs do not orchestrate or run offense. They are not point guards that can operate a pick and roll game.

This is putting more emphasis on Paolo and Franz to “run” on-ball offense neither of which player are considered great from outside and need to improve in that area.

It’s random in terms of taking a risk in assuming his translatable skill set and tendencies will match what we have seen of him in Memphis. The Grizzlies offense is not Orlando’s. They have a point guard that draws in defenses and averages 7.5-8 assists per game. Nobody in Orlando is that player.

I will love to hear what the excuses are IF Bane’s numbers do not match his past production with this in mind.

Ja Morant has only played a combined 59 games over the past two seasons. I really don't think it's fair to suggest Bane has been a product of Ja Morant. Bane is the guy who has had to step up and essentially lead that team amidst Ja's unreliability.

Precisely.

When Ja Morant was out during the 2024–25 Grizzlies season, Desmond Bane stepped up as a primary playmaker and ran the offense in a point guard-type role. Bane produced several impressive “point guard-like” stat lines in Morant’s absence:

On December 21, 2024, he posted a triple-double: 35 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists in 36 minutes.

Other standout lineups included 22 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists (Jan 30) and 24 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists in mid-January—all while Morant was sidelined.

Bane consistently took on ball-handling and playmaking duties, facilitating the offense and keeping Memphis afloat until Morant’s return.

Bane effectively slid into a primary point guard role, doing more than just scoring—he organized the offense and created plays.

Since the Magic are all about position versatility, it’s at least more than in his wheelhouse if they want to go that route.

[bigdogdylan5]

If you asked me to rank players in the whole league that I would want to put on this team that are maybe the best fits. (Let’s exclude MVP contenders). My list was always
1. Haliburton
2. Booker
3. Bane

The guys fits everything we need to a T. Anyone questioning his ability to play make I would go watch him more this season. He has made a lot of great strides. Sam Vecinie mentioned it and so did Bill Simmons. He may not be a PG but he is certainly very capable in helping bring ball up and getting us into our sets. That Banchero Bane pick and roll is going to be a nightmare for people to guard. I am ecstatic to get something good we have to give up something good.

[KillMonger]

The playmaking is there, only thing left is for mose to design an offense that takes advantage of such..... Mose got some work to do

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[dsg2021]

Some things I am starting to catch from commentary and statheads is that no one could average more in all three of Desmond Bane's PPG, APG, and RPG categories last season than none other than Nikola Jokic and LeBron James ONLY. No one else.
There are also a lot of points in history you could go back to and plant a flag for analysis, whether from last season only, or since 3 years ago, or from his full 5 seasons in total, where the picture of his average stats is pretty much the same ridiculous 47 FG%, 40 3P%, and 88 FT%.

The other insane data points were all related to his 3PT shooting to the point that I already lost track of 1-2 of the things I saw. I've heard from a couple commentaries who are "league passing all the teams" type of people, and I didn't even realize Bane was an elite 3 point shooter who is only just below Steph Curry's tier. I had this preconception of him being more 2-way elite when it was really "I am just way more elite than you thought on offense."

Based on last season, Bane is like a top 10-15 3PT saturation bomber in the league once you make the list of all players with the ability to somehow put up 6+ 3PA's per game in the last three seasons. That shrinks almost in half if we don't take Bane's last season only and go by Bane's three other seasons launching 7+ 3PA's per game. In the last three seasons of Playoffs, it's a similar ratio. Bane is a top 15-ish 3PT saturation bomber. And even more fascinating is his playoffs career 3P% beats more than half of the players' 3P% on that Playoffs list too.
Bane's catch and shoot 3's never drop below 40%. His pull-up 3PT shooting is also elite at around 37%+. He has tricks in his bag where he messes with driving into his strong midrange shooting or his bullying drives but hesitates them and turns them into 1 dribble, 2 dribble shots also at like 37-40 3P%'s.

I'm telling you, there was still one or two more really crazy things about his 3PT shooting that I am forgetting. It's wild. I was literally just aiming for Tre Johnson as a crazy swing for the stars type of draft day trade and all with the vision of a stat line that Bane literally does today. You really have to wonder what "Bane the 5 APG guard for 2 seasons" running can do for us in team playmaking as well. It seems if Bane can somehow run the offense a bit as a point for 6+ APG, he can really get himself back into 20+ PPG easily too, such as in his near 24 PPG season.

Bane is also getting mentions for being either average or above average on defense but with a noted height of 6'6 to defend the opposing team's point of attack, with this noticeable level of physicality and fire being mentioned many times. He took the assignment on OKC's Jalen Williams in the 1st round of the Playoffs this year, and in Orlando he won't even have to be spending the most time guarding the opposing top two scorers like that anymore with the likes of Suggs, Black, and Franz here.

Guys, if we were living in this fantasy world 1-2 months ago where we asked ourselves for the most perfect guards for ORL pretending that everyone was gettable and we could afford any of them, without even losing Suggs, then Desmond Bane was on the very short list for it.
In fact, when I recall the few times we've talked about Bane in here, it was to compare how far our guards are from him and that if he was somehow available you take him and you even send out Suggs if you have to do it.
The Magic did that in real life instead. And they didn't even send out Suggs nor our two more promising youngsters in AB and TDS.

