The man with the weirdest hair in the league is on the move. Magic point guard Elfrid Payton has been traded to the desert. The Suns will send a second-round draft choice to acquire Payton. Orlando has been shopping Payton for a long time and finally decided to part with him.
Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the news:
Orlando has traded Elfrid Payton to Phoenix for a second-round pick, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 8, 2018
Payton, as you can see, has really low value on the market. In the shooting era, Payton didn’t have much value. The former Magic point guard comes in the Rajon Rondo mold. The former 10th overall pick in 2014 will hit restricted free agency this summer. Payton was supposed to be a valuable part of the Magic being a part of that Dario Saric deal with Philadelphia on draft day. The pick that will head to Orlando will be a future Memphis second-round pick.
Payton has averaged 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game. Now Payton can slide right into the starting role with the Suns. Phoenix has been working with backups considering they traded Eric Bledsoe earlier in the season. Tyler Ullis is an undersized guard who can now go back to his normal bench role that suits him much better.
Both teams are among the worst in the NBA. The Magic have 17 wins on the year while Phoenix has 18. The real story of this trade will be if one of these teams receives better lottery odds to land a top draft pick with Payton swapping jerseys. Maybe that was part of the Magic’s thought process to just take anything for a player who helps them this year to prevent a top draft pick. Orlando also wasn’t going to re-sign Payton in the upcoming offseason.
