POLL: Should the Magic Buy, Sell or Stand Pat at the Deadline?

[Knightro]

The NBA Trade Deadline is Thursday, February 9th at 3PM ET.

The Orlando Magic are 22-32. They are 17-12 since a 5-20 start.

They're currently 3 games out of the final play in spot.

They have two first round picks which are currently projected in the 5th and 11th draft slot in the latest Tankathon update.

The Magic can create anywhere from $33M to $58M in cap space this summer depending on what they do with Isaac, Fultz, Harris, Bamba and others.

So I ask you all a simple question as we sit approximately 94 hours from the NBA Trade Deadline.

Should the Orlando Magic BUY (VanVleet, Trent Jr, Simons, Anunoby, Russell, Conley, someone else), SELL (Bamba, Harris, Bol, Ross, Hampton, someone else) or STAND PAT?

[p0peye]

Ross and Hampton are most likely gone, maybe even Bamba as well, we will be looking for picks and cache considerations. We do need consolidation trade, but I think it is wiser to do that after draft once we know what we got there.

[slamjunkie]

I’d want to stand pat and let them grow with each other

[Nyce_1]

Ultimately stand pat with the top 12 guys. Let them finish the season. Sell on the rest and be opportunistic if buying presents itself.

They can do all 3 and be fine.

If they can't trade Ross for any real value, waive him and let him catch on with a contender, if he wants it. Same with RJ.

Bamba is trade or keep; he seems gone though.

[eyriq]

Going with stand pat. Logic being that buying costs Wemby odds. Organic growth and quality coaching costing us Wemby odds is great though, gladly spend it that way. I secretly hope we buy though.

[thelead]

As long as they don't get rid of Paolo, Franz, JI, and Suggs, I'm good. I'd be pissed about trading WCJ unless we're getting a young stud guard back. And I'm of the opinion that Gary Harris shouldn't be moved. Of course, he's not untouchable but it doesn't make sense to move him for picks or unproven young guys IMO. Houstan doesn't have much value, I presume, but I wouldn't happy about him getting moved either.

[Bensational]

Going by WeHam’s track record I think we stand Pat and live and die by how the young guys perform. I don’t think we’ll see prolonged injury absence while we’re in play-in range, and we’ll likely play ourselves into the back end of the lottery at this rate.

We could sell on some guys, and probably should, but I suspect they’ll be cut instead so they can choose we’re to go next.

[Viper1500]

I’m not a fan in giving up assets for UFA, just stand pat. I guess they could trade or buyout Ross, let the man go to a team playing for something.


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[Knightro]

Going with stand pat. Logic being that buying costs Wemby odds. Organic growth and quality coaching costing us Wemby odds is great though, gladly spend it that way. I secretly hope we buy though.

So here's my thought on that...

If the Magic internally believe that they can go .500 or slightly better rest of the way just by standing pat, which would put them at 36+ wins for the season and certainly nowhere close to the 5th worst record in the league, then they should go ahead and buy and really go for it.

If they don't think they can go .500 the rest of the way and that they're gonna finish something like 10-18 over the last 28, then I think they should not only sell, but start messing around with guy's minutes to try and really ensure a bottom 5 record to maximize their Wemby/Scoot odds.

I don't think I would stand pat either way.

[MasterGMer]

Went to Lakeland Magic game today with my friend, sitting on the courtside watching RJ, man, he was sensational on the court and poured in 30 points. I know this is all business.

But I want Magic to buy but my brain tells me it could be otherwise. I just want the front office to set up this team this season and beyond. We are trying to WIN as many games as we want!

[SOUL]

Tinker. Set yourself up for the future while not reading too much into anything this year.

[RichCollab]

Sell RJ, Ross, and Bamba. We may not get much in return but ready to move on from all 3.

[Ralof]

Sell RJ, Ross, and Bamba. We may not get much in return but ready to move on from all 3.

100% this.

[basketballRob]

I think it's 50/50 that Middleton gets traded. He could walk next season, and they would get nothing.

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[eyriq]

Going with stand pat. Logic being that buying costs Wemby odds. Organic growth and quality coaching costing us Wemby odds is great though, gladly spend it that way. I secretly hope we buy though.

So here's my thought on that...

If the Magic internally believe that they can go .500 or slightly better rest of the way just by standing pat, which would put them at 36+ wins for the season and certainly nowhere close to the 5th worst record in the league, then they should go ahead and buy and really go for it.

If they don't think they can go .500 the rest of the way and that they're gonna finish something like 10-18 over the last 28, then I think they should not only sell, but start messing around with guy's minutes to try and really ensure a bottom 5 record to maximize their Wemby/Scoot odds.

I don't think I would stand pat either way.

I think you are onto something. This decision pivots on how good management thinks we are. I wonder if a .500 team finishing at 36 wins is far outside the bottom five. The RAPTOR forecast puts the 6th worse team, the Pacers, at 37 wins.

Thinking of the play-in, we need a win rate of around 61% to finish the season at the projected play-in floor of 39 wins. The teams ahead of us, the Pacers, Raptors, and Bulls, are all projected to win between 37-39 games. Their needed win rates to close out the season are Pacers 50%, Raptors 54%, and Bulls 47%.

The Thunder and Lakers are projected to win 37-39 games themselves.

I wonder if the biggest factor to monitor is if there are any sellers above us in the standings at the deadline. If there are, then we might be compelled to buy or sell ourselves. If there aren't any sellers, then it might make sense to stand pat and play it out. For example, if Toronto is clearly signaling they are selling then we might feel compelled to involve ourselves or risk losing our Wemby odds for nothing.

[dsg2021]

We have some special cap room space in the summers entering the 2024-25 season and probably the 2025-26 season.

We even have enough unguaranteed contracts for some sizable cap space this summer entering into the 2023-24 season.

I'd rather not hurt that space too much and see if we can finally land a massive FA coup (or that kind of "It's happening, Star player X will sign with us in the summer, so trade them to ORL now for some nickels on the dollar').

[JF5]

Stand pat... All this is just contingent on what the draft picks become in the offseason.

[byeganyo]

if there is an opportunity for selling someone above market price (G.Harris?) or buying bellow it - go for it, if not, wait, thats an actually a good place to be.

[basketballRob]

If you look at Bamba's stats, they're pretty good.

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[Ducklett]

Sell Ross, Bamba, RJ, WCJ, and anything else not nailed down.