Detroit Pistons Trade Rumors: Reggie Jackson to Orlando Magic?
By Zac Snyder
Detroit Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson is once again the subject of trade rumors, this time being linked to the Orlando Magic.
Could the Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic get together for another deal around trade deadline time? They did it last year in a trade that brought Tobias Harris to Detroit in exchange for Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings and may be heading toward a deal involving Reggie Jackson.
ESPN’s Marc Stein had the report on twitter this afternoon.
The Pistons and Magic have discussed a trade that would send Reggie Jackson to Orlando for D.J. Augustin and Jeff Green, league sources say.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 17, 2017
Not yet clear if talks go past the "discussion" phase but Detroit, as @ZachLowe_NBA noted this week, has been exploring its Reggie options.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 17, 2017
This is the second time Jackson’s name has come up in trade speculation linking him to a particular team. It was about four weeks ago that there were rumblings of discussions between the Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves to swap Jackson and Ricky Rubio.
As Stein noted in his follow-up tweet, it isn’t known how serious talks are yet but anytime there are two teams and multiple players part of a report like this, you know there have been at least some preliminary discussions about the framework of a deal. Discussions happen frequently between front offices, especially around the trade deadline so nothing may come of this, just like nothing has come of the Timberwolves chatter.
However, the Magic are already in dealing mode, having sent Serge Ibaka to Toronto and this is the second time Reggie Jackson’s name has surfaced in trade rumors.
Green, who is making $15 million in the last year of his deal, and Augustin, who is making $7.25 million with three years remaining, is a disappointing potential return for a player recently viewed as a foundational piece of an up and coming team. This kind of deal would essentially be a dumping of Jackson’s salary, with Augustin adding in to the point guard mix with Ish Smith.
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While the potential return looks bad already, it could look even worse because of the salary imbalance of the three players mentioned. The two for one swap fails in the ESPN NBA Trade Machine, requiring a player like Aron Baynes or Boban Marjanovich to bring the salaries in line on both sides. Perhaps a third team would get involved who might need a big and could add in something to the Pistons’ return in the deal.