Banners hang forever in Miami
If you are a Magic fan, there are ways you can squint and justify their trade. The Magic were dead last in the NBA in three-point shooting in 2024-25, and Bane comes to town as a career 41% shooter from three.
So if Bane works out, the Magic’s first-round picks would be later in the draft and wouldn’t hold a ton of value. Combined with the fact that Bane is just 26 years old, the Magic now feel like they have a young core of players they can ride for four to five seasons in a dilapidated Eastern Conference.
But what Orlando has built is a collection of “nice” players. Nice players can get you through the regular season, and as was the case with Cleveland this year, they can even get you the top seed in the Eastern Conference
Another day of watching for white smoke from the Kevin Durant camp has left us still waiting to see where the 15-time All-Star is going to land. The Miami Heat’s neighbors to the north, the Orlando Magic, apparently decided they weren’t interested in the Kevin Durant sweepstakes and pulled off a blockbuster trade of their own to acquire Desmond Bane from Memphis while sending back Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four first-round draft picks, and a first-round pick swap.
The move from the Magic sent shockwaves through the NBA, but it also highlighted two different mindsets between the Heat and the Magic moving forward.But at some point in the playoffs, a team can’t just have “nice” players. They have to have that one guy willing to put the team on their back, and Bane isn’t that guy.
This brings us to why Miami has made it a point of emphasis to pursue every avenue to land Kevin Durant.
There are real reasons to have concerns over Durant, and even if the Heat do land him, the championship window would be far shorter than Orlando’s window.
But Durant would give Miami an instant superstar who can take over games when nothing else seems to be working. Much like Jimmy Butler was “that” guy for Miami, Durant would have the ceiling to raise another banner in Miami
