Return from injury
One of the major storylines throughout the entire season last year was the massive amounts of injuries the team faced. Orlando lost more than 200 games to injury last year. The only time the team was fully healthy was the opening night win over the Miami Heat. From there, it was a parade of injury after injury after injury.
Aaron Gordon played in only 58 games thanks to a variety of injuries throughout the season that kept him nicked up and in and out of the lineup. Nikola Vucevic played in only 57 games thanks to a broken hand suffered in December. Evan Fournier played in only 57 games too.
Terrence Ross appeared in only 24 games thanks to a fracture to his tibial plateau suffered in late November. He returned to play in three games toward the end of the season. Jonathan Isaac played in just 27 games after rolling his ankle in November. It stunted his rookie season and was frustrating to watch him struggled to return to the floor.
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Jonathon Simmons missed about a dozen games to end the season thanks to a wrist injury that required surgery in June. Trainers only cleared him for full contact about a month ago.
Injuries remain a huge storyline for the Magic. They were something of an excuse last year — not a good one. But even Weltman admitted the massive injuries made it difficult for his staff to make a full evaluation of the team.
Injury luck is something every team has to deal with. The Magic struggled to adjust and adapt last year.
The question that remains for the team now is whether they can get their players back healthy and back up to full speed.
Isaac has not shown much on a NBA court yet. But the team clearly hopes he will be able to take a step up and be an impactful player this year.
Terrence Ross has spent a career as a solid role player on whatever team he is playing on. He is someone who can average around 10 points per game and help space the floor. That is something the Magic desperately need and likely missed as much as anything last year.
Jonathon Simmons had his breakout year last year playing major minutes for the first time in his career. He delivered for the team in the stead of all those injuries in many ways. But now he has to show he can make the distance playing major minutes — he played more than 40 percent of his total career regular season minutes last year alone. All while improving his shot.
And seeing as he spent the summer recovering from wrist surgery, who knows how close he is to basketball shape or ready to take another step forward in his career.
In any case, Orlando needs to be healthy to have any kind of success. The team does not have the depth to withstand major injuries to its players. Certainly not to the level they were at last season.