in the last year of a deal, and Smith says the Magic are want to talk trade.
The logic is the Magic need some front court help since shipping out Marcin Gortat, and Randolph is an offensive and rebounding machine. For Memphis, they have both Randolph and Marc Gasol coming up as free agents this summer and it will be hard to pay both without paying a luxury tax (or whatever spending punishments will be in a new Collective Bargaining Agreement). This way the Grizzlies could get some talent back rather than just letting Randolph walk at the season’s end.
That’s about where it stops making sense.
For one, Randolph is a defensive liability that would drive Stan Van Gundy crazy. Or, crazier. But since the last round of trades defense has been the bigger problem and inconsistency for the Magic and this trade would not address that in the least. It would make the Magic defense worse.
Next, Randolph will make $17.7 million this season. Smith said the trade would involve “players and picks.” The Magic could do this trade straight up if Memphis would take on Gilbert Arenas , but the Grizzlies are trying to shed some salary, not take on three seasons after this one.
Maybe Jason Richardson and his $14.4 million expiring deal could be the core of a deal. But how does that make the Grizzlies better? Depends on what else can be thrown in. Memphis is in the fight for one of the final playoff seeds in the West (and the playoff game money that would bring in), if they are going to virtually abandon that by trading Randolph you have to give them some quality pieces back. Orlando wants to win a title so they are not giving up a lot of quality.
This seems like a real stretch. But you can see enough logic to make you think the sides would talk it through.
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