The NBA world has been waiting for a blockbuster trade to materialize for the past several weeks.

Just not the blockbuster trade that happened Sunday:

Memphis Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four first-round picks and a future pick swap.

There were many reasons why this trade on Father’s Day morning was such a big surprise, but the biggest one was that it wasn’t a deal involving Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.

But that was far from the only shock felt around the NBA. Here’s how league insiders are reacting to this early, fascinating deal, one that could have massive ripple effects.

Why did Orlando make this trade?

It had become one of the best trivia questions in NBA circles: Who is the last player the Magic actively acquired in a trade?

Before Sunday, the answer was former No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz, whom Orlando landed at the 2019 trade deadline in a deal with the Philadelphia 76ers for reserve forward Jonathon Simmons and a protected first-round pick (that eventually became Tyrese Maxey).

But after years of inactivity, Orlando emphatically pushed in its chips, clearly viewing Bane as the missing player who can lift the franchise to the top of the East again. It has been 15 years since the Magic have won a playoff series. In talking with sources around the league, opinions were mixed on whether adding Bane will change that.

Some regard Bane as a perfect fit — an off guard who can defend and is a career 41% 3-point shooter. The Magic shot 31.7% from deep this season, by far the worst clip in the NBA.

“He’ll be a good fit,” one assistant coach told ESPN. “There’s not a lot of guys that you would want to grab as your third option that can do it to the level that he can do it.”

Others questioned the hefty price, both in terms of the contract (Bane is owed $163 million over the next four years) and the draft capital to acquire him.

“[The Grizzlies] did that extension before the new second apron rules kicked in and they were looking at that deal and liking it less,” one scout said. “Really good guy, good player, but [I] never thought of him as a max guy.”

Several teams inquired about Bane, sources said, but none as aggressively as Orlando.

It’s easy to see why. Bane should slot in perfectly in the backcourt alongside Jalen Suggs, one of the best defenders in the league, and adds shooting and shot creation to a roster, featuring Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, that desperately needs both.

Why did Memphis?

Grizzlies general manager Zack Kleiman was blunt six weeks ago when he addressed his team’s contending window after Memphis was swept out of the first round by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“I don’t think we can look back at this series and say, ‘Oh we’re close,'” Kleiman told reporters in Memphis during his end-of-season news conference.

“We’re not.”

By trading Bane, long part of the core in Memphis with Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., Kleiman is acting on those words.

But more star trades are not expected. Sources told ESPN that the Grizzlies are not looking to deal either of their two remaining franchise cornerstones. The team has spent the past several months clearing salary cap space to complete a renegotiation and extension of Jackson’s contract this offseason, preventing him from hitting free agency in 2026. The belief is that an extension will get done, sources said. But the Bane trade gives Memphis an avenue to give Jackson even more on that deal and lock him in long term.

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What does Desmond Bane trade mean for Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr.?

Brian Windhorst questions if the Grizzlies are shifting direction with the Desmond Bane trade that could mark the start of a franchise reset.

And Memphis handing the team to coach Tuomas Iisalo — who wants to play a fast-paced system with tons of pick-and-roll and 3-point shooting — is designed to maximize what Morant can do.

The Grizzlies believe Jaylen Wells, who finished third in Rookie of the Year voting this past season as a second-round pick, can be a long-term starter on the wing, sources said. And among the haul of picks they received in the trade, the most attractive was next year’s lesser of Phoenix and Washington — a pick that’s very likely to be a lottery pick, and could easily wind up inside the top 10, or better.

Now, the Grizzlies believe they can go in a variety of directions as they look to improve and continue to try to contend in the Western Conference. But that required taking an immediate step back to hopefully take two — or more — steps forward in the future.

How does this affect the Kevin Durant trade saga?

In speaking with several sources Sunday in the wake of the Bane deal, the universal belief is that any draft packages going to Phoenix in a Durant deal likely won’t surpass the haul of draft picks coming to Memphis for Bane, who hasn’t yet made an All-Star team.

“Everyone has to throw their prior precedents and baselines out,” said one executive, who referred to not only the Bane trade but the five first-rounders the New York Knicks traded for Mikal Bridges last year as having nothing to do with how to properly value Durant.

“Those deals don’t mean Durant is worth 12 firsts now,” they said.

But what, exactly, is Durant worth? It’s the question people around the league continue to ask as the saga continues.

As ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Saturday night, Durant is willing to sign a contract extension with three teams: the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat. But sources around the league are still talking about the Minnesota Timberwolves as a potential landing spot for Durant.

What does seem clear is that the package isn’t going to be anywhere near the haul that the Brooklyn Nets received for Durant 2½ years ago, a deal consummated within the first 24 hours owner Mat Ishbia took control of the Suns. How Ishbia will react to that will be telling, and could determine how this process plays out.

Orlando sees an opportunity in a new conference hierarchy. How does this deal affect the rest of the East?

This trade is just the latest ripple from the devastating Achilles tendon tear sustained by Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks.

There is every reason to hope and believe Tatum will return to full strength after the injury. The doctor who performed the surgery — Martin O’Malley from New York’s renowned Hospital for Special Surgery — also repaired Durant’s Achilles tear in 2019. But, in the short term, it all but certainly has removed Boston as the dominant force in the East for the 2025-26 season, after being in that position for most of the past several years.

That has created an opening for teams to strike — and Orlando was the first one.

“For them, they got to give themselves a chance,” one executive said. “They have gone to the playoffs two years in a row and had a first-round exit, and they look around and they’ve got a young group that’s trying to figure out how to take the next step.

“In theory, in the middle of the year you would have thought Indiana was in their group, too, in that you wouldn’t have thought they could get over the top and the two best teams were clearly Cleveland and Boston.

“But with Boston not being there next year, it’s going to be fascinating to see how much of a win-now approach is going to take place because every team is going to think they can do what Indiana just did.”

This move could cause more teams to expedite their plans this summer. We already saw the Knicks fire Tom Thibodeau after losing in the conference finals. The Celtics have plenty of uncertainty about their roster. The Pistons, after an encouraging playoff breakthrough, could create cap space to pursue an impact player.

The Philadelphia 76ers, if they can get their team on the court, believe they can compete. The 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers will return their core. And the Giannis Antetokounmpo question still lingers for Milwaukee.

“It’s become way more open-ended, and owners are going to see it that way,” the executive said. “But the Magic could still lose in the first round. So can the Knicks. So can all of these teams.”

Why the draft could be the most important day of the offseason

One of the four picks coming to Memphis in the Bane trade was No. 16 in this month’s NBA draft. With a Durant trade likely to happen before this year’s draft, sources said, expect some 2025 draft capital to be included.

In a summer in which there is basically no cap space for teams — the rebuilding Brooklyn Nets, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, are the only one projected to have meaningful space with which to work. With a limited free agent class on top of it, several sources said the busiest day of the offseason is going to be June 25, the first round of the draft.

It’s the one date on the calendar when all of these teams have the ability to maneuver their rosters and improve — and possibly for the only time, given the constraints on the market in the weeks afterward. Between teams trying to shed money or just reshuffle their rosters after an eventful few months around the league, there’s no shortage of teams searching for a splash. “It just feels like there is going to be more activity than even normally is,” an executive said.

Coupled with a draft featuring two clear prospects at the top — Cooper Flagg at No. 1 and Dylan Harper at No. 2 — and a deep pool of strong prospects, it should make for a wildly entertaining night inside Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

The trade: The San Francisco Giants acquire DH Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox for LHP Kyle Harrison, RHP Jordan Hicks, OF prospect James Tibbs and minor league RHP Jose Bello.

It’s rare we get an out-of-the-blue trade featuring one of the game’s best hitters, and it’s even more rare when it happens in the middle of June involving teams in playoff contention. Given everything Devers and the Red Sox have battled throughout this season — his initial anger at being moved off third base when the team signed Alex Bregman and later his refusal to move to first base when Triston Casas went down because of an injury — maybe it’s not as surprising as it first appears.

The Red Sox aren’t immune to controversial moves, having traded Mookie Betts in 2020, but this one certainly will be a fun one to argue about on social media, with enough hot takes to burn off the late summer fog in San Francisco.

Let’s grade it.

San Francisco Giants: For the Giants and new top executive Buster Posey, the impact of this trade is obvious: They get their best hitter since Posey himself was at his peak and certainly their best power hitter since Barry Bonds, the last Giants player to hit 30 home runs (2004), a figure Devers has reached three times. After beginning the season with five hitless games, Devers is now hitting .272/.401/.504 after hitting his 15th home run in Boston’s 2-0 win on Sunday over the New York Yankees. He has seen a huge spike in his walk rate, boosting his OBP well above his career mark of .349. If that walk rate holds (he’s second to Juan Soto in walks drawn), it raises Devers’ offensive game to a new level.

