ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Magic acquired troubled guard Gilbert Arenas from the Washington Wizards and He-do Turkoglu and Jason Richardson from the Phoenix Suns in a big roster shake-up Saturday.
The Magic announced that it traded forward Rashard Lewis for Arenas. The Magic sent Phoenix guards Vince Carter and Mickael Pietrus and backup center Marcin Gortat. Orlando also received Earl Clark from the Suns.
“We needed a little bit more punch,” Magic president Otis Smith said. “All those guys coming in have an ability to move the ball. After looking at our team through 25 games, we were missing a little something. I thought change was needed.”
The overhaul was a major move for a Magic franchise that began the season believing it had all the pieces for its first NBA championship.
Instead, Orlando had lost five of its last six games entering Saturday to drop from first to fourth in the Eastern Conference. The slide was magnified by winning streaks of 11 and 12 games by rival Miami and Boston, a ripple effect that was enough to force Orlando to overhaul the roster.
The Magic had made strong pushes to acquire Denver forward Carmelo Anthony or New Orleans guard Chris Paul. But with those talks showing little progress, the Magic was forced to seek other options.
Arenas, the centerpiece of Orlando’s shake-up, had long been speculated as that alternative.
Smith has been a close friend and mentor to Arenas going back to their days together at Golden State, when Smith was in the front office and Arenas was a young player.
Arenas has averaged 17.3 points and 5.6 assists per game this season.
Footnotes.
Cavaliers forward Joey Graham will miss two to three weeks because of a partial tear in his right quad and forward Leon Powe will be out for at least a week because of a lacerated finger.
• Grizzlies guard Rudy Gay was suspended for one game without pay because of a flagrant foul in the fourth quarter of a game against Houston.
