Should the Orlando Magic Trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?

Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of the greatest players to ever pick up a basketball.

Antetokounmpo made Top-75 while still in his prime, an honor Orlando’s greatest player Dwight Howard was shunned by despite a highly decorated career resume.

Even if Giannis is entering a late prime, he is not only one of the greatest athletes in the history of the sport, but all sports. He is arguably the hardest working individual and most successful development case the league has ever seen, to go from one of the rawest prospects to one of the best to ever play.

If there is any current athlete who can come close to mirroring the path to longevity that LeBron James has walked, it would be a basketball player as maniacally hard-working as Giannis Antetokounmpo .

Antetokounmpo isn’t quite as impactful as he used to be, and yet, he’s still an elite defender, especially forcing turnovers as a big wing point center, or whatever position he goes by these days.

The Greek Freak is still an absolute downhill unstoppable force and Top-5 player, a perennial MVP candidate who has finished Top-4 in MVP voting every year for the past *seven* seasons, winning the award in back-to-back years in 2019 and 2020.

While the league is talented and deep enough where one player no longer makes you an instant contender, Giannis is a floor-raising talent who guarantees you not only a certain level of success, but a reliable downhill force who plays two-way team-first basketball, gets to the rim at will, and is still as impactful as any player alive when he’s available, which has been a concern with injuries piling up.

But, despite all that, after a few seasons of disappointment following a championship season together, the Milwaukee Bucks are officially 'open for business', according to ESPN, taking trade calls and offers for the greatest player to ever walk through their doors.

Giannis wants to be traded to a 'true title contender', and preferably to stay in the East, via Sam Amick of The Athletic.

As for the Orlando Magic, building around another player with an injury history is not ideal, but that’s become the brakes of the game with many stars as long as the schedule is the way it is.

Should Orlando throw gasoline on this fire storm to fast-track their timeline from tomorrow to today?

Why Giannis to Orlando is Possible

Trading one of your potential superstars in Franz Wagner or Paolo Banchero for Giannis Antetokounmpo changes everything about the trajectory and style of play of your team going forward.

Orlando moving either emerging star for Giannis probably would improve short term success, just by the mere fact that Giannis is still an MVP candidate of two-way impact, while Orlando’s current young stars are still trying to play long enough to make their first All-NBA season.

Rumors of Orlando’s interest in Giannis probably aren't far off, seeing as the Magic's current front office head honcho, Jeff Weltman, scouted and helped draft Giannis originally in Milwaukee.

Two weeks ago, Mike Scotto of Hoops Hype reported ,“A few months prior, with heightened expectations entering the season after making a blockbuster trade to acquire Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando explored making another huge splash. The Magic expressed interest in trading for Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo before the trade deadline."

Magic Fans unanimously love Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner.

Despite rumors that Banchero isn't always happy in Orlando, maybe those concerns quieted down after the recent coaching change which were mostly accredited to Banchero's displeasure behind the scenes, which leaked out through anonymous sources throughout the season as soon as the team hit a hard place this season without Franz in the lineup.

As for fans' concerns about “adding Giannis to a bad 3pt shooting team”, critics might need to consider the shot profile that adding Antetokounmpo would provide.

Orlando would be swapping out one downhill force high-volume 3pt creator hub for another, whether they move Paolo or Franz for Giannis in this hypothetical fake trade.

At the deadline, a deal probably would have looked like Banchero + Wendell Carter for Antetokoumnpo + Myles Turner for a few reasons, but that didn't pan out. If the Magic still decided to build a deal around Banchero, it could get complicated to make the salaries work, but would end up sending Giannis to Orlando and Banchero to Milwaukee, while probably involving moving big men around to match salaries.

Antetokounmpo's playstyle fits the remaining Magic roster’s fast-pace drive & kick playstyle, which would make Orlando an immediate on-paper fit to contend by next season, especially to win the East.

The remaining shooters of Suggs-Bane-Franz-Giannis-Carter-Black-da Silva-Jase-Penda-Moe could be great spacing, especially if the downhill gravity of Giannis and Franz is maximized to create as many threes as possible for everyone else off drive and kicks. Neither big wing star is a great 3pt shooter, but both are capable, and really won’t be needed with how many open threes and closeout-attacking advantages they’d be creating via endless paint and sprays for the whole team.

If the Magic swapped Franz for Giannis instead, the spacing theoretically would be even better than swapping Paolo for Giannis, assuming Banchero is willing to play more off the ball and work on his C&S 3pt shot now that he’d be trying to play off Antetokounmpo’s drives and P&Rs more often.

Orlando making this win-now move would likely improve the team right away, but it would come at the cost of potential longterm success in moving a young star for one ten years older and on the wrong side of 30.

The main counter argument against Orlando trading for Giannis of course would simply be the Magic hoping this roster that proves at every turn at full strength is an elite two-way team will once again be so next season since its starting the year fully healthy, on top of the injury and age related concerns.

Most Magic Fans would rather see the #1 pick and homegrown talents of Banchero, Wagner, and Suggs have at least one more shot of being healthy together for a full season, alongside Bane, Carter, and the rest of this team under a new coach who hopefully figures out how to solve this puzzle.

Real rumors and potential interest exist on all sides; desperation and impatience has made NBA teams do crazier things.

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