What does the Grizzlies-Magic Desmond Bane trade mean for the Celtics? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Orlando Magic ignited a potentially wild offseason by acquiring Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday in exchange for a package highlighted by four unprotected first-round picks and a future first-round pick swap.
What does it mean for the Boston Celtics?
Let’s examine the Bane trade through a Boston lens:
1. The East is wide open
The Magic, bounced in Round 1 of the 2025 playoffs by the Celtics, are splurging big with the belief that Bane is the piece that can rocket them to contention in what feels like an extremely wide-open Eastern Conference.
The Magic were a feisty first-round opponent with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner showing all the signs of blossoming stars. Orlando offloaded Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony — two players that failed to have a positive impact on the Boston series — while bringing back a player who can provide the sort of two-way impact the Magic desperately craved, particularly with his shooting talents.
If healthy, the Magic feel like the sort of team that will push hard during the 2025-26 regular season, trying to show they have truly arrived. Orlando should almost certainly push into the top half of the East playoff bracket next season.
Yes, Orlando gave up a haul of picks, but the Magic are banking that they will be one of the eight best teams in basketball over the duration of those picks. They are pushing all in at a time when it feels like they have a real chance to be in the mix and they’ll see where this young trio can take them.
2. A high price tag on talent
While we all wait to see which pieces the Celtics are forced to ship out in order to get below the second apron, it feels like the price tags just shot skyward if teams were to even inquire about players like Jaylen Brown or Derrick White.
Bane is an amazing young player. He’s technically a former Celtics draft pick selected for Memphis after the Celtics utilized the No. 30 pick in the 2020 draft to offload Enes Kanter to the Portland Trail Blazers in a three-team swap. But he doesn’t have the resume of a Brown or a White. So, even at slightly older ages, those players would seemingly require an even greater haul to be moved.
Teams would have to overwhelm Boston with some combination of young talent and future draft assets to even consider moving core pieces of the 2024 title team. And, before the offseason really starts, they have a deal that emphasizes how valuable two-way players are to contenders.
3. Teams looking for that one piece
Set against the backdrop of a Thunder-Pacers matchup in the NBA Finals, there are no shortage of teams that should feel like they are maybe one piece away from being a legitimate contender. All of which could help ensure Boston gets maximum return on any piece it has to move out this offseason.
There’s been speculation about whether the Celtics would have to attach draft capital to move off the contract of Jrue Holiday. Given his age, and with over $100 million in money remaining over three seasons, that might be true. But if there are teams out there that view Holiday as the final piece of their own puzzle, then Boston can try to limit what they need to attach in any deal. Similarly, how much would a contending team that needs shooting splurge to add a Sam Hauser to their rotation given his rather thrifty price tag that fits into a team’s non taxpayer midlevel exception?
If the Celtics must make painful choices to move off talent this summer, then they need to maximize the return in a high-demand marketplace.
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images4. The East gets younger
For the better part of the past decade, we’ve focused on Boston’s older rivals. The Heat, the Sixers, the Bucks. But the road blocks for where Boston yearns to get back to, once Jayson Tatum is healthy again, are the cluster of young teams thriving behind a new wave of stars.
The Pacers, the Pistons, and the Magic are the teams to worry about now. Indiana has proven itself with consecutive deep playoff runs. The Pistons still have the ability to take a huge swing if they want to add alongside Cade Cunningham. The Magic now have three dynamic scorers aged 26 and younger.
The Cavaliers are young-ish, but have some tough decisions this offseason about what pieces of their core to carry forward. The Knicks have to figure out a coach and whether they’re going to stick with their own core after a run to the East finals. The future of Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee remains uncertain. The Sixers haven’t been healthy for a decade. The Heat are just toiling away in Play-In-Ville.
It all adds another wrinkle as Brad Stevens ponders Boston’s next steps. Do the Celtics try to maintain as much of this core as possible and stiff arm these up-and-coming teams? Or do they try to get younger, knowing that’s where the East is moving?
