Desmond Bane, West to East

The East is wide open, they told us, so we told you. And the Magic – the Magic! – made the first move.

Finals trades? Takes some steamed huevos, big tray full of it. We thought any mid-Finals deal would see Kevin Durant's ticking scroll setting us straight. Maybe the Celtics releasing some indication as to Boston's plans without Jayson Tatum. Instead, Orlando steps up to the plate, four-first round picks and a swap for a non-All-Star, someone who may never make the All-Star team, even in the East.

Desmond Bane for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, three Magic first-round picks in 2025, 2028 and 2028, unprotected, a potential unprotected pick swap in 2029, and what should turn into a solid first-round pick from either Phoenix or Washington or Orlando in 2026.

Alrighty. Forced to carry the Grizzlies in 2023-24, Bane averaged nearly 24 a game on 46/38/87, he turns 27 in two weeks and is signed through 2028-29 at around $40 million per campaign, 23 percent of the salary cap.

A lot, for each other?

Had to. Orlando's front office doesn't consider this deal without the assurance, within. Moneyed guidance telling them several more transactions are available as this culture's core (Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, now Bane) carries forward over the next few seasons.

Memphis, as as Keith Parish noted, opens up the door for many, many-many options at the trade deadline, and after KCP and Cole Anthony wile away the minutes for Memphis for two-thirds the season.

Many, many-many Magic fans will tell you, at the cost of redundancy, that KCP and Cole Anthony will wile and wile away minutes, using smarts with guile to achieve and ego with anxiousness to disrupt their own causes.

Grizzlies fans will love the deal. They will also love it when KCP (player option in 2026-27 for around $21.6 million) and Cole Anthony (team option for $13.1 million in 2026-27, not out of the question for any employer) leave for different teams.

Grizz fans should not enjoy nor tolerate the immediate outcome, winning contests in the West is difficult, winning a playoff series in the West is something else entirely, only four teams do it per season.

And, ask the Wolves and Warriors and Nuggets, once wasn't enough. The Grizzlies should have second round thirst as baseline, Memphis was there in its past and recently but too long ago. Furthermore, the club should be crawling on fingernails to put its best claw forward with Ja Morant's prime in place.

Ja turns 26 this summer. He likes attention and does not enjoy missing the party ongoing in two cities not unlike the size of Memphis, 26-year old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 25-year old Tyrese Haliburton bouncing without him. Morant knows the NBA, he knows what KCP and Cole Anthony represent as moving mercenaries but also catch-and-shoot collaborators. Ask Allen Iverson – the flashest way to encourage a point guard's MVP burn is to trade his shooting guard.

MVP trophies don't do a darn thing for winning three games in seven, and free agent superstars aren't always a'clamorin' to play alongside high usage MVP-types at the position which handles the ball the most. But stage, set. And that's before Memphis goes to work at the draft with all those new picks.

Ideally we'd love to see Memphis crush and snort all four at once, but the talent pool was already limited in the era of pleasant parity, now the East wants to cannonball on in: Dez Bane for four picks.

It may take one of the first-round picks simply from Memphis to leap from the KCP commitment, over $43 million strung through two seasons. Especially if the veteran (turning 34 at February's trade deadline) continues his dip from outside (42 in 2023 to 40 in 2024 to 34 percent last season). Memphis argues this won't be the case with Ja roping assists into the corner.

Anthony is a different tiger, he wants the pressure but he also turns it over a ton and doesn't hit three-pointers, a real Greg Anthony-type but right-handed.

Those picks? Magic picks. Unimpressive on their singular merits (Orlando earned the No. 16 pick in this months draft) even before the East opened up the opportunity for lesser squads to jump into a top-five seed. The selections are certainly less impressive in the hours since the Magic added Desmond Bane (straight from the top of Orlando's list).

Pitched in bulk? Well, it already earned Orlando the prime Desmond Bane, so we'll see what Memphis can cook with. The Grizzlies are worse at the moment without Bane, but proper NBA transaction judgments require years to suss out, things can roll randomly.

Ask Desmond Bane, a Celtics first-round draft choice earned from the Bucks because Eric Bledsoe was unnerved inside the waiting room of his Phoenix-area hair stylist. Memphis then traded for Bane in a deal available after Enes Freedom and Mario Hezonja outstayed their welcomes in Boston and Portland.

