3 reasons for Orlando Magic fans to smile this holiday season
By Luke Duffy
Reasons for Orlando Magic fans to smile this holiday season: 2. Injured players returning
All of this optimism around the rebuild and we haven’t even mentioned Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac yet. Starting with the latter, to be honest, the future is unclear.
By the time Isaac (theoretically) returns to action, Klay Thompson will be back on an NBA court and Russell Westbrook will have suited up for three different teams and counting.
The Isaac situation is weird, and the lack of updates is weirder. His stance on the COVID vaccine has been spoken about here before and does not need to be reiterated.
At this point, anything the Magic can get out of him is a bonus, because it does feel like they are moving on without him. But what a bonus it would be if he can come back looking like a future Defensive Player of the Year.
The Fultz situation is clearer. Like Isaac, he tore his ACL back in the NBA’s bubble, and although updates were scarce, we know the comeback is close. When that happens, Fultz will provide excellent minutes at the point guard position.
Anthony has made that spot his own, and Suggs has to fit in somewhere, but Fultz at this stage has the most complete floor general game of the three. It may be that he initially comes off the bench, but we must also remember that Fultz was the second-best player in an entire playoff series for the Magic before. That was on a roster featuring Vucevic (their best performer), Gordon, and Evan Fournier (who got paid big money to be bad elsewhere).
The point is, we know Fultz can play and be a part of the future here, and he is going to force his way into the conversation eventually. What a luxury it is, and how far the organization have come from the last rebuild, that having too many good, young players for a position is a problem. Even Carter Jr.’s injury being not as bad as first feared (it looked bad) was a Christmas miracle.