So our war chest of assets is still very interesting. We have the mentioned youngsters AB and TDS with positive values.
We still have the 2025 1st at #25, the 2027 1st, and the 2029 1st swap top-2 protected. We have all our own 1sts at 2031 and on. You can trade 1sts as far out as 2032 I believe, so the Magic literally have 1st round picks they can still throw into another deal, likely as Swaps if my CBA knowledge is correct.
We are still a very rich team in terms of 2nd round picks value, with extra 2nd Rounders in our Chest from even lottery level teams (as of today's standings).
I still love Goga's and JI's contract-to-player-values. Even in my pie in the sky, do every trade idea I wanted this summer, I still kept JI in my rosters because I BELIEVE (plus I have the insurance of unguaranteeed years which make JI an aggregate-able TPE trade chip should injuries take too much over again).
And to me, the only contract potentially under the water in value is Wendell Carter's, BUT I really wonder how he might shine next season being the last starter on a top-heavy team, the kind of starter that might get the most open looks.

[fendilim]

What's random about adding Bane and his skillset though? He checks a lot of boxes. Sure, we still have to see it all play out, but I don't think it's random at all.

Bane and Suggs do not orchestrate or run offense. They are not point guards that can operate a pick and roll game.

This is putting more emphasis on Paolo and Franz to “run” on-ball offense neither of which player are considered great from outside and need to improve in that area.

It’s random in terms of taking a risk in assuming his translatable skill set and tendencies will match what we have seen of him in Memphis. The Grizzlies offense is not Orlando’s. They have a point guard that draws in defenses and averages 7.5-8 assists per game. Nobody in Orlando is that player.

I will love to hear what the excuses are IF Bane’s numbers do not match his past production with this in mind.

Ja Morant has only played a combined 59 games over the past two seasons. I really don't think it's fair to suggest Bane has been a product of Ja Morant. Bane is the guy who has had to step up and essentially lead that team amidst Ja's unreliability.

VFX is correct, Bane is a product of Ja. Bane's popularity, that is.

But NO WAY is Bane's success a product of playing with Ja Morant. In fact, he has averaged more without Ja Morant this year.

Desmond Bane without Ja Morant (25 games)
21.0 ppg
6.7 rpg
6.2 apg

Desmond Bane with Ja Morant (44 games)
18.3 ppg
5.7 rpg
4.8 apg

In fact, in 2023-2024, when Ja Morant was suspended majority of the season, Desmond Bane posted career highs on PPG and APG on .589 TS% in 42 games.

Just looking at the numbers above, Bane is even more likable given that he can step up without Ja Morant.

Sure, in paper we are giving up a lot for Desmond Bane, but if we look at it objectively, we also got rid of the bad contract of Cole and got rid of KCP, who is coming off one of the worst year of his career and might actually be trending down given his age.

The fact that Bane is tied up for 4- more years at a slightly lower Jalen Suggs-esque salary is a very good acquisition for us. I wouldn't be surprised if he cracks the All-Star team within the next 4 years. Playing alongside Franz and Paolo, he'll get a lot of open shots, and he will also open a lot of scoring opportunities for Paolo and Franz.

Stiff price (didn't expect him to go for this price when I suggested going for Bane a few weeks ago lol) but I don't think Weltman did bad in this trade.

[dsg2021]

Y’all ready to see the ball start going in the hoop?

I think we are ALMOST there. We can't put all the pressure on Bane only like we did with KCP. It was unfair. We really need to still add in 1-2 more strong 3PT shooters, even if we're talking about 8th-12th man rotation spots here. I am still looking at the likes of Gary Trent Jr., Malik Beasley, Tyus Jones for these rotation spots so that Magic 5-man units will see 3PT bombing from more than just 1 player, and it gives the rest of them more confidence in their own shooting. Not taking the foot off the gas and aiming for a steal at the 25th pick is also next. Well, if we are not thinking about anymore intriguing trades like dangling AB, a 1st, and three 2nd's, for another upgrade.

[thelead]

The playmaking is there, only thing left is for mose to design an offense that takes advantage of such..... Mose got some work to do

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Mose will be fired if he can't get this team out of the 1st rd next season.

[dsg2021]

I'm starting to catch up on the pages of this thread and I AM LOVING IT to see many of the usually pessimistic users on here now be on the opposite side of it and very happy with the new addition and even defending the trade. It's like this very weird feeling of bipartisan support or something, lmao.

[Knightro]

Question: The Suns 2026 pick was part of the trade. We still have our own 2026 first round pick, correct?

No.

The Magic traded their 2026 1st to Memphis and included in that is the right to swap that pick with Phoenix.

[fendilim]

The playmaking is there, only thing left is for mose to design an offense that takes advantage of such..... Mose got some work to do

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I agree, and this is one of the things that makes him a perfect fit for Suggs. Because it allows Suggs to still play the PG position, without handling the ball as a playmaker.

Suggs played his best year playing against PG. He did the same in Gonzaga and in HS.

[KillMonger]

The playmaking is there, only thing left is for mose to design an offense that takes advantage of such..... Mose got some work to do

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Mose will be fired if he can't get this team out of the 1st rd next season.

Facts, I believe we will still make a couple more moves but if he can't create a viable offensive attack with these pieces? He should be on the first thing smoking out of town

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