Memphis earns that No. 16 selection at the 2025 draft and Orlando's unprotected first-round choices in 2028 and 2030. Lack of protection worries, but Orlando just made the playoffs after watching Banchero limp on a bum ankle, Franz miss significant time, Franz' brother Moritz tear his ACL and Suggs miss 47 contests. Worst-case scenario is No. 16, and we just added Bane.

The Grizzlies aren't banking on a lottery runup either. Rather, the replacement-level value of a Magic Pick in 2026, 2028 and 2030 is strong paper currency in a world of wondering who owns the Timberwolves in 2031. We know who owns the Magic, they're at the point of the pyramid.

What is interesting is that 2026 selection. The Mat Ishbia-led Suns keep trying to win now and failing, badly, mostly because Ishbia can't rig basketball like he rigged his real estate empire.

Mat and his blended hair colors want to win as much as possible in 2025-26 but may not, even if his team trades Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant for more reliable performers. Devin Booker is not Jayson Tatum or Stephen Curry, he scores but does not splash (35 percent career, career-high of 38 percent), the Suns' front office is an embarrassment and they play in the West.

The Wizards might be better than them. The Wizards! The Wizards own the rights to swap with Phoenix' 2026 if it is in the top eight and yes I wrote the apostrophe after Phoenix like that on purpose.

Memphis gets the better of the Wizards/Suns' first-round selections in 2026, a wild and fluctuating asset that the Grizzlies front office would do well to cash in this month or next.

Magic coulda used that selection, but Desmond Bane is also the guy who averaged 23 a game on 50/49/90 in a 4-2 Memphis Grizzlies playoff win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2022. That's the Western playoffs, Magic fans. The big time.

Memphis fielded a well-paid lineup with Bane in place and the Grizzlies will count on less friction in the backcourt with Bane in Florida. At least until Memphis trades all those picks for another borderline All-Star, another sweet shooter (who knows how sweet he is).

Orlando addressed immediate problems: KCP's wasted possessions, worst (and by a lot) three-point shooting. Significantly upgrading a 2025-26 campaign which was already set to improve with better health.

KCP's stroke could recover in 2025-26, so what. The problem with Cole Anthony isn't Anthony's limitations but his inconsistency, unreliability, Cole throwing a team into or out of games. Whether or not this is a fit behind Ja Morant's starterdom is not Orlando's problem.

The Magic's current issue is increasing depth, and Orlando hasn't spun its slickest trade chip yet, a rehabilitated Jonathan Isaac. Impressing prospective team owners with his list of social media follows and the front office's nerd settlers with Isaac's ability to guard what, ever.

We'll never know who wins a deal like this because we don't know what the Magic would achieve elsewhere with each of those draft selections. Not the choices themselves to pick apart in retrospect, but what Orlando's front office might add instead instead of Desmond Bane in exchanges with smaller chunks of all the picks Orlando shoved in for one player.

What could show for one pick, not three. What could develop simply sending a player away and letting another step up, the myriad permutations developing from more and more rolls of the dice.

Nah, said Orlando. One roll.

Memphis? Memphis traded a 27-year old, 20-point, two-way player who extends the court. Memphis has a lot of making up to do, and this month.

And all the ex-Magic in the world to do it with.

OKLAHOMA CITY UPDATE

It is hot, people are nice, spurs are on boots. In the lobby of our hotel my wife saw a lady wearing not only cowboy boots but spurs and I nearly sprained my ankle stopping myself from running down to the lobby to look at a lady in boots AND spurs. Need to buy some spurs for my lady. Gotta start with the boots.

Boot Barn, that's a thing. Point-six miles away from the hotel. Do I sound "northern?" Lady at the pool, different lady, said we sounded "northern."

Anyway, I thought the Thunder would win three straight to win it and here I am.

Doesn't feel that way, doesn't feel like the Pacers' anti-losing streak is permeable, even against the Thunder. Many things are do-able in this setting, Pacers losing Game 5 before taking two straight. Would you be surprised?

Isn't that fun, in June? Nothing out of the question, and also roundly entertaining.

ELENORE

Flo, Eddie!

Thank you for reading!