The Orlando Magic have made multiple trades involving some of the league's biggest superstars, including Dwight Howard, Shaquille O'Neal, Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, and more. But which trade ranks as the best in Magic history? For this exercise, we'll rank the top-7 trades in Magic history based on the following criteria: On-court impact of the player acquired, quality of the actual trade itself, and importance to the overall franchise.
Without further ado, the seven best trades in Magic franchise history:
7. 2009 – Magic acquire Vince Carter, Ryan Anderson
Trade Details: Magic acquire Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson from the New Jersey Nets for Rafer Alston, Tony Battie and Courtney Lee
Fresh off the heels of an NBA Finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Magic took a swing for the fences by acquiring 8-time All-Star Vince Carter from the New Jersey Nets. While Carter wasn't with the Magic for long, he was second in scoring for Orlando during the 2009-10 season where the team won 59 games and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Getting a valuable stretch-4 in Anderson was an underrated part of this deal, as he became a highly productive starter and won the NBA's Most Improved Player award in 2011-12 with the Magic. Although it didn't materialize in another Finals appearance, it's incredibly hard for a contender to get two incredibly productive starters in a trade while sending out no future draft picks. This was an incredible deal for Orlando.
6. 2006 – Magic trade Steve Francis
Trade details: Magic acquire Trevor Ariza and Penny Hardaway from the New York Knicks for Steve Francis
This was a tough pill to swallow at the time. Francis was still a productive player, but he was upset at the Magic for trading his best friend (Cuttino Mobley) and had been suspended by the team for refusing to play in the fourth quarter of a blowout. Francis clearly wanted out of Orlando, and the Magic moved him at the perfect time, as Francis would only play in 78 more games before retiring due to health issues, despite having three years and $49 million remaining on his contract at the time Orlando dealt him to New York.
Penny Hardaway didn't end up playing with the Magic again, but Trevor Ariza, just 20 years old at the time, got his feet wet with the Magic and provided some great minutes.
Unfortunately, Orlando cut bait on Ariza way too soon, flipping him to the Lakers for Brian Cook and Maurice Evans…only to watch Ariza become a starter for the Lakers team that denied the Magic a championship in 2009.
5. 2012 – Magic trade Dwight Howard
Trade details: Magic get: Arron Afflalo, Al Harrington, a 2013 2nd round pick (Romero Osby), a 2014 1st round pick (Dario Saric), Christian Eyenga, Josh McRoberts, a 2017 2nd round pick (Wesley Iwundu), Maurice Harkless, Nikola Vucevic, a 2018 1st round pick (Landry Shamet)
Magic send: Dwight Howard, Earl Clark, Chris Duhon, Jason Richardson
Fortunately for the Magic, this massive four-team blockbuster trade with the Lakers, Sixers and Nuggets worked out a lot better for Orlando in the long run. While trading a superstar like Howard, who was still only 26 at the time, was incredibly difficult to do, Orlando did well to get back a quality starting center in Nikola Vucevic, who played nine seasons for the Magic and became a two-time All-Star selection.
Howard never returned to his All-NBA form in Orlando, as back injuries derailed his first stint with the Lakers and turned him into a different player as he aged.
Orlando had no choice but to trade Howard, and it ended up being the right move, even though the Magic weren't able to fully take advantage of Vucevic's cheap production and properly leverage the draft capital that came through in the deal.
4. 2007 – Magic acquire Rashard Lewis
Trade Details: Magic acquire Rashard Lewis from the Seattle Supersonics for a 2009 2nd round draft pick (Emir Predzic) and a trade exception.
This one is cheating a bit, as this was a sign-and-trade deal negotiated by the Sonics and Magic. But since technically Lewis was acquired by trade, he belongs on this list. Lewis only played four seasons for the Magic, but he was a critical piece next to Dwight Howard for Stan Van Gundy's Magic teams that changed the way offense would be played for years to come.
Orlando was one of the first teams to really embrace putting four shooters on the court together, and making sure threes came in high volume. Lewis, who averaged 2.6 made threes a game on nearly 40 percent shooting, was a massive part of that and became an All-Star in the 2008-09 season with Orlando.
3. 2004 – Magic acquire Jameer Nelson
Trade Details: Magic acquire Jameer Nelson from the Denver Nuggets for a 2005 1st round pick (Julius Hodge)
Orlando was busy in the 2004 draft, taking Dwight Howard with the first overall selection and then making a brilliant trade for No. 20 overall selection Jameer Nelson.
Nelson became one of the longest-tenured players in Magic history, playing ten seasons in Orlando and helping the franchise through multiple different eras as a rock-solid point guard and one-time All-Star selection. Nelson is everywhere on Orlando's all-time leaderboard, and is the franchise leader in assists (3,501) and is fifth all-time in points.
While Dwight Howard was the carrying force, Nelson was a very underrated part of some of the best teams in Magic history.
2. 2000 – Magic acquire Tracy McGrady
Trade Details: Magic acquire Tracy McGrady from the Toronto Raptors for a 2005 1st round pick (Fran Vazquez)
This was another sign-and-trade deal, but it landed the Magic one of the best players in franchise history in Tracy McGrady.
While McGrady only played four seasons in Orlando, he was an All-Star and All-NBA selection in each of them and led the league in scoring in his final two seasons in Orlando. The Magic were unable to surround McGrady with enough talent to make noise in the postseason, but McGrady legitimately became one of the best players in the league during his time in Orlando and was an effortless scorer against constant double-teams.
McGrady's career mirrored that of a lot of previous Magic stars: brilliance in a short stretch, then a departure filled with injuries. That's not a knock on McGrady, though, who is one of the most talented offensive wings the game has ever seen.
1. 1993 – Magic acquire Penny Hardaway
Trade Details: Magic acquire Penny Hardaway, a 1996 1st round draft pick (Todd Fuller), a 1998 1st round draft pick (Vince Carter), and a 2000 1st round draft pick (Mike Miller) from the Golden State Warriors for Chris Webber.
This still ranks as one of the biggest and most important trades in NBA history, and Commissioner David Stern's trade announcement of this deal is a legendary draft day moment.
The Magic received a massive haul for trading Chris Webber, and paired up Penny Hardaway with Shaquille O'Neal to form one of the most iconic tandems the league has ever seen.
Hardaway only ended up playing six seasons in Orlando, but he was a true superstar. Hardaway was a 4-time All-Star, 3-time All-NBA selection and led the Magic to the Finals in 1995 before injuries eventually derailed his career.
Webber had a Hall of Fame type career, but not for the Warriors, as he was traded after his rookie season to the Washington Bullets. The Magic reaped the benefits of this deal well beyond Hardaway's playing days, as Mike Miller won Rookie of the Year in
This blockbuster deal that landed one of the best players in franchise history takes the top spot as the best trade in Orlando Magic history.
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