NBA Trade Rumors: Orlando Magic to Place Evan Fournier, Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja on Trading Block
The Orlando Magic are prepared to press the reset button as they go through another losing season.
According to the New York Times' Marc Stein, the Magic are expected to shop Evan Fournier, Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja around the league in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline in February.
"Rival executives expect Jeff Weltman, Orlando's new team president, to aggressively hunt for new homes for the likes of Fournier, Payton and Hezonja, given that Nikola Vucevic's broken finger is likely to preclude dealing the center," Stein said in his report.
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This shouldn't come as a surprise because the Magic are not winning games with their current lineup.
Fournier seems to be drawing a lot of interest in recent weeks, so the Magic likely won't have any problem in finding potential trade partners. Hezonja's name has also come up in trade rumors earlier in the season and he could use a change of scenery.
Meanwhile, Payton has struggled with inconsistency throughout his career, and as strange as it sounds, his unique hairstyle has gotten in the way of his shot several times already.
Still, the former University of Louisiana at Lafayette standout has shown a lot of improvement as a shooter this season. He has made 51.6 percent of his field goal attempts so far, which is quite high for a guard, and he's also shooting better from three-point range this year (38.6 percent). Payton still has to work on his free-throw, though, because he's only shooting 62.9 percent from the line.
Payton is averaging 12.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.3 steals in under 30 minutes this season.
As noted by Stein, the Magic would have shopped Vučević if he wasn't dealing with a hand injury. Vučević was averaging 17.4 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.1 blocks before he got hurt.
