In what has becoming an increasingly worrying development in the career of Jonathan Isaac, the 2023 season did not go well for him personally. That is especially disappointing considering Isaac’s simple goal was to play.
With the Orlando Magic making a little bit of noise and chasing a Play-In spot for longer than many anticipated, Isaac had to mostly watch from the sidelines as his body again let him down.
In all, he appeared in 11 games, and while the defensive ability on display in that brief timeframe was again tantalizing, another season-ending injury and subsequent surgery was a massive blow.
While Isaac is expected to be ready to play when training camp begins — and is already on his road back to working out in full at season’s end — the disappointment of another lost season for the promising forward remains the dominant story.
Time marches on though. The Magic’s goals are changing. And the time to wait on Isaac is quickly running out.
Trying to evaluate Jonathan Isaac’s season is hard because of how short it was. That in itself is the problem, and at this point the Orlando Magic are moving on without him.
Since being drafted by the Magic in 2018, Isaac has appeared in only 147 regular-season games. For some sort of context Zion Williamson, himself seemingly always unavailable, has appeared in 114 games so far having been drafted the year after Isaac.
At this point however, it is not just the fact the injuries to Isaac are serious, causing him to miss two full seasons before his brief return during the season. The Magic are no longer a rebuilding outfit and the team has to consider wins and losses with all of its resources and roster spots.
Where does Isaac fit in?
If we are being honest with ourselves, Isaac can no longer be trusted to be a reliable long-term contributor for the franchise. Which is sad, but it is also true.
Even if he is available on opening night of next season, we all know eventually he is going to miss some time with another injury. The Magic then cannot trust Isaac to be available when he is really needed, such as a potential playoff series next year.
Yet, Isaac is still a very impactful player.
Orlando went 8-3 in the games he played. He averaged 5.0 points per game and 4.0 rebounds per game in his limited 11.3 minutes per game during the time he played. The Magic had a 107.7 defensive rating with Isaac on the floor in his limited minutes. That is 6.0 points per 100 possessions better than the team’s season average.
It is hard to see that and not at least hold out hope for Isaac. But the clock is always ticking.
The front office knows this, which is why this summer will be crucial for Isaac in terms of how the organization views him. With two likely lottery picks, they would be foolish not to select another big with high defensive upside like Jarace Walker or Taylor Hendricks.
As things stand they already have Wendell Carter to man the middle, while both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner are underrated defensively.
Neither are anywhere close to Isaac’s level on that end, and that is where the great sadness in this story lies. When he is fit, Isaac has Defensive Player of the Year potential.
Word from camp is that Jonathan Isaac is fully recovered from injury and is simply ramping up into game-shape.
— NBA University (@NBA_University) October 18, 2022
Last time we saw him (million years?) he obviously flashed DPOY ceiling—blocking 45% of shots he contested—but check his fluid shotmaking flashes at 6’11…I’m Hopeful. pic.twitter.com/DVAeeyQ6Br
He raises the Magic’s ceiling when he is available. But that availability can no longer be relied upon. And, in truth, it has been this way for most of Isaac’s career with the Magic.
But whereas in the past they were a rebuilding team who were trying to find their way, an identity and core group of players now exists for coach Jamahl Mosley to build around. Isaac has just gotten left behind as that group has begun to come together.
This is another awful turn of events because Mosley would love to have a player like Isaac available to him. They would work incredibly well together, and Isaac would be a huge part of Mosley’s defensive game plan.
Isaac may yet prove his history wrong and finally put his injuries behind him. This might be the year. But the Magic cannot really bet on that happening anymore. The season cannot turn on Isaac’s health any longer.
Even with Isaac’s impressive stats, the sample size is too small to draw any conclusions. Availability is the best form of ability, and there was not enough of it from him.
Isaac played well when he was on the court. There is no denying that. A lot of his skill set is there.
But there is only one stat that matters, and that is that when Isaac was healthy and on the court during the season, the Magic had the best defensive rating in the entire league.
With two years left on a partially guaranteed contract, there is surely no interest in Isaac throughout the league. Isaac simply has not played enough and any team willing to bet on his body after five seasons in any meaningful way is foolish.
So it feels like Isaac is not going anywhere, and the best the Magic can hope for is that he can play 20 minutes a night off the bench as part of the back end of their rotation so as to go as easy on his body as they possibly can.
The 2023 season then was not only a disappointment because of the lack of time Isaac was available to the team, but it also felt like the moment when resignation on who he will be in this league set in as well.
If the Magic knew he could play 55 games a year, that would change not only their strategy in this year’s draft, but you could pencil them in for a postseason berth next season.
At 25 years old, Isaac should be entering his prime soon. Instead with 45 regular season games played since the beginning of the 2020 season, it feels like we have not even gotten to see nearly enough of the potential that comes before that prime.
The only reason Isaac’s final grade is not loweris because he is not going anywhere and the fan base has to hope that maybe, just maybe… he can be a small-time contributor on the second unit of a team with playoff ambitions next season.
That is where we are at with him right now, although that defensive potential will always have fans holding on to some sort of hope that they get to see him change a game or playoff series on that end one day.
With the Magic moving in a new and exciting direction however, 2023 was the year that Jonathan Isaac felt as far away as he ever has from being part of what the organization are going to look like in a few years.