NBA Trade Deadline: 5 teams primed to make big trades

3. Orlando Magic

At first, the Magic didn’t seem like a major player in the 2016 NBA trade season. They started the season so strong, ranking among the top teams in the league for opponent field goal percentage while boasting young and athletic talent. Victor Olidapo, Mario Hezonja, Aaron Gordon, Elfrid Payton, Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic are the kind of core that many teams envy.

As the season as gone on, though, the defense has declined and the offense has gone cold, now ranking a mere 25th in efficiency.

With trade rumors starting to heat up, the Magic are moving to the front of the conversation, which is either worrying or intriguing for fans depending on their outlook. With such a good core, this isn’t a team that needs to make a major trade right now. Just a couple of days ago a missed last second layup was the only thing that prevented them going to overtime in what turned out to be a narrow 98-96 loss to the Spurs.

However, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders has reported, it’s safe to say they’re now one of the biggest buyers in the NBA:

"With the 2016 NBA trade deadline less than eight days away, you can safely slide the Orlando Magic into the serious buyer category of teams looking for a deal. The Magic, who have been struggling to find wins as of late, have not only been actively exploring their trade options, league sources who have engaged in talks with Orlando paint them as a team willing to do something big… Magic sources were pretty adamant yesterday that all the team is doing at this point is weighing their options and being aggressive in seeing what they could make happen, trying to defuse the notion the team was trying to sell off the roster. It was made very clear that the only way Orlando deals players it feels are core guys is if they get a proven All-Star type player in return, which is what it seems the Magic are looking for at the deadline."

As one of the teams who attempted the bound-to-fail trade call to the Clippers for Blake Griffin, it’s clear the Magic are aiming high. Kyler pointed out that they won’t sacrifice core guys if they don’t get an All-Star level player in return, and so they shouldn’t. No matter what the numbers and their record indicates, the Magic have a lot of upcoming talent and they can’t throw it all away.

Kyler added in his report that, like many other teams, they’ve been linked to the Hawks in what could be a possible Jeff Teague-Victor Oladipo swap. But with Payton at point already, who’s shown great promise, is a player with as much talent and upside as Oladipo worth sacrificing in this instance? It’s hard to answer that question positively, so perhaps the Magic should look elsewhere.

So, when looking past a blatant pipe dream like Griffin, who else could Orlando pursue?

Moving Tobias Harris is a possibility and he’ll bring a good return, especially if he’s partnered with another young player. Common names like Al Horford also make sense, and it seems the Magic are willing to talk to multiple teams in the pursuit of a major deal.

Just want till the deadline and see how this plays out, because judging by reports and their assets, they seem determined to make something happen.

Next: The franchise who were meant to be on the rise