NBA Trade Wish: Magic Deal For Mavs Youth?

An unprecedented move ideally sends Orlando Magic G Gary Harris to the Dallas Mavericks for a haul, including F Davis Bertans, F Josh Green and G Jaden Hardy.

The Orlando Magic has a budding young nucleus primed for emergence in the coming years. The Dallas Mavericks are a fixture in the NBA Western Conference, and after trading for 2023 All-Star Kyrie Irving, have their sights set on winning a championship. Albeit, while things have not been spotless since Irving's arrival, do the Magic wish it could get its hands on Davis Bertans and additional young talent?

Bleacher Report conjured up trades that every team wishes they could make well past the Feb. 9 trade deadline. For the Magic, the team is dealing Gary Harris to the Mavs for Dāvis Bertāns, Josh Green and Jaden Hardy.

"The Magic are plenty feisty, but more than anything, they are young," Bleacher Report writes. "Their rotation is almost entirely constructed of 25-and-under talent, which makes the 28-year-old Harris appear out of place. His win-now game can only do so much for a group that isn't ready to win yet.

"By giving up Harris and taking back the bloated contract of Bertāns, Orlando could up its collection of youth. Green is a lockdown defender who found efficiency with his three-point shot. If he maintains his accuracy (40.9 percent) while upping his volume (2.8 attempts), he'd rocket up the three-and-D rankings. Hardy is a wild card, but rebuilders should want to bet on a 20-year-old with his shot-creation shops."

Objectively, this deal screams 'never in a million years.' Orlando management would throw a celebration if it was able to parlay Harris, someone without a guaranteed contract next season, in exchange for three talented role players.

Harris is an established veteran with scoring prowess and defensive capabilities that go well beyond his 8.5 points and 0.9 steals per game. He once averaged as much as 17.5 points and 1.8 steals per contest in the 2017-18 season, and at 28 years old, could re-emerge. 

Bringing in Bertans would give Orlando a sharp-shooting spark plug off the bench, while also overcrowding their depth chart at combo-forward. The Magic currently have Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, Jonathan Isaac and Chuma Okeke at forward. Though, Bertans' three point shooting has been stellar throughout his career.

In every season where Bertans has attempted four or more threes per game, he's shot 39.5 percent or better in three of them. He's been in and out of the lineup this season, but has maintained his shooting integrity, connecting on 39 percent of his shots from outside. 

Josh Green has shown flashes of brilliance in the 2023 campaign, and has scored in double figures in seven of the 13 games he's started since Jan. 1. 

Lastly, Hardy has proven to be a point guard that can push the pace and shoot from outside, though his per 36 minutes assists to turnover ratio (2.6-2.4) could use a fine tune. 

However, the proposed deal makes little sense for the Mavericks. Three players for one that would come off the bench holds no favorable angle for a team that made it as far as the Western Conference Finals in 2022. 

To make matters worse, Bertans, Green and Hardy are all under contract until 2024-25. Bertans is slated to make $31 million over the next two seasons and $17 million in 2023-24. Green is on the books for nearly $4.8 million in 2023-24 and almost $6.8 million the following season, and Hardy is sure for $2.7 million until 2025. 

Harris' $13 million expiring contract for next season would allow the Magic to get something in return with security should he leave in the summer of 2024. The anticipated salary cap for 2023-24 is $134 million. The three players in exchange would add roughly $11 million to the $102.4 million that Orlando has on the books in '24, and would leave the franchise with about $21 million to pursue marquee talent on the wire or via trade. 

For Dallas, it would alleviate $11 million off of the $108.6 million they are tied to next year, not factoring in the impending re-ups that Irving, Christian Wood, Dwight Powell and Frank Ntilikina are due for.

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