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Winners and Losers from Memphis Grizzlies-Orlando Magic Desmond Bane Blockbuster Trade
Congratulations to the Memphis Grizzlies and Orlando Magic for marking the unofficially official start of the NBA's silly season.
As first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania, the Magic are sending the Grizzlies Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four first-round picks and one first-round swap in exchange for Bane. Philip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily has the full details on the draft equity headed to Memphis:
This move marks a fundamental shift for both the Grizzlies and the Magic. It may also nod toward some larger, overarching team-building trends across the Association.
Let us now dust off the ol' winners-and-losers contraption to make sense of it all. Bear in mind this is an immediate reaction. The full breadth of winners and losers can still change, as both squads go about the rest of their offseason. This list focuses on everything we know right now and nothing more.
Winner: Desmond Bane
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Desmond Bane has carved out quite the career for himself while with the Grizzlies. Over the past four years, he's clearing 20 points and four assists per game while knocking down 40-plus percent of his 7.0 three-point attempts. Stephen Curry is the only other player to hit all of those benchmarks during this span.
Joining the Magic shouldn't change Bane's role too much. They will have him do more as a passer, something his decision-making out of drives suggests he's ready to take on. But there is still at least one player ahead of him in the pecking order (Paolo Banchero), so his value will remain rooted in his shooting and secondary on-ball creation.
This is great news for Bane any way you slice it.
In the event he takes on a more prominent playmaking role, he'll receive even more recognition for his growth and rise up the player ranks. Even if he remains largely the same, he'll have an easier time contending for an All-Star selection and a championship in the wide-open Eastern Conference.
Loser: Jaren Jackson Jr.
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It's looking more and more like Jaren Jackson Jr. will have to wait for his next payday.
Prior to this trade, the Grizzlies boasted around $7 million in cap space. Most expected them to use that money to bump up Jackson's 2025-26 salary to around $30.4 million and then offer him a four-year, $190.8 million extension on top of that raise.
This scenario is out the window for now.
Memphis is technically taking on salary when factoring in what it'll cost to sign the No. 16 pick. As things stand, it has under $5 million in cap space. A renegotiate-and-extend with Jackson remains possible, but he'd have to accept a raise to $28 million(ish) next season, with a four-year, $175.6 million deal tacked onto it.
Maybe that's enough for JJJ to put pen to paper. But he'll have the opportunity to make more in 2026 unrestricted free agency. A four-year max from the Grizzlies would run $228.6 million. Perhaps Jackson was always planning to wait for that opportunity. And maybe moving Bane's money means they're more likely to give him the full boat. (A five-year max would run $296 million.)
Still, Jackson has gone from potentially being supermax eligible if he made All-NBA (which he didn't) to having a $190.8 million extension potentially available to now seeing that number dip another $15 million.
Winner: The Magic's Offense
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Orlando has not finished with a top-15 offense since Dwight Howard was in pinstripes and hasn't climbed outside the bottom since 2017. Last season, specifically, the Magic finished 26th in points per possession, once again crumbling under their dearth of creation and shooting.
Look at where they placed in some other key categories—and then immediately wash out your eyes:
Desmond Bane helps the Magic materially improve across every one of those categories. And while he doesn't check the "Traditional floor general" box, he is yet another player who can dribble and decision-make.
At the very least, Orlando's core lineups should now have an easier time of generating buckets. That's more than it could say this past year, when the offense ranked in the 21st percentile during minutes with Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner all on the floor.
Loser: Gary Harris and/or Mo Wagner
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Gary Harris ($7.5 million) and Mo Wagner ($11 million) both have team options for next season. It wasn't clear whether the Magic would exercise them before this trade.
They are almost certainly going to decline them now.
Orlando will have over $205 million in salary on the books if it brings everyone back next season. That puts it dangerously close to second-apron territory ($207.8 million). It remains to be seen whether the Magic will be hard-capped there as a result of aggregating salaries for Bane. That becomes a non-issue if this trade gets completed before the new league year.
Except, well, the timing and the hard-capping don't actually matter. The Magic are staring down a wildly expensive core in the years to come, following Paolo Banchero's inevitable max extension. They aren't carrying $200-plus million in player salaries into 2025-26.
Harris and Wagner are the cleanest cuts. Cory Joseph ($3.4 million) and Caleb Houstan ($2.2 million) also have club options, but their departures don't leave as much of a dent in the cap sheet. And though Harris and Wagner can still sign new deals with the Magic, at least one of them isn't getting anywhere near their team-option number.
