FanPost

Heart and Hustle

A lot of people seem to want to trade Howard for Gasol & Bynum and make a go of it in the East with that team.

My opinion of this is that if Gasol & Bynum playing with Bryant and Odom and being coached by Phil Jackson weren't enough to win a championship last year then they aren't going to do any better with Nelson and J-rich.

There is no consolation prize for trading a superstar and not being terrible afterwards. Quite the contrary, this is the best draft in the last 10 years (almost 10 years since '03 at least). If there was ever a time to be bad it's during a shortened season (so that it's over quickly) and with an upcoming draft full of potential stars.

The trade that I prefer would be the Nets.

To the Nets: Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu, Chris Duhon

To the Magic: Brook Lopez (I've been researching Lopez since the rumors started and he is actually a really good prospect), Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow; 2012 1st round, 2013 1st round, Houston's lottery protected pick, the right to switch first round picks with New Jersey in 2015.

The next step is to trade Jameer Nelson and Jason Richardson. I'm not going to show any example trades for these two because it's not as crucial. Any decent young players would be good or just first round picks from teams that think their picks will be in the late 20's but could be wrong.

And then straight into developing young talent mode. Give Orton, Harper, Redick, Anderson, etc all the minutes they can handle and see what they've got.

I don't think that the Howard, Turkoglu, Williams (and nothing else) version of the Nets will actually be all that successful so I project the Magic would have; 1 top 5 pick (their own), 1 pick in the 16-18 range (Nets), and maybe another pick in the 14-18 range if Houston wins just enough.

With Lopez and those picks the Magic should be able to become the new OKC Thunder pretty much overnight.

You can win a championship if Lopez is your Center as long as you pair him with a monster PF (omg, please Andre Drummond). But since you already have Lopez the Magic can afford to draft best available and draft a wing also.

My best case scenario is Andre Drummond and Kendall Marshall (link).

This is really the fastest way back to being an elite team. I'll let Nets fans enjoy mediocrity. It's not for me.

This FanPost was made by a member of the Orlando Pinstriped Post community, and is to be treated as the opinions and views of its author, not that of the blogger or blog community as a whole.

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