Desmond Bane Rumors

Jake Fischer: I think all along there was never really a plan to move Jaylen or Derrick. So I don't think anything got close, and I don’t think they were really willing to move those guys either. Like, you would have had to make a trade—Desmond Bane, Mikal Bridges–type of offer—for Derrick White. And honestly, for Jaylen—as great as he is—I think a lot of teams look at his salary number and go: “Why would you be paying what Boston values him at, for that contract?” So his deal isn’t universally viewed as an incredible addition if you were to trade for him.

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The most notable change was former Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane being traded to the Orlando Magic. "I was shocked, personally," Morant said. "I got the message from Des. To see it all over the internet, I thought the (expletive) was fake, honestly. It's best for both sides. Des is going to a very talented Orlando team. I feel like he's the piece that they've been missing."

Memphis Commercial Appeal

Marc Stein: UPDATE: League sources tell @TheSteinLine that Orlando is indeed adding Bucks assistant Joe Prunty as well as God Shammgod to Jamahl Mosley’s coaching staff … on top of on-court additions Desmond Bane and Tyus Jones and the draft selections of Jase Richardson and Noah Penda.

x.com

According to league sources, most of the discussions the Raptors were involved with dated back a month ago, and involved trading the No. 9-overall pick in the draft, along with salary — which why RJ Barrett’s name was often mentioned — for an impact player. The Raptors talked to Boston about Derrick White, Memphis about Desmond Bane and Phoenix about Kevin Durant.

SportsNet

League sources say Memphis spent the weekend actively trying to shed the contract of newly acquired Cole Anthony, who joined the Grizzlies as part of the Desmond Bane trade with Orlando, by finding a trade partner willing to absorb his salary.

marcstein.substack.com

Sources say that the Orlando Magic are among the teams to express interest in Tyus Jones, who played alongside new Magic marquee acquisition Desmond Bane for three seasons in Memphis.

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Sources say that Memphis, in the wake of the Desmond Bane trade, is focused on preserving as much financial flexibility as possible to renegotiate-and-extend the contract of star forward Jaren Jackson Jr. as well as fending off external interest in restricted free agent Santi Aldama.

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Desmond Bane may be headed to Orlando, but he’s not letting anyone disrespect the city that made him a star. The former Memphis Grizzlies ace recently appeared on the Young Man and the Three podcast, where he addressed lingering concerns about the city being unsafe. The sharp-shooting wing had just moved to Orlando in a blockbuster trade, yet he was quick to protect the city he called home. Asked why some players hesitate to go to Memphis, he replied with conviction, “I think all that is just false. I think once you get to Memphis and you learn Memphis… There’s a lot of love in that city. Yeah, it’s got its rough parts. But that’s how every city is. Memphis is a beautiful place they got a great organization. Anybody that goes there will be happy with what they got going on for sure.”

Clutch Points

Desmond Bane: If it was such a bad place like people are talking about, they wouldn’t be coming back to live there and plant their roots. Ja obviously loves it there. I think Jaren's a big fan too. If you live there, you understand. It's easy to look from the outside and hear all the stories. I was like that too. I came from a small town—it had crime, it had different things. But when you go to Memphis, you think, "Oh my God, it’s going to be treacherous." Yeah, there are parts—but there are parts of Richmond that are treacherous too. That’s life. It's never going to be peaches and cream everywhere you go. But it’s a great place to live.

YouTube

The best thing about the Desmond Bane trade is that it came out of nowhere. There were no leaks. No rumors. I simply woke up and found out that Bane now played for the Orlando Magic. That’s the way it should be. I wanted to get a sense for how out of the blue this trade was so I reached out to Zach Rodriguez, the founder of Fanspo, which hosts one of the most popular NBA trade machines on the internet. In the last year alone, Fanspo users created more than 120,000 fake trades, according to Rodriguez. I asked Rodriguez, of those 120,000+ fake trades, how many of them featured Bane being sent to Orlando in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony. Rodriguez queried his database and wrote back, “After some digging, I was only able to find two trades that involved these three players and only those two teams.”

Substack

[Desmond Bane] “This facility is different bro. The one in Memphis we ain’t have not one window… we joked around and called it the Dungeon… this is a breath of fresh air.”

reddit

And when Memphis general manager Zach Kleiman informed Bane he was traded, there was a moment of angst. “Before he told me where I was going, my heart sank, just because there’s 29 other teams outside of the Grizzlies that I could have ended up on,” Bane said. “Once he said Orlando, I was smiling through the phone. I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful like I was moving on from Memphis that fast, but I was genuinely excited about the new opportunity.”

Orlando Sentinel

Jason Beede: New #Magic guard Desmond Bane shared that when the season ended his agent asked him if he were ever traded where he’d want to end up: “I promise you, Orlando was right at the top of the list,” Bane said. Bane on getting traded for 4 first-round picks: “It’s time to win.” More: pic.x.com/TSWa0BdAVe

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Cody Taylor: Desmond Bane on the Magic: It was always tough to put the ball in the basket against them. They guard, and I think I'll fit right in with what they're trying to do on that end and help out a little bit on the spacing front on offense. pic.x.com/IYJ8Ndn2qu

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