NBA Trade Rumors: Orlando Magic likely to keep Arron Afflalo
By Josh Hill
When the NBA trade deadline approaches, teams that aren’t very good tend to be mentioned in trades that have them moving serviceable players in order to build for the future. One of those teams are the Orlando Magic and one of those players is Arron Afflalo.
After hearing his name come up in various trade rumors, Steve Kyler from Basketball Insiders is shooing the notion that the Magic are desperate to trade Afflalo or that they’re even seriously entertaining the idea of doing so.
"“Orlando really does not seem overly interested in trading Afflalo. Several teams that have made passes at Orlando classify them as listening to offers, engaging in the normal due diligence that teams engage in to understand what’s possible and available at the deadline, but that serious offers are not being considered and that real trade scenarios are not taking place. This could be a case of the Magic playing a little poker in the days leading up to the deadline or it genuinely could be that the Magic are not going to make a trade involving their best player.”"
The Magic will have a very high lottery pick but that doesn’t mean they have to trade Afflalo. They’re currently winning, which may freak out those who want the Magic to tank, but tanking and ruining your future are two different but related things.
Keeping Afflalo seems to be in the best interest of not ruining the future of the Magic.