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Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif
Desmond Bane is no longer a Memphis player, having been traded to Orlando a few days ago. Apparently, the move wasn’t so forced, as the guard wasted no time in sending a dig at his former team.
Free agency won’t open until early July, but that hasn’t stopped NBA franchises from already making their trade purchases. The Magic were the first team to strike, after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. To help their young roster take a step forward, the management decided to go all-in in the short term, and to do so, they made a deal with the Grizzlies.
And so it was Desmond Bane who landed in Florida in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, and no fewer than four first-round picks, as well as a pick swap. The trade may seem colossal considering we’re talking about a player who has never been an All-Star, but Orlando seems to believe in him enough to take the risk. Now it’s up to him to prove he was worth it.
One thing is certain: the Magic can expect a lot from their new player if the graft takes hold. Bane has established himself as one of the league’s best shooting guards in recent years: he averaged over 19 points this season, and in 2023-24, when Ja Morant wasn’t there often, he even reached 23.7 points per game. All this with a career 41% three-point shooting percentage.
Desmond Bane destroys the Grizzlies’ facilities
Now, however, he will no longer be the right-hand man of the former MIP, but rather that of the Paolo Banchero-Franz Wagner duo. Bane has also discovered his new team’s facilities and clearly, he likes what he saw very much. This has led him to make a rather brutal observation to journalists regarding the Grizzlies:
It’s different, bro. The one in Memphis, we ain’t have not one window… We joked around and called it the dungeon, but this is a breath of fresh air. I mean you literally can step outside and get a breath of fresh air and eat on the patio. I mean there’s indoor, outdoor training facility. You know all the bells and whistles are in here. I feel like the people are really what’s going to make this place special.
It’s hard not to see this as a huge dig at Memphis. Ja Morant and his teammates are clearly having a rough time as of late, with controversial figure Stephen A. Smith recently dropping a bombshell by claiming NBA stars were afraid to go to Tennessee due to a lack of security. Their former teammate’s comments aren’t going to restore the franchise’s image with the public.
