Broken...
Magic Superstar Paul George being carted off after breaking leg
The Orlando Magic have faced many obstacles as a franchise, from losing players to Free Agency (Shaquille O'neal), to (mis)management trading away Superstar players (Tracy McGrady, Dwight Howard) but now they face a different obstacle... losing a Superstar player to injury in the midst of a critical mid-season Playoff push and with Orlando sitting at the 7th seed as we close in on the trade deadline, the Magic have now made a move.
G Tyreke Evans
In the early morning hours, Orlando picked up the phone, called GM Rob of the Golden State Warriors, submitted a deal that would send PG Darren Collison and F Anthony Bennett to the Bay Area in exchange for G Tyreke Evans and C Cameron Ridley (which was added by the Warriors in order to prevent waiving a player) and the rest is history.
The move, though being scoffed at by many GM's League-wide seems like it may pay huge dividends for Orlando in any capacity.
It was really simple but tough to an extent as I really took a liking to Anthony Bennett who has shined really brightly in recent games but I knew overall with the injury to Paul George and us on the cusp of a Playoff berth I felt we needed to make a move after the debacle with the Raptors GM... I scoured the lineups of teams time and again, received many offers and debated things not only internally but with Coach Van Gundy as well and ultimately decided to go after Tyreke who was virtually just sitting on the Warriors bench. I called GM Rob whom we've had a good working relationship with on the trade front in the past with the Victor Oladipo for Harrison Barnes Warriors '16 1st and said "Hey... I'll send you Darren and Anthony you send us Reke", he replied "I'll add Ridley" and the deal was done... I'm betting on the fact Tyreke is a very good driver to the basket and can cause some matchup issues similar to what Harden is doing down there in Houston but on a much smaller scale obviously and... yes the plan is to get him minutes at the Point Guard spot where we'll have Terrence and Doug as his shooters to keep defenders honest and not just pack the lanes playing zone defense and hopefully we'll stay in the Playoff hunt... if not we're no worse for wear as he's expiring next season and the salaries are virtually equal for 2016 so it's a wash in that capacity whereas we feel Tyreke also carries more value as an asset and player... Well Dennis will go back to the bench likely but will get plenty of minutes as if he's still a starter and he understands that's what we'll try and worse case Tyreke can become our Sixth Man scorer and should we maintain our seeding Paul George could possibly return for a Playoff run if we're fortunate... Ok, thanks guys.
2028