The Orlando Magic still have the talent. But they will need guys to step up to keep the team moving forward in the early playoff race.
Last season, one of the reasons the Orlando Magic were able to turn their season around was due to their luck with injuries.
In the 2019 season, the Magic had their top six players — D.J. Augustin, Evan Fournier, Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon, Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross each played at least 75 games. Arguably, the team’s one major injury last year led to the team putting the better player into the rotation.
It seems that the injury luck is in reverse to start the year with Jonathan Isaac going down with an ankle injury during the jersey reveal last week (he missed only two games) and now Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic going down with ankle injuries Wednesday.
This might take the Magic out of their rhythm. But now with the team’s injury luck running out, Orlando has to keep the ship steady and find a way to win.
As Gordon said after the game, the next man has to step up. The team is more than talented enough to stay in the playoff race as players get healthy.
The bad injury luck really started in the preseason when Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross each missed a pair of games with nagging injuries. Gordon missed a game after suffering a jaw contusion in the game against the Atlanta Hawks.
But the injuries suffered Wednesday feel much more serious. Vucevic needed help walking off the floor and left the floor in a walking boot and crutches. He is scheduled for a MRI as the team arrives in Indianapolis for Saturday’s game against the Indiana Pacers. It is easy to foresee him missing at least the next week to recover from what was termed a right ankle sprain.
The same might go for Gordon. He played a few possessions after his injury and did not need crutches to leave the arena. But the team is cautious bringing players back from injuries — Isaac’s injury from last week seemed much less serious and he still missed five days’ worth of games (two games). Gordon is likely out for the rest of this road trip.
The Magic will find it tough to play without Gordon and Vucevic — the team has a +5.4 net rating when Gordon and Vucevic are on the floor together, likely a sign of how good the starters are together.
Although they are the Magic’s best players, they have to find a way to stay afloat.
The Magic still has the talent and will need guys to step up, although some guys might have other reasons to become bigger factors on this team.
To start, Terrence Ross, Evan Fournier, D.J. Augustin, and Al-Farouq Aminu have done this before and will have to step up and take charge of holding this team together. All of these players are veterans in this league and know what it takes to be able to compete. I fully expect them to take take the lead both on and off the court while Gordon and Vucevic are out.
Then, Jonathan Isaac, Khem Birch, Wesley Iwundu and Markelle Fultz are young guys that have been improving. They have also shown in the past they will step up when it counts.
Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac are young players that show strides on both ends of the court and are becoming bigger components every night. At the same time, Khem Birch and Wesley Iwundu have repeatedly proven they will come in and step up in any way that they are asked.
They were both big parts of why the Magic made their run to the playoffs last year but fell out of the rotation this year as the team increased its depth and cycled younger players into the rotation. But both players have already stepped in this year when they were called upon which reason to believe that they will step in and play well during this stretch.
Finally, there is Mohamed Bamba who had a disappointing start to his sophomore year.
After his rookie year ended with a stress fracture in his left tibia, the Magic went on their 22-9 playoff run which led to the realization that Mohamed Bamba has work to do.
Bamba looked confident during the stint in the summer league and preseason. But it seems that it all disappeared. It seems he does not come with the right energy consistently and looks indecisive on both ends of the floor.
This is his chance for more minutes to give coach Steve Clifford a reason to continue to keep Mohamed Bamba in the rotation. Right now, he has no choice but to play Bamba. Birch will likely fill in as Vucevic’s replacement in the starting lineup. But this is a big chance for Bamba to show how much more he understands the league and take a step up in his role.
This is a chance for a lot of young players to do that. Vucevic and Gordon are two of the Magic’s highest usage players. Losing them for any time will free up shots for other players — Fournier, Isaac and Fultz especially will have to step up their production to fill in for the loss.
Orlando sits at 6-8 as these injuries set in. The team is eighth in the Eastern Conference — two games behind the sixth-place Indiana Pacers and 2.5 games ahead of the last-place New York Knicks. This is the part of the season where teams start to separate themselves in the standings.
Altogether, the Magic have to find a way to keep themselves afloat for this period without Vucevic and Gordon if they want to achieve their playoff goals.
Unfortunately, their injury luck has run out.