The Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs can help one another. They can do so not just by beating common opponents that facilitate a path for the other to make the postseason, but by swinging a trade deadline deal that would be beneficial to both organizations. The prized jewel in a swap would be Magic big man Mo Bamba, whom the Spurs should make a priority to snag in a deal with Orlando.
Still only 21 years old, Bamba has the unfortunate current circumstance of having hit his current glass ceiling with the Magic. Even as myriad injuries have thrown the entirety of the depth chart into flux throughout the season, Bamba's minutes — and role — have remained steady. Unfortunately, steady has become an unwanted reality for a player averaging just 15.3 minutes on a nightly basis for a former No. 6 overall pick with preternatural skills on the defensive end.
The Spurs have maintained their staggering level of success by continually adding pieces to their collective puzzle in increments. While other professional sports organizations have traveled down the scorched earth path, San Antonio has added to the mix for future use years before approaching the bottom of the standings. Bringing a former lottery pick like Bamba aboard would follow that ilk, as he would not likely be a game-changer from his first night on the Texas hardwood. But down the line, the former Longhorn could prove pivotal to the organization.
Since entering the league, Bamba has started just one of his 89 appearances; he has reached the 20-minute plateau in just nine of those outings. (Oddly enough, his lone career start came against the Spurs on Dec. 19, 2018.) His career production extrapolated out on a 36-minute basis is relatively impressive: 13.1 points, 11.5 rebounds and most vitally, 3.1 blocks on a nightly basis. Of course, Bamba has not yet even played 36 minutes in a single game in his career, let alone averaged that much time on the floor, but it's a future projection of how terrifying a presence he could be at the basket for opponents if given a longer leash.
Fortunately for San Antonio, Orlando has a glaring need for something the Spurs have in surplus: guards. The Spurs currently trot out the quartet of Dejounte Murray, Patty Mills, Bryn Forbes and Derrick White, all of whom average between 23.3 (Mills) and 25.7 minutes (Forbes) per game. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has been particularly nonplussed about his team's defense this season, and while it could be a steep price to pay, trading from a place of depth (the backcourt) in order to improve the overall defense and improve a place of need (the frontcourt) could do the trick for flipping the roller-coaster script that has been the Spurs thus far in 2019-20.
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