The best shot of Wall’s punch is at around the 1:15 mark, while the best view of Ilgauskas’ elbow is at around the 1:30 mark. No one likes to get hit in the face, but Wall needs to keep a cool head there. He really hurt his team by getting ejected.

The Magic were busy on Saturday. Very busy.

The Orlando Magic capped a blockbuster day of wheeling and dealing by trading one franchise cornerstone for another, sending Rashard Lewis to the Washington Wizards for Gilbert Arenas on Saturday.

That trade followed news of a deal that sent Vince Carter to the Phoenix Suns in a six-player swap that returns Hedo Turkoglu to the Magic.

The Magic also get Jason Richardson and Earl Clark from the Suns in exchange for Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, a 2011 first-round pick and cash considerations.

The Magic added Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark and lost Rashard Lewis, Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus and a 2011 first round pick.

Let’s take these deals one-by-one. First, Lewis for Arenas. The Magic had to be disappointed with the production they were getting from Lewis, who is averaging just 12.2 points per game this season, his lowest since his sophomore season. The truth is, Lewis’s production took a nosedive when Carter came to town. Now the Magic have Arenas instead, and Gilbert will have to embrace playing off-guard because Jameer Nelson is still slated to start at the point.

Not a bad deal for the Wizards who get a starter-quality ‘stretch four’ in Lewis, who should thrive spacing the floor for John Wall. Lewis’s contract is ridiculous, but it’s one year shorter than Arenas’s deal, which is just as ridiculous. The real upside is that it’s Wall’s team now and he doesn’t have to deal with Agent Zero stepping on his toes.

Now to the Suns’ deal. The Magic sent a starter-quality center (Gortat), Vince Carter’s expiring contract, Mickael Pietrus and a first round pick to Phoenix for Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark. J-Rich is the best player of this bunch, but his deal is expiring as well, so there’s little salary relief for either franchise.

The bottom line is that the Magic just traded away four of its rotation players, so it’s going to take some time to work Turkoglu, Richardson and Arenas into the fold. Unless they expect Richardson to play some small forward, one of the three guards (Richardson, Arenas or Nelson) is going to be short on minutes. And let’s not forget that the Magic want to work J.J. Redick in as well.

Per Adrian Wojnarowski:

Orlando and Washington are engaged in serious discussions for a trade that would send Gilbert Arenas to the Magic, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Still unclear was whether Orlando would send the expiring contract of Vince Carter as part of the package or build a trade around longer-term contracts, including that of backup center Marcin Gortat, sources said. The Wizards also have been angling to get a first-round pick in return, sources said.

The Magic are currently sitting at 16-9 and in fourth place in the much improved Eastern Conference. They see the writing on the wall, which is why they are willing to roll the dice on Gilbert Arenas in order to improve their talent base and give the team a better shot in the playoffs.

Still, it’s funny how quickly things can change. Just a few short months ago, after Arenas was suspended for bringing a loaded gun to the Wizards’ locker room, the team couldn’t give him away. Now there trying to wrest a first round pick out of the Magic in return. Amazing.

For his part, Arenas is posting decent numbers (17-3-6) this season, but isn’t shooting the ball particularly well (39% from the field, 32% from 3PT). I don’t see how he’d work with Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter in the backcourt, so I suspect that Carter would be the one to go. That means that Arenas would have to play a lot of off guard because Nelson is a better point guard right now, in my opinion.

If the Wizards can get out from under Arenas’s contract and get a first round pick and/or a starter-quality center like Marcin Gortat, it will be a coup. John Wall is the future in Washington and Arenas is superfluous. I don’t think Arenas is a good move for the Magic, but they need to do something, and there’s no doubt now that Vince Carter experiment was a failure.

This year, I’m going to preview the NBA season by starting with the lowest of the low and working my way up to my Finals picks. If a franchise is a legitimate championship contender, I’ll focus on what stars have to line up for a title run. If a team is a playoff also-ran, I’ll identify the weaknesses that have to be shored up via trade, free agency or draft over the next couple of seasons to make it a contender. If a team is likely to miss the playoffs, I’ll take a look at the salary cap, and provide a blueprint for how the team should proceed in the near future to get back in the postseason.

#30: Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs could very well finish with the worst record just one year after finishing 2009-10 with the best regular season record. This, of course, is all LeBron James’ fault. He wasn’t supposed to leave, but he did. Not only did he drag his feet during free agency and make it impossible for the franchise to make any other significant moves, he also broke up with the city of Cleveland in the most public way possible. (Hey, at least the Boys & Girls Club made some money off of the deal.) The Cavs are trying to look forward, but it’s tough when you’re planning to start Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon on the wing and are depending on a 34-year-old Antawn Jamison to be your go-to scorer. Jamison and Mo Williams do bring some offense, and Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson will keep the front line competitive, but this team is seriously lacking in talent, specifically at shooting guard and small forward. Byron Scott is a good coach, but he’s going to have a tough time winning more than 25 games with this group. The good news, if there is any, is that the team is not in salary cap hell. They project to have about $10 million in cap space next summer and nearly $30 million in the summer of 2012. But there’s more bad news — it’s going to be tough to attract free agents to Cleveland, especially after Dan Gilbert’s open letter to LeBron.

