The Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons pulled off the first real notable deal of the trade deadline on Tuesday. Orlando sent forward Tobias Harris to the Pistons in exchange for guard Brandon Jennings and forward Ersan Ilyasova.
This might not be enough to shake up the Eastern Conference Playoff race with Detroit heading into the second half of the season as the ninth seed.
It does, however, have a direct impact on fantasy basketball.
An article we ran earlier on Tuesday indicated that Harris was among the most-disappointing fantasy basketball players thus far this season. He enters the unofficial second half of the season as the 24th-best fantasy forward in the game, down six slots from last year.
Thus far this season, Harris is averaging 13.7 PPG and 7.0 RPG while shooting 31 percent from three-point range. His splits should definitely improve now that he's going to be on the same team as All-Star big man Andre Drummond, who will require a lot of attention in the low post. This should give Harris more open shots on the perimeter than he received with the Magic.
Harris automatically slots in as Detroit's starting three, creating a solid trio with the aforementioned Drummond as well as guard Reggie Jackson. That should also help Harris' DFS value moving forward.
As it relates to the players heading to Orlando in the deal, Jennings is the real centerpiece. He missed pretty much the first half of the season with an Achilles injury, and hasn't been able to get into much of a rhythm since returning. The former lottery pick is averaging just 6.8 points and 3.0 assists while shooting 37 percent from the field.
With more of an opportunity in Orlando, the expectation here has to be that Jennings will at least become relevant when it comes to DFS slates with a minimal amount of games. Remember, he averaged 15-plus points in each of his first six NBA seasons. Jennings figures to find a way into Orlando's starting lineup immediately, though it's not known whether that will be at the one or the two.
Ilyasova has been a solid value play in DFS contests this season. He's averaging 11.3 points and 5.4 rebounds in 27.6 minutes of action per game. This has him ranked ahead of the likes of Taj Gibson and Amir Johnson from a fantasy forward aspect. Look for much of the same in Orlando.