A lot of the Orlando Magic’s plans for this coming season are somewhat contingent on the health of two key players.
The Magic played last year through a lot of injuries but the two most devastating injuries were the season-ending ACL tears that two starters in Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz went through.
Isaac went down in the bubble after coming back from a separate knee injury in January. Despite a long history of injuries, the Magic still invested in him with a new four-year contract extension. it is reportedly filled with incentives to cover the team from his injuries.
Fultz also signed a new deal that kicks in this year — a three-year deal with a team option on that third year. But after a strong start to the season, he tore his ACL eight games into the year in January.
ACL injuries are devastating not because players do not recover from them. They are devastating because of the time it takes to recover. It is usually a 10-14 month recovery to get back on the court and playing again. And then another full year to regain strength and confidence to get back to where the player was pre-injury.
That left at least some hope that both Isaac and Fultz would be ready to go for training camp. But there has been precious little update on the two and the Magic are notoriously cautious with players returning from injury — a joke that even president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman is in on.
The Orlando Magic are likely going to begin training camp without Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz available as they continue to recover from injury.
Those hopes might need to get muted a bit further though.
According to a report from David Aldridge of The Athletic, both Isaac and Fultz are not expected to be ready to participate fully when camp begins although both could participate in some drills during camp and work out on the side.
Isaac is obviously closer and Aldridge reports he is making good progress with his recovery. Meanwhile, Fultz is further away and is not cleared for contact yet. Obviously, both have to get through that step before returning to the court.
That is some bad news wrapped up in some good news. But knowing the Magic and their current situation, patience and making sure those two players can hit the ground running and stay in the race for the long NBA season will be critical.
Orlando does not want them to come back too soon and face a setback that could cost them more time. They already have to spend so much time getting back. The Magic want to make sure they do not have to spend any more of it once they are cleared to play.
The frustration though is fairly real. The team is not going to enter training camp with a complete roster. Especially with a new coach, everyone needs to get on the same page quickly and learn the new system. The best way to do that is on the practice court.
Both Isaac and Fultz will surely be watching practice and walking through and reviewing tape, but they need to play to get the nuances. Now, they both will have to pick it up on the fly.
The Magic though have to press on with the group they have. They surely have been planning for training camp as if both Isaac and Fultz will not be available to them. They will have to find a way to keep them involved and then integrate them when they return.
What date that will be will remain a mystery. There has to be some hope that Isaac can start back up with contact during camp when the team has time and the ability to integrate him before the grind of the season begins.
All the Magic can do is wait. Both Isaac and Fultz have reputations for being hard workers. But they can only go as fast as their bodies allow.
They have already lost a lot of time. The goal now is to limit the losses moving forward.