The Magic were bad last year. They were bad the year before that…and the year before that….and the year before that. With that said, I think the team, as it is now, is salvageable. I sit on a very lonely island with that statement. A tweak here or there, a rotation shift here or there and we could realistically make a run at the 8th seed. We could sit back in this draft, take the best wing player available (Monk, Tatum, or Isaac), and fill out our depth with 25, 33, 35 and hope for the best next year. I would be totally fine with that option but A) what’s the fun in that and B) our goals should be higher than simply making the playoffs. So let’s have a little fun, blow up this roster, and reshape the core of this team for years to come.

When you want to blow up a team, you first have to know who’s going to be in the center of the blast, who’s could possibly get hit with shrapnel, and who’s been given the Hurt Locker body armor suit.

First Blast:

Trade Nikola Vucevic (C) & Future 2nd round pick for Jae Crowder (SF) & Tyler Zeller (C)

Why (Magic)? Vucevic has been a solid offensive player for us for 5 years running and showed an improved defensive game last year, but we’ve also not been able to turn the corner with him as our corner stone piece. Jae Crowder is a great 3&D player. He’d secure our wing along side Aaron Gordon and provide much needed outside shooting. Tyler is simply salary filler.

Why (Celtics)? Crowder has been great for them, but they have their sights on bigger fish this off season…cough cough…Gordon Hayward. They also lack a low post scorer and are a terrible rebounding team, enter Vucevic. With them likely adding Fultz to their wing rotation, I anticipate a lot of 3 guard lineups that would have forced Crowder to the bench anyways.