the first big trade of the season

Actually, two of them.

Wow.

The Orlando Magic, considered one of the "Big Three" in the East, and one of the five or six legitimate championship contenders entering this season, have blown up the franchise this afternoon in two separate deals.

Good for them.

In deal one, the Magic send overpaid, overrated forward Rashard Lewis to Washington for Gilbert Arenas. In deal two, the Magic send overpaid, overrated forward Vince Carter and a couple backups to Phoenix for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, Earl Clark, and a first rounder.

Orlando just fired the first shot(s) in what figures to be one helluva ten week run to the trading deadline.

With no guarantee of a full 2011-2012 season (and the prospects of meaningful ball being played in fall 2011 looking less likely by the day), teams that are bona fide contenders are best served to push their chips in now, and go for it all in 2010-2011. If only to give their fans a reason to come back after the impending lockout this summer.

Orlando got a lot better today. It got rid of two horrendous contracts, two overrated forwards who had already taken Orlando as far as they possibly could (to the Finals two years ago), and replaced them with an intriguing reclamation project in Arenas, a bona fide stud in Richardson, and a home town favorite in Turkoglu.

And they got a first rounder to boot from the now-rebuilding Suns, who one has to figure will look to move Steve Nash next as they embrace rebuilding full-on.

Great moves by Orlando. Gotta give them credit. With Rondo out for a couple weeks for the Celtics, with the Bulls fighting injury issues as well, and with the Heat still working out the kinks, the door is wide open for Orlando to vault to the top of the East entering the stretch run. And of the East's Big Three, home court matters most to Orlando.

(My only concern would be how Arenas fits in. Not that I wouldn't have done the trade -- I would have. But the Magic's "deadliest weapon" the last couple years has been JJ Redick. The kid is clutch ... as a 15-17 minute role player. If this move means Redick has to play more, the holes in his game will become even more exposed, and that's not a good thing. That, however, is the only potential drawback I see to this. And Magic coach Ron Jeremy ... excuse me, Stan Van Gundy, is too good to let this be an issue).

As a Bucks fan (and man, what a killer defeat Wednesday was) seeing his team still trying to put the pieces together, this one hurts. But as a fan of the "Anyone But the Heat" bandwagon, I love these trades. It makes a good team, even better.

And if we're staring at a May and June full of (in some form) Celtics vs Magic, Celtics vs Heat, Heat vs Magic, Lakers vs Spurs, Lakers vs Mavs, Mavs vs Spurs, and that's just the lead-in to a potential third straight Lakers / Celtics showdown for the O'Brien Trophy, well, let's get May and June here as quickly as possible.