So while the aggregated thought at the onset of the NBA offseason was that it was going to be one of the “craziest” ever. And depending on your spectrum of crazy (like my ex, amirite?), now looking at the entirety of transactions, it was sorta-kinda crazy? But not? I think when you go full crazy, it has to involve a couple more marquee names. Granted, and we’ll talk about the Dame waive and stretch later on, a lot of goofy and unique things happened, but you need someone like Giannis to be moved for it to reach those epic levels of crazy. Regardless, the opening to the offseason trading bonanza (that’s less than crazy, right?) started off with an interesting move with the Grizzlies sending Desmond Bane to the Magic for KCP and Cole Anthony.
The very obvious take here is the correct one, this is great news for Desmond Bane and the Magic, generally. If there’s one thing that the Magic needed, it was scoring and shooting, and it didn’t need to be in that order. In this move, the Magic acquire a potent three-point shooter that dabbles in a bit of everything on the court despite his t-rex-style arms, including some facilitation of that much-needed scoring. Averaging 19 points on 6 rebounds and 5 assists, Bane will space perfectly next to Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and I could envision his volume ticking up a bit, perhaps even a first-time All Star selection could be in order.
While in the real-NBA terms, the contract is questionable, the fit makes the deal incredibly palatable, especially considering the Magic were able to off-load KCP to the Grizz.
Speaking of the scoring and shooting the Magic were looking for, they thought they’d found it in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but he went on to only average 8.7 points last season, shooting just 34.2% from beyond the arc. While I’m still thinking about what the Grizzlies are this year and what they can do, I do think Caldwell-Pope could see a bit of a rebound year, because he can’t be that bad, can he? Maybe a fresh start and different usage could see him go back closer to his career 12-point average and 37% three-point shooting.
Adding to the list of disappointing season’s, Cole Anthony‘s playing time of 18 minutes and 9.4 points-per-game were both career lows in what had been a pretty productive several years in Orlando. I envision a microwave-off-the-bench type of role with some spot starts and there’s plenty of potential here for Anthony to rebound just like KCP, which ultimately makes the Grizzlies an intriguing team to gauge, but we’ll get there in due time.
For now, I love this for Bane, this type of player augments the entire roster in positive ways, and I think KCP and Anthony have a chance to tick up and be buy-lows within context.
Editor’s Note: Cole Anthony was later bought out by the Grizzlies and signed by the Bucks. I think the same analysis applies, but the thought of Anthony on a Bucks team that’s really starving for backcourt play is tangible. Perhaps a really complicated way of saying that I like him a bit more on the Bucks, so yeah. I could have just said that.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
