The Orlando Magic are 3-9 on the young NBA season, and already look destined to be back in the lottery next year. This is exactly what they would have expected with such a young roster that is trying to find its way. Rookie Jalen Suggs has struggled early on, which is to be expected, while the other lottery pick from last season, Franz Wagner, has impressed.
But the makings of a frisky, up-and-coming group look to be in place. Cole Anthony is currently the man, while Chuma Okeke looks like the kind of player who will have a lot of value to a winning organization as time goes on.
Even the tandem of Wendell Carter Jr. (who got paid) and Mohamed Bamba (who did not) has worked, despite it feeling like a choice had to be made there. All of this covers the continued absence of Jonathan Isaac, but it is a strange situation that will need clarity soon.
Isaac has been out since early August of 2020, during the NBA Bubble in Florida, with an ACL tear. No issues there, as the Magic have been cursed with this injury in recent times with Markelle Fultz having the same injury in January of this year, and Okeke having had to miss his entire rookie season with that problem as well.
While we have seen footage of both Fultz and Isaac working out with their teammates in the gym, updates on the return of Isaac have been few and far between. The latest on him is that he may be back this side of 2021, but there is also a chance that his absence will stretch into next year.
This is weird. ACL tears are not the curse they once were to a player’s career, and treatment has come a long way even since Derrick Rose was struck down in 2011. Arsenal player Hector Bellerin (currently on loan at Real Betis, where he has found his form again) put together a fascinating nine-part documentary on the ups and downs of coming back from an ACL injury.
It is well worth a watch, and as a full-back who was known for his blistering pace, it took him the relatively standard nine months to return to playing again. A different set of circumstances than Isaac’s, you might say, who has a vastly different body type and plays on a hardwood floor instead of grass.
A valid point. What about Conor McGregor then? As unpopular as he is, especially in his home country, McGregor once tore his ACL during a fight, continued on, and won. No two cases are the same, but he was back after six months and competing in a sport where his knee is very much a target for all sorts of abuse that Isaac doesn’t have to contend with.
We present these examples because we now have to move on and talk about the inevitable. The part of this story that caused me to turn off my phone and hide for a day the last time it came up. Isaac is currently unvaccinated (as far as we know), and shows no signs of changing his stance on that.
How much could this be factoring into Isaac’s decision not to come back? After all, the life of an unvaccinated player in the NBA is a lot tougher because of all of the rules that were brought in. Even more strange is that Isaac is using this period of time, when the people’s perception of him is most certainly divided, to launch his own clothing line.
Players can do what they want with their time and money, and it is not the craziest thing that has ever happened. But the timing, again if true, is off. The defensive ability of Isaac has never been in question, yet newcomers like Carter Jr., and the reclamation of Bamba, are making that potential seem less exciting.
If Isaac were healthy again today, would he even start for the Magic? For all of the vaccine questions and choosing to stand when most were kneeling for social justice, Isaac has only started in 106 games for the franchise since being drafted (playing in 136 altogether). To put that into context, that is less even than Arron Afflalo (140 starts and 190 games) who it felt was only with the team for a small period of time.
By no means should the Magic be ready to move on from Isaac, but it seems like the healthy players are kind of doing that organically right now. This version of the team is among the most fun we’ve had since 2012. They’re young, likable, and are easy to root for. Isaac wouldn’t take away from that too much, but his delayed return to action at 15 months and counting is bizarre.
There was a moment in time where Jonathan Isaac looked like the cornerstone for the Orlando Magic. Injuries have derailed his career, and when he returns it will likely be in a different kind of role. That’s if he gets back at all, as this is surely a story we have not heard the last of yet.