#29: Toronto Raptors
The other big loser in the Super Friends saga, the Raptors elected not to trade Chris Bosh before the deadline and ended up paying for it in the end. They did trade a disgruntled Hedo Turkoglu for Leandro Barbosa and signed Linas Kleiza to start at small forward. The Raptors are going to try to play a European style of basketball with lots of ball movement and very little isolation. So if they’re able to develop great chemistry quickly, and Andrea Bargnani develops into an All-Star caliber player, they could creep into low-20′s or high teens, but chances are the Raptors are looking at a high lottery pick next summer. There is some young talent on the roster (Bargnani, DeMar DeRozan, Amir Johnson, Ed Davis), but it’s going to have to develop quickly if the Raptors hope to avoid embarrassment night in and night out. Salary-cap wise, Toronto isn’t going to have any significant space (~$15 million) until the summer of 2012, so this rebuilding process is going to take a while.

#28: Minnesota Timberwolves
The T-Wolves are still floundering thanks to the questionable leadership of GM David Kahn. He’s still intent on the idea that Ricky Rubio will be joining the team next year, but Rubio’s parents declined to meet with owner Glen Taylor during a recent trip to Paris to talk things over, so things aren’t looking particularly good on that front. Kahn traded away his best offensive player (Al Jefferson) to Utah for two protected first round picks and acquired/re-signed a couple of reclamation projects in Michael Beasley and Darko Milicic. Looking at the T-Wolves’ salary cap situation, it’s interesting to note that the franchise doesn’t have a single player making more than $5 million this season. For the team to be somewhat competitive this summer, Beasley needs to become a go-to scorer and Kevin Love needs to turn in All-Star caliber numbers at power forward. Minnesota will have about $15 million in cap space next summer to sign Rubio (?) and another significant free agent (or two).

#27: Washington Wizards
The Wizards won the lottery both literally and figuratively when they landed the #1 pick and the rights to draft John Wall, who projects to be a superstar in the NBA. The only issue is that he plays the same position as Gilbert Arenas, who submarined the franchise last season when he brandished a fire arm in the locker room. The Wizards are planning to play Arenas at shooting guard, which might work, but there just isn’t enough talent on the roster to be competitive in the Eastern Conference, which should be improved this season. The Wizards need to feature Arenas and find someone to take his giant contract (four years, $80 million) off their hands for a draft pick or a young prospect along with an expiring contract. This will give Washington a ton of salary cap flexibility next summer and allow Wall to take the reins of the franchise.

#26: Golden State Warriors
With Don Nelson’s recent resignation/dismissal, the Warriors are going through some changes that are likely to have an effect heading into the first few months of the season. This is Stephen Curry’s team now, and the Warriors did well to bring in David Lee to anchor the front line, but it cost them the enigmatic Anthony Randolph in the process. Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins are still around, though both have been involved in trade rumors over the last several months. Biedrins should benefit from consistent minutes at center now that Nellie isn’t there to yank him in and out of the lineup. Defensively, this group projects to be fairly brutal as Curry, Ellis and Lee all struggle on that end of the court. Luckily, help is (possibly) on its way — the Warriors will have significant cap space next summer and generally-speaking don’t have any terrible contracts on the books after this season.

#21 to #25 > >

Take that, Miami!

Following in the Heat’s footsteps, the Chicago Bulls are trying to clear even more cap space so they can make a run at two big-name free agents on July 1.

The Chicago Bulls have a deal in place that would move Kirk Hinrich and the 17th pick to the Washington Wizards, freeing up enough cap space to pursue two maximum-salary players on this summer’s free-agent market, sources with knowledge of the Bulls’ plans said Thursday.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Washington would send to Chicago in the trade.

Since it’s a good-faith deal for the time being, there remains a chance it could fall apart. But according to one source, the Sacramento Kings are prepared to make a similar deal with the Bulls in the Wizards’ stead if that were to happen.

Hinrich is a good defender and is talented enough to be the fourth or fifth best player on a contender, so the Bulls are giving up a good player, even though it’s creating the flexibility to sign two max free agents.

Now the Bulls can go to LeBron James and Chris Bosh and offer to sign them both to max or near-max deals to play with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng.

In order to get this much talent together, a team has to have plenty of cap space (check) and 1-2 budding stars that are still on their rookie contracts (check, check). The only con to playing in Chicago is the long shadow of Michael Jordan. Will LeBron want to play in a city where his legacy has almost no chance of measuring up to that of the greatest player ever to play the game?

Photo from fOTOGLIF

As a finisher, he reminds me a lot of Dwyane Wade though it would be nice to see some highlights of his best passes of the season. He is supposed to be a point guard, after all.