Winner: The Grizzlies' Optionality
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Losing Desmond Bane's offensive punch no doubt stings, but the Grizzlies are extracting excellent value out of someone who may never make an All-Star game.
While Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's contract ($43.2 million) doesn't look so hot these days, he somewhat quietly defended at an All-League level last season. Adding him to the rotation lightens the workload placed upon Jaylen Wells and Scottie Pippen Jr., among others, while just generally upping Memphis' terror level at the less glamorous end—no small potatoes knowing Zach Edey will miss the start of 2025-26 with an ankle injury.
Wiping Bane's salary from the ledger (four years, $163.2 million) also makes it more likely they aren't priced out of the Jaren Jackson Jr. business. As we already covered, a renegotiate-and-extend seems dead, but he may have turned it down anyway, and Memphis was never going to bankroll max and near-max price points for Bane, Jackson and Ja Morant in 2026 and beyond.
Most critically of all, the Grizzlies are stockpiling a bunch of interesting draft assets. That 2026 first will be the second most favorable from Phoenix, Orlando and Washington, and there's no telling where the Magic will be when the 2028, 2029 (top-two-protected swap) and 2030 obligations come due.
What Memphis does from here is anyone's guess—mostly in a good way. This could be the future-focused haul the Grizzlies need to lean into a reset. It could be the return that allows them to replenish their long-term rotation on the cheap through drafting and development.
Hell, this could even be a pick-packed ransom they use to go out and swing another big trade. Kevin Durant, anyone? Or what about Jaylen Brown?
To be sure, Memphis' end of the deal isn't without risk. The team is punting on bankable production and a battle-tested fit for flexibility. We need to see what becomes of this optionality before declaring it the correct move. But this core didn't appear on the verge of breaking through. Figuring out a way to increase the mystery-box factor is, for now, a good thing.
Loser: Extended NBA Team Windows
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As if we needed any additional evidence NBA windows are increasingly fleeting, right?
The Grizzlies' core was together for a nice chunk of time relative to contemporary franchise cycles. But consecutive 50-win jaunts in 2021-22 and 2022-23 weren't enough to inoculate them against this major change following two injury-riddled campaigns and in the face of mushrooming expenses.
The Magic, meanwhile, seem resigned to operating on an incredibly brief window. They profile as a second-apron team in 2026-27, when Paolo Banchero's inevitable max extension takes effect. Maaaaybe they suck it up for a year after trimming some fat from the 2025-26 payroll. They aren't stomaching it for more than that.
Teams like the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets already showed us last offseason, to varying degrees, that most will treat the second apron as a hard cap—a line they won't cross. Squads with the gall to enter it, on the other hand, won't spend much time remaining inside it. Both the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics are definitively going to evade the second apron this offseason after blowing past it in 2025-26.
Orlando won't be any different. Nor will any other team. But this swing by the Magic is particularly intriguing. Their most important players are still so young, yet they've essentially consigned themselves to a two-year window before having to make seismic changes. It's equal parts fascinating and harrowing, and for anyone who appreciates sustainable windows and roster continuity, it's also a colossal bummer.
Winner: The 2025 NBA Offseason Transaction Cycle
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ESPN's Shams Charania previously predicted that we were barreling towards the "most craziest offseason ever." Skeptics quickly pointed out that a lack of spending power across the league coupled with Apron Era logistics ran counter to this outlook.
So much for that.
Trades are clearly going to be the primary vehicle through which squads make things happen. And the Desmond Bane blockbuster is just an appetizer.
Kevin Durant is next. Giannis Antetokounmpo could be, too. The Celtics are about to embark on a gap-year process that may see them move Derrick White—or even Jaylen Brown. Trae Young's extension eligibility serves as an inflection point for his future with the Atlanta Hawks.
This says nothing of the teams that will be on the prowl for marquee upgrades. The Miami Heat will be itching to do something more than ever after watching the Magic fortify their position in the East. The same might go for the Detroit Pistons.
The Houston Rockets have the assets and talent to do...whatever they want. Ditto for the San Antonio Spurs. The Toronto Raptors are reportedly angling for a blockbuster move of their own. The Philadelphia 76ers are perhaps the oddest team ever to have the No. 3 pick. There's no telling what they might do with it. The Portland Trail Blazers could enter the win-now fray after their midseason romp. The Utah Jazz could act brashly if they don't think there's a franchise cornerstone available at No. 5.
This list goes on. And on. It will invariably incorporate names and teams we aren't even talking about yet. True to Shams' word, it sure seems like we're in for the "most craziest offseason" in quite some time, if not ever.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
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