Chuma Okeke progressing but Orlando Magic hurting at power forward

Their presence is undoubtedly there at the end of practices at the Advent Health Practice Facility. It is hard to miss either Jonathan Isaac or Chuma Okeke when they are in the building. Their size alone does that.

Isaac’s presence obviously looms large, both because of his physical stature and the promise of his talent. Fans are eagerly awaiting Isaac’s return to the court after now 14 months after his surgery.

There are only small hints of when he might return to the court.

More immediate is the guy doing wind sprints on the other end of the court. The promise within Chuma Okeke is also apparent, now a full season after returning from his own torn ACL.

Okeke is still trying to recover from a bruise in his hip that has kept him limited during training camp and out of preseason games to this point. He was listed as day-to-day initially. But Okeke has remained out.

And it does not look like Okeke will play before the regular season.

"“I don’t think he’ll play this week,” coach Jamahl Mosley said after practice Friday. “But he’s progressing right around the right timetable for what he’s got going.”"

There are few concrete updates as the Magic always stay coy with timelines or where players are at in their recoveries. But these absences are hurting the Magic.

The Orlando Magic are playing down three potential starters right now. But at power forward, the injuries to both Jonathan Isaac and Chuma Okeke have been abundantly clear.

Orlando is fine at point guard, where they await Markelle Fultz‘s return. Although, the Magic miss his creation and dribbling abilities to set others up.

Where the Magic are really hurting right now is at power forward where Isaac and Okeke’s absence is being felt especially. The team has had to platoon several options at that spot and experiment a ton with different players as they start to look ahead to the regular season.

Orlando is piecing things together as they try to accomplish their goal of reintegrating injured players into their fold.

The only problem is nobody quite knows when any of these players will return. So here is the latest:

Fultz told Luke Hetrick of Spectrum Sports 360 at media day he does not anticipate getting cleared for contact until November.

Isaac has been making the media rounds (becoming the media darling for some conservative outlets who are pushing — overtly and discretely — vaccine hesitancy or outright rejection). He is entitled to his own decision, but it remains very disappointing he is promoting vaccine hesitancy and doubt in the middle of a pandemic in the way that he has.

Through a lot of frustrating misinformation, Isaac said on The Will Cain Podcast he is eager to start playing again and would be back now if he were cleared. But his return could be further delayed possibly into December.

The Magic are still waiting for essentially three starter-level players to return to the court. And that has affected what the Magic have been able to do in preparation for the year.

So far in the preseason, the Magic have platooned Franz Wagner, Moritz Wagner and Wendell Carter at power forward. The only thing they have not tried is going extremely small with four wings. Do not think that is something that is on the table.

While exploring lineups with Carter at power forward is certainly worth it — and Carter has shown a lot of willingness to try — this has greatly limited the Magic’s options at what should have been one of their deepest and best positions.

The move has limited the team’s ability to test Franz Wagner out at small forward or try out bigger lineups in the experimenting the team is trying to do — although the Wagner brothers have played roughly six minutes together through two preseason games. It would be hard to spare too many minutes for Franz Wagner at small forward with how few options the team has at power forward.

Orlando is extremely short-handed at this spot and waiting for at least a little relief from players returning from injury.

They do not know when that could be — or at least are not revealing it publicly.

Getting Okeke back alone would do wonders to setting the Magic on balance. He averaged 7.8 points per game and shot a 49.2-percent effective field goal percentage last year in an up-and-down rookie year. That was expected in his first year back from a torn ACL, which kept him out of action for a season and then extended through the pandemic.

It has been quite the journey. And this relatively minor setback should be viewed with some frustration. The Magic are still being overly cautious with injuries. That is fair considering consistent playing time and development are key goals for the season.

But to compete and be ready for the season, they undoubtedly need Okeke’s presence in the lineup. They just need the big body to man the position and get others in the right spots.

More than anything, it will help create the versatility the team has extolled about its roster. The team just does not have that right now. The roster is limited right now without him there.

That is part of what is so difficult to judge what the team is doing in the preseason. This is still an incomplete roster.

Every team has to make due though. Injuries are a reality in the NBA. There is no escaping it.

And teams have to play with the roster they have. That is what the Magic faced last season. It can be tough to piece the roster together.

By all accounts, though, Okeke’s injury will not be so long-lasting. It is frustrating he is missing valuable training camp time — although he has reportedly done some non-contact drill work. And it is still unclear what the Magic’s ramp-up protocols will be.

Okeke is clearly making progress.

For the rest of this week, the Magic are going to try to find their way and test some other things out in the meantime. But it has left the team in a pretty big bind. One that will affect how they play at the beginning of the season.

Orlando is hurting at that spot right now. It is clear and it has made things much more difficult to judge right now.

There is hope relief is coming soon. Just not this week.