Of course, Devers has his issues. The Red Sox moved him off third base for good reason. The Giants have Gold Glover Matt Chapman there, so a return to third remains out of the equation for Devers. Giants first basemen have been among the worst in the majors, ranking 26th in OPS, with Dominic Smith getting most of the action lately after LaMonte Wade Jr. was traded to the Angels. But the most likely scenario is Devers remaining at DH with Wilmer Flores shifting over to share first.

The other issue is Devers’ contract: He’s 28 years old and signed through 2033, making this the second year of a 10-year deal that will run through his age-36 season. That puts some degree of risk on his long-term value, but Devers has been a consistent hitter throughout his career — his top 10 similarity scores on Baseball-Reference include three Hall of Famers in Scott Rolen, Adrian Beltre and Ron Santo, plus a couple of likely future Hall of Famers in Nolan Arenado and Manny Machado. Granted, those guys were or are much superior defenders, but Devers compares to them as a hitter.

He does move from Fenway to Oracle Park — and San Francisco’s ballpark is part of the reason no Giants player has hit 30 home runs since Bonds. Devers’ career splits are interesting: He has hit for a higher average at home (.292 versus .267) but with more home runs on the road (120 to 95). He’s going to lose some of those cheap doubles he hit off the Green Monster, so maybe his average dips a little, but I think his power will translate just fine.

Bottom line: The Giants have been looking for that big middle-of-the-order hitter for years, from Bryce Harper to Aaron Judge to Shohei Ohtani. Now they have one and didn’t surrender any of the pitchers on a staff that ranks third in the majors in ERA. The National League West race — and the Giants were just a game back of the Dodgers at trade time — just got a lot more interesting.

Grade: A-

Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox have been hard to understand for years now, since the Betts trade, operating more like a mid-major market than the team that had the highest payroll in the majors in 2018 and 2019. Under that lens, this trade is not only the dealing of a disgruntled star with a ruptured relationship with the organization, but coincidentally enough, moving on from a player with a huge salary.

The timing will also create minor shockwaves: The Red Sox just swept the Yankees and have won seven of their past eight games, getting back into the playoff picture after a disappointing first two months. The spin from Boston will be interesting, focusing on Devers not stepping up and putting the team first. And that’s not an inaccurate spin, even if the Red Sox have clearly mishandled this situation from the start.

They also have all of their top prospects playing for the big league team now, from recent call-up Roman Anthony to Marcelo Mayer to Kristian Campbell. Manager Alex Cora has been platooning Anthony and Mayer, which is silly; they need to be playing every day, even if they get exposed a bit against left-handers. Trading Devers opens up at-bats for everyone and helps clear the outfield logjam of Anthony, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Rob Refsnyder — but they’re not going to be able to replace Devers’ production just yet.

Harrison is a talented left-hander, once a top pitching prospect in the minors who hasn’t quite put it all together in the majors — but he’s also still only 23 years old. He had a 4.56 ERA in 24 starts as a rookie last season and has a 4.56 ERA in 23⅔ innings so far in 2025. Boston has optioned Harrison to Triple-A Worcester, but with Tanner Houck injured and Walker Buehler and Lucas Giolito both fighting ERAs on the wrong side of 5.00, Harrison could be a potential rotation option later in the season. As for Hicks, the Giants tried the hard-throwing right-hander as a starter, but it never really worked, so he’ll be in the bullpen.

Tibbs was the Giants’ first-round pick last June out of Florida State, an outfielder hitting .245/.377/.480 in High-A. He might be something, although let’s see what happens when he’s bumped up to Double-A.

Given Harrison’s potential upside, it’s not fair to completely slam the Red Sox. Devers has a big contract, but it doesn’t feel out of line with some other recent deals — such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s $500 million contract. Maybe the Red Sox will take those savings and go after some more pitching help, either at the trade deadline or in the offseason.

Still, when you’re looking to trade a player because of a broken relationship, it’s hard to get fair value in return — and it feels as if the Red Sox came up short here. Maybe this will prove to be the best move for the organization in the long run, but their playoff hopes for 2025 take a hit.

Grade: C