The Orlando Magic have landed Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson, and Hedo Turkoglu in a couple of blockbuster trades that should surprise no one considering their frustration with their roster’s performance recently. Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, and a first round pick will be headed to Phoenix and Rashard Lewis will be headed to Washington in exchange for Arenas. Mickael Pietrus and a 2011 first-round pick will also be heading to Phoenix and the Suns will send the Magic forward Earl Clark, according to ESPN.
The Magic have been discussing a shake-up of their roster for weeks considering their offensive issues and had previously been rumored to have been interested in Arenas in the beginning of December. I also alluded to how the Magic and Suns might initiate a Richardson-for-Carter swap earlier this week and sure enough that’s what we have.
I was wrong about them sending Nash to the Magic for Nelson, though - you can’t be right all the time!
Here are some words from Magic GM Otis Smith, courtesy of ESPN:
“We’re very excited to welcome these three players to our family,” Magic president Otis Smith said in a statement. “Jason is a tremendous athlete who runs the floor, can shoot the ball and loves to compete. We’re obviously familiar with Hedo. He is a great shooter and is a player that has flourished in our system. We liked Earl in the draft a few years ago, and he will help fortify our frontcourt. Vince, Marcin and Mickael did a lot for our organization and we wish them great success in the future.”
The Arenas-Lewis deal doesn’t include other pieces.
“Gilbert is a proven All-Star in this league and we’re excited to add him to our team,” Smith said in a separate news release. “He is one of the top scoring guards in the game, he can create scoring chances for his teammates and he is as tough as they come. Rashard was important in helping our franchise get to the next level, and we wish him and his family all the best.”
How will this trade help the Magic? Well, for starters, I’m one of the people who think Arenas can help this team in the short and long-term and he desperately needed a fresh start, which he will receive. He also has a strong, positive relationship with Magic GM Otis Smith from their days in Golden State and may have an actual future with Orlando. Arenas has showed evidence of his past explosiveness several times this year and looks recovered from prior injuries and his absence from 199 games during the past three years. The Magic had been struggling offensively and the additions of Richardson (19.3 PPG) and Arenas (17.3 PPG) are certainly upgrades over Carter and Lewis. Richardson is both a superior shooter and rebounder than Carter and has an expiring deal so Orlando can either let him enter the market next summer and attempt to resign him or dangle him as bait if he underperforms before the deadline.
Hedo obviously will be more comfortable in the confines of Stan Van Gundy’s system - he had the finest years of his career in Orlando and still has the ability to run the point-forward position that Orlando utilized well during their Finals run in 2009. He averaged a career-high 19.5 PPG along with 5.7 RPG and 5.0 APG during the 2007-08 season in Van Gundy’s offense and there is no reason to think his abilities have diminished that much since then.
Unless he’s simply tired of trying - his performances during the last couple of seasons with Toronto and so far with the Suns have left much to be desired. I guess Orlando is crossing its fingers that this will work considering Hedo still has well over $40 million left on his deal that runs through 2013-14.
The trade will also free up minutes for forward Brandon Bass, who is averaging 10.6 points on very efficient percentages (.526 FG%, .833FT%) along with 5.3 boards in just over twenty-two minutes per game for Orlando.
The only major question I have is this: Where does Jameer Nelson fit? He is a worthy starter, of course, but you have to wonder what kind of lineup they might find successful going forward. Is Arenas now the “Jason Terry-type” bench scoring threat? Or will Stan Van Gundy employ a smallish lineup with Nelson, Arenas, and Jason Richardson running the floor? Very interesting subplot to look out for now in Orlando.
How Vince Carter fits in with the Suns, other than to be an expiring contract this summer, is debatable. Carter has shown flashes this season and is still averaging 15.1 PPG but he clearly had worn out his welcome in Orlando. He also is a much less proficient three-point shooter than Richardson (.346 vs. .419, respectively) and I’m curious as to how he will fit in Alvin Gentry’s offense if he remains in Phoenix. Gortat may finally receive healthy minutes with Phoenix after backing up Dwight Howard for four seasons and emerging as one of the best back-up centers in the league. He is signed through 2013-14 and could very well be the Suns’ long-term answer at center which is why I believe they made this deal in the first place, regardless of Carter’s future there.
Lewis to Washington is a real puzzler - I wonder if they have another deal up their sleeves as Rashard’s contract calls for him to make over $21 million guaranteed next season, over $22 million the year after that, and does not fit into any rebuilding plans. He is averaging just 12.2 points this season and, as I stated once before, if your combined averages of points, rebounds, and assists per game (17.5) do not match your salary for that given year ($19.7 million) you are underperforming, to say the least.
This trade should help both the Suns and Magic in the short-term - Phoenix acquires much-needed depth at center and can use Carter’s deal in a variety of ways while Arenas and Richardson both offer explosive offense to a team desperately in need of points other than what they are receiving from Dwight Howard.
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“These conversations started happening about two and a half weeks ago with various teams about what they were offering, what they were looking to do with their rosters, and other things. Not just with the teams we ended up doing the deals with either, also some other teams around the league. I kind of circled the West coast trip as a tell tale sign for this team. We were either going to turn things around or start going in the other way. I thought on the West coast trip, we took a step backward rather than forward,” said Smith.
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Stan Van Gundy became involved in the talks two days ago when they started escalating. He quickly realized that he was on the same page as Smith as far as what changes this team needed.*
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“It hasn’t gone on a long time. It’s all been pretty quick for me in the last two days. We’ve talked about some of the players before because people were out there and we talked about what our team needed. I think what this deal does is we’re a little bit younger, more athletic, but the thing we really wanted to do was add some offensive and guys that we felt could create off of the dribble. I think we were on the same page as far as what our needs were as a team, there’s no question about that. I think Otis accomplished that in both of these deals,” said Van Gundy.*
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