It's looking more and more like Gilbert Arenas will be involved in a trade to the Orlando Magic very soon. Magic general manager Otis Smith confirmed that discussions have occurred, and now, we're getting more details on which players may be involved.
More and more, it's looking like the plan is for Rashard Lewis, and not Vince Carter, to come back to Washington D.C. ESPN's Chris Broussard reports that the deal will be essentially Arenas for Lewis.
Washington deal with Orlando is close and will be Rashard Lewis for Gilbert Arenas straight up, sources say....no big going from Wiz to Orl
Broussard's report indicates that the Magic are making a second trade with the Phoenix Suns prior to acquiring Arenas, sending Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus and a first-round pick to the Phoenix Suns for Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark. Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that trade is a "prelude" to an Arenas trade, and Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post is reporting that Quentin Richardson is involved.
The Magic reportedly have several reservations about the deal, according to CBS Sports' Ken Berger.
But according to a person familiar with the situation, Smith faces two significant obstacles in bringing Arenas to Orlando. The first is Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who has told friends he is extremely reluctant to add Arenas to the roster. The second, and even more important impediment, is Orlando ownership, which has serious reservations about absorbing Arenas' contract. Arenas has one more year left than Lewis and two more than Carter -- essentially three more with Carter's partial guarantee in 2013-14. Turkoglu's contract could ease some of that pain, as the Turkish star agreed to accept a reduced guarantee in '13-'14 as part of his trade from Toronto to Phoenix.
Still, it looks like this trade is going to get done very soon. As noted earlier, Lewis' contract runs for one year and $18 million less than Arenas', so it's like trading one bad contract for another.