{"id":144864,"date":"2025-06-15T12:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T16:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=144864"},"modified":"2025-06-15T12:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T16:23:15","slug":"grizzlies-magic-desmond-bane-offseason-trade-breakdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/06\/15\/grizzlies-magic-desmond-bane-offseason-trade-breakdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade Breakdown: Grizzlies, Magic Complete Major Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what\u2019s the first major trade of the offseason, the Memphis Grizzlies have agreed to<\/a> send Desmond Bane<\/a> to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a>, Cole Anthony<\/a>, four unprotected first-round picks and one first-round pick swap, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania.<\/p>\n

Grizzlies, Magic Complete First Major Offseason Trade<\/h2>\n

Bane, as evidenced by the assets the Magic surrendered for him, is the principal player in the trade. The 30th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, he\u2019s emerged as one of the best wings in the NBA since his debut. In 313 career regular season games, he\u2019s averaging 17.8 points and 3.8 assists per game, shooting 41.0 percent from 3. He\u2019s been particularly effective since 2021-22, averaging 20.2 points per game in that stretch.<\/p>\n

Magic Perspective<\/h3>\n

Bane arriving in Orlando allows him to play alongside two even stronger scorers in Paolo Banchero<\/a> and Franz Wagner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last season, the magical duo averaged 50.1 points per game combined. However, the Magic averaged just 105.4 points per game as a team, which ranked 28th in the league. Though Caldwell-Pope and Anthony averaged 18.1 points per game combined, the fact that Bane can get those points up by his lonesome gives the first unit far more potent. It\u2019s also worth noting that Caldwell-Pope (.342) and Anthony (.353) aren\u2019t as reliable beyond the arc as Bane.<\/p>\n

The Best Part?<\/h4>\n

Orlando didn\u2019t have to trade Jalen Suggs<\/a>, who spearheads the defense, to get the deal done. Thus, Bane is slated to start alongside Suggs in the backcourt, while Banchero and Wagner man the forward slots. The Magic\u2019s perimeter defense will still be negatively impacted by swapping Caldwell-Pope for Bane. Nevertheless, it\u2019s about as solid of a roster move as they could make.<\/p>\n

Grizzlies Perspective<\/h3>\n

For the Grizzlies, this trade adds a 3-and-D wing, an archetype they don\u2019t have many of. With that in mind, there\u2019s a serious possibility that Caldwell-Pope will start alongside Jaylen Wells<\/a> on the wing. If so, it\u2019ll give Memphis\u2019s first unit a much better chance of stifling opposing offenses. Furthermore, they won\u2019t have to be overly reliant on Wells, whose absence was undoubtedly felt during the 2025 NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n

However, the future of Scotty Pippen Jr.<\/a> \u2014a backup point guard who started in place of Wells in the 2025 NBA Playoffs \u2014is in doubt because of the presence of Anthony. Frankly, Pippen is the better player. He\u2019s a more heady facilitator and has taken strides as scorer. Yet, that also makes him a trade chip for future moves.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Apr 24, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. (1) dribbles as Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) defends during the second quarter during game three for the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the flip side, Memphis was rumored to want<\/a> Panathinaikos point guard TJ Shorts<\/a>. As a result, there may already be a plan for how to incorporate Anthony without it severely impacting Pippen.<\/p>\n

All of that being said, Zach Edey<\/a> may be the biggest benefactor of the trade, as they need to replace Bane\u2019s points. To that point, the Grizzlies seemed to have too many mouths to feed with just one ball in 2024-25. Edey, a scintillating scorer at the collegiate level, was squeezed out in particular<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bane\u2019s absence may also give GG Jackson II<\/a> greater opportunity, as he\u2019s a more perimeter-oriented player.<\/p>\n

The Best Part?<\/h4>\n

Four unprotected first-round picks. Indeed, the trade isn\u2019t too dissimilar from the deal<\/a> the New York Knicks made for Mikal Bridges<\/a>. In that deal, the Brooklyn Nets were able to extract five first-round picks from the Knicks.<\/p>\n

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

In what\u2019s the first major trade of the offseason, the Memphis Grizzlies have agreed to send Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four unprotected first-round picks and one first-round pick swap, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania. Grizzlies, Magic Complete First Major Offseason Trade Bane, as evidenced by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":144867,"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":[62,1608,2,32,12,3,17],"tags":[2108,3127,49556,1105,1484,4557,1382,49058],"class_list":["post-144864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-featured","category-grizzlies","category-knicks","category-news","category-magic","tag-cole-anthony","tag-desmond-bane","tag-jaylen-wells","tag-kentavious-caldwell-pope","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-nba-offseason","tag-nba-trade","tag-scotty-pippen-jr"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144864","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=144864"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144873,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144864\/revisions\/144873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}