Magic forward Jonathan Isaac suffered the first major injury during the league restart. However, the team insists that his torn left ACL wasn’t related to the left knee injury that had sidelined him since New Year’s Day, according to Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel. The team’s president of basketball operations, Jeff Weltman, noted Isaac “cleared every hurdle” in his recovery from the knee injury.
“Absolutely and unequivocally not brought back too early,” Weltman said. “As a matter of fact, those of you guys who follow us locally know that if we’re ever going to be criticized as to the timing of returning our players to play, it’s at the other end of the spectrum.”
We have more from the Southeast Division:
- Isaac is no longer with the team at the Orlando campus, Josh Robbins of The Athletic tweets. The team wants to get a more complete set of MRI images of the interior of Isaac’s knee, according to Weltman.
- The Heat need to show team president Pat Riley that he doesn’t need to use a chunk of his cap space this offseason on other teams’ free agents, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald opines. Miami has six impending free agents and the best-case scenario would be to re-sign some of those players to one-year deals and then dive into a much more attractive free agent market next summer. The Heat defeated Denver and lost to Toronto in their first two seeding games.
- The Wizards have lost their first three games in Orlando but that isn’t helping their lottery odds, Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington notes. Prior to the restart, an amendment to the rules locked the eight teams who weren’t invited to Orlando into the top eight spots in the draft lottery. The best Washington can do is enter the lottery in the No. 9 spot, even if it loses its remaining games.
Do you agree with this?
On 2020 nba draft There are at least 10 players who are better than DeAndre Hunter, 4th pick in 2019 draft
Maybe, but all of those players in this year’s draft are still far worse than Zion or Morant.
I’d agree.
This is one of those years where you have a good chance of landing a solid player if you’re picking 1-10. I think if I were picking top 3, I’d rather have last year’s class, though. I don’t believe there is a franchise talent in this class.
Dragic
Jones
Crowder
Solomon Hill
Leonard
All of them are Crap Vets
No one wants to overpay Heat grr agents
They can get a player they need at #9. Best thing for Wiz is to able to move Wall. They need a restructure
The FO should have a picture of Wall by now… but they’re set into wanting him back.
ESPN mock draft
11th pick is Archiuwa, a big man
Issac situation does not look good for anyone. He has 2 yrs on contract. Will need a yr to get well. Hate to say it. But it could be over before it ever got started. I couldn’t believe Orlando has 5th highest payroll in NBA