Orlando Magic: The devastation of Markelle Fultz’s injury

Markelle Fultz has been lost for the rest of the season to an ACL tear, and the Orlando Magic find themselves wandering back into the wilderness once more.

You can always tell when an injury is bad by the sounds coming from the felled athlete, and the reaction of those around him. On Wednesday night, Orlando Magic point guard Markelle Fultz went down, and the cries of anguish were amplified by the mostly empty Amway Center, a place that has seen its fair share of grotesque performances over the last decade.

But things were meant to be different now, and it started with Fultz. It was meant to start with Jonathan Isaac, but we’ll come back to that. Instead the Magic, now 6-2 and one of the surprises of the early season, are staring down some tough decisions and an uncertain road that they were trying to move away from.

The good news? There isn’t much, but for the sake of the player, at least Fultz bagged himself $50 million only a couple of weeks ago to secure his financial future. Few players deserve it more, having already come back from the brink once before. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries aren’t the death knell they once were either, although if they can be avoided, all the better.

Really though the positivity stops there, because losing Fultz in this manner, on the same day that America endured a moment that will live long in the memory, is sickening. Fultz wasn’t just the future of this franchise, although he was also that too, he had become the guy. The player every fan loved, and were behind unequivocally.

So where does the organization go from here? They have a head coach in Steve Clifford who is working wonders with this group, and who will want to return to the postseason again for the third year in a row. The natural progression of the franchise from bottom feeder to playoff regular necessitates this too.

Center Nikola Vucevic, clearly as good as ever and now 30-years-old, won’t be sold on walking away from the table to once again try and build through the lottery. Neither will Aaron Gordon or potential free agent Evan Fournier, both of whom stuck around, and were a reason for, a lot of the losing that was done from about 2014-2017.

So taking a step back doesn’t make sense, especially with teams around the Orlando Magic having gotten better. To do so now would make it harder to climb into the upper echelons of the Eastern Conference again when the time comes. What does this also mean for rookie Cole Anthony? Has his time come, in the most unexpected of ways, less than 10 games into his professional career?

Anthony has looked eager to prove himself from the moment he was drafted, and despite some shaky play recently, which is to be expected with any rookie, he has done just that. Fans like him, he is an offensive spark-plug already. But letting him run the point surely leads to growing pains and with it, a number of losses.

Do they instead turn to Michael Carter-Williams? A guy who is technically a point guard himself, but is seen more as the guy off the bench who can defend any position on the court. Even that potentially horrifying scenario is not possible right now, as he too is out with a bone bruise. This leads us to the most important question of all.

Do the Orlando Magic sufficiently rehabilitate their players?

Could it be time for the Magic to look at how they look after their players? Isaac is also out with a torn ACL, suffered in the NBA’s bubble only a few games after returning from a badly sprained knee that kept him out for nearly six months. Chuma Okeke was drafted with a torn ACL, so that is not on the Magic.

He had looked good early on this season after missing all of last year, but right now he too is dealing with a bone bruise. Al-Farouq Aminu, the only notable free agency signing of 2019, and who you would be forgiven for forgetting he plays for the Magic, has taken a very long time indeed to recover from a torn meniscus.

https://twitter.com/MarkelleF/status/1347026478236622850

Gordon has had his fair share of injuries. Fournier has one right now. Even Terrence Ross has had his issues. Unfortunate? Yes. Bad timing? You bet. But is there more to it than that? Is something that the Magic are doing with their guys causing this to happen? Isaac may just be an injury-prone player, but Fultz hadn’t shown any real lower body issues as a professional.

There was a period of time when English Premier League club Arsenal had their fair share of injury woes. More specifically, it seemed to be hamstring issues. Guys who had never broken down before, would come to the club and get injured. Others would leave having been injured, and go on to have more consistency elsewhere. The media was able to make a “most injured XI” out of it.

To this day, there are still whispers that what goes on at the training ground has led to more players missing time than at other teams. This is clearly what is happening with the Magic right now too. Fultz was meant to be the cornerstone after Isaac went down. The young guy to build around, having clearly looked comfortable in that role up to this point.

Instead, those two players will be coming back next year, in somewhat close proximity to each other. Perhaps the Orlando Magic can just pick up where they left off, and this will all be ok. But the uncertainty and bad feeling this has surrounded the organization with is going to be tricky to navigate. Especially as the games get harder. One thing is for certain though, this could not have happened to a more undeserving individual.