Orlando Magic Went After Butler, Hayward Last Night
Why the Deals Didn’t Happen is Shocking
The headline news from last night’s NBA Draft involved a trade between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Orlando Magic. OKC sent Serge Ibaka to Orlando for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, and the rights to the number 11 overall pick, Domantas Sabonis. I’ll break down that trade in another post, but for now let’s focus on what you didn’t hear last night.
Sources inside Magic management circles tell me that Orlando pursued Jimmy Butler, and later Gordon Hayward, for much of the hours leading up to the draft. I know what you’re thinking — how could this guy know something that ESPN or The Vertical doesn’t? Well, I’m a native Orlandoan and have friends who work in Magic management. Friends talk.
According to my sources, the Magic entered into discussions with Chicago this week to acquire Jimmy Butler. The rumors about the Bulls shopping Butler are absolutely true. The Bulls, not enamored with Minnesota’s offer of Zach Levine, Nikola Pekovic, Gorgui Dieng, and the number 5 overall pick, sent Orlando an incredible deal, which also involved the Oklahoma City Thunder. The deal would have sent Jimmy Butler to Orlando, Enes Kanter and Evan Fournier to the Bulls, and Victor Oladipo, CJ Watson, and the number 11 overall pick to the Thunder. The Thunder were on board.
Unbelievably, the Magic’s GM, Rob Hennigan, turned down the Bulls offer because he believes that Fournier is the team’s “shooting guard of the future.” When the Bulls countered by placing Elfrid Payton in the deal instead of Fournier, Hennigan told the Bulls that EP “is untouchable.”
Now, as stated, I’m a native Orlandoan and have been a Magic fan my entire life. How Rob Hennigan turned down any deal to get Butler is beyond me, especially since it appears the Magic could’ve kept Nik Vucevic, Aaron Gordon, and Mario Hezonja, while adding Butler! Hennigan needs to be fired.
The Magic also went after Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward last night, but the terms of that deal were not made clear to me. We can assume that it involved a similar lot of players — some combination of Oladipo, Fournier, Payton, and the 11 pick for Hayward and a Utah pick, or something similar. The point is, it didn’t happen because Hennigan is not willing to part with either Fournier or Payton. Talk about being too wedded to ‘your own guys.’
With that said, the Magic’s plan now is not a bad one. With Ibaka in the fold, the Magic have a rim protector to offset Vucevic, who is the team’s best offensive option but cannot block a shot to save his life. Sources tell me that the Magic now plan to resign Fournier and throw everything at Orlando-native Chandler Parsons to play the 3. The plan is to sport a starting lineup of Vucevic, Ibaka, Parsons, Fournier, and Payton, with Gordon and Hezonja coming off the bench. This would also allow the Magic to run a quicker lineup of Ibaka, Parsons, AG, Hezonja, and Payton/CJ Watson when facing teams that run smaller, quicker lineups.
Not to harp on the ‘Orlando native’ thing, but I’ve actually got a friend who knows Parsons well — Parsons and I are the same age and come from the same neighborhood — and he told me that Chandler is absolutely staying in Dallas. He also told me that Parsons, should he somehow opt to leave the Mavericks, has no desire to join the Magic, despite the fact that he grew up rooting for the team.
You can discredit my report here if you wish, but check my recent posts — I don’t make claims of having inside information because I usually don’t get inside scoops. Last night I did, and now you can judge the Magic’s decision making for yourself with all the information.
