{"id":137977,"date":"2025-05-05T21:25:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=137977"},"modified":"2025-05-05T21:25:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:25:54","slug":"magic-potential-offseason-trade-target-right-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/05\/magic-potential-offseason-trade-target-right-fit\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Magic\u2019s Potential Offseason Trade Target The Right Fit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic\u2019s biggest need is no secret. Now, one of their potential trade targets has been revealed<\/a> as well. In an insider piece, The Stein Line\u2019s Marc Stein and Jake Fischer report that:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a new offseason beckons, another (Portland) Trail Blazer has been increasingly projected as an Orlando (Magic )target: Lillard’s former Blazers backcourt mate Anfernee Simons. The 25-year-old is an Orlando native who would certainly blend in nicely from a timeline perspective alongside Banchero (22) and Wagner (23).\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Magic\u2019s Potential Offseason Trade Target The Right Fit?<\/h2>\n

At this point, it\u2019s pretty clear that the Magic need another volume scorer; a player that\u2019s both support and safety net.<\/p>\n

Like many star duos, Paolo Banchero<\/a> and Franz Wagner<\/a> can lead their team to victory against elite teams. In fact, while their numbers have been impressive, this is the true hallmark of their dominance. Over the past two seasons, Orlando has a winning record against the Indiana Pacers (5-2), Los Angeles Lakers (3-1) and Phoenix Suns (3-1). They\u2019ve broken even with the Boston Celtics (3-3), Denver Nuggets (2-2) and Sacramento Kings (2-2).<\/p>\n

However, they\u2019ve done so while the team\u2019s third-best scorer \u2014Jalen Suggs<\/a> \u2014averaged 13.7 points per game. In that 110-game stretch, Suggs scored 20 or more points in 22 games.<\/p>\n

Compare that with Lakers guard Austin Reaves<\/a> and the difference is startling. A notable third option, Reaves has 57 games of 20 or more points over the past two seasons. With that in mind, even Celtics guard Derrick White<\/a> \u2014who isn\u2019t known as a scorer \u2014has 34 games with 20 or more points over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Of course, having three strong scorers doesn\u2019t guarantee a team make the playoffs. Just look at the Suns, who went 36-46 in the 2024-25 regular season. Nonetheless, it can be the difference between an abbreviated season had an extended one.<\/p>\n

This should be abundantly clear to the Magic. In the 2024 NBA Playoffs, they scored just 100.3 points per game, losing in the First Round. Of note, Suggs scored 14.7 points per game last postseason. In the 2025 NBA Playoffs, they scored 93.6 points per game, losing in the First Round. Suggs, who had sustained a season-ending quadriceps injury<\/a>, didn\u2019t play at all.<\/p>\n

Anfernee Simons, By The Numbers<\/h3>\n

Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons<\/a> hasn\u2019t been in the playoffs since 2021. What little history he does have isn\u2019t awe-inspiring. In 15 total games that spanned three postseasons, he averaged 4.7 points in 13.4 points per contest.<\/p>\n

However, this came from 2018-19 to 2020-21, when he averaged 7.5 points in 17.5 minutes per game in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Since then, Simons hasn\u2019t been back to the playoffs. He has broken out though, averaging 19.9 points in 32.9 minutes per game. Over the past two seasons, he\u2019s scored 20.6 points per game, recording 20 or more points in 67 games. In that same span, he\u2019s scored 30 or more points in 20 games.<\/p>\n

\"Portland
Mar 25, 2025; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons (1) shoots the ball over Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill (5) in the second half at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, regular season performances don\u2019t always translate to the postseason.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there\u2019s solid evidence that Simons can be Orlando\u2019s third option. It only helps that he\u2019s a prolific outside shooter, which should allow him to complement Banchero and Wagner quite well. To that point, neither Banchero nor Wagner have proven themselves to be reliable from 3. Meanwhile, Simons has made 38.6 percent of his 3s over the past five seasons while attempting 7.6 per game.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Magic\u2019s biggest need is no secret. Now, one of their potential trade targets has been revealed as well. In an insider piece, The Stein Line\u2019s Marc Stein and Jake Fischer report that: \u201cAs a new offseason beckons, another (Portland) Trail Blazer has been increasingly projected as an Orlando (Magic )target: Lillard’s former Blazers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":138022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1608,62,3,23,4721],"tags":[1559,4556,1090,4127,3259,596,4774,3823],"class_list":["post-137977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magic","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-trailblazers","category-trade-rumors","tag-anfernee-simons","tag-austin-reaves","tag-derrick-white","tag-franz-wagner","tag-jalen-suggs","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-rumors","tag-paolo-banchero"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137977"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138023,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137977\/revisions\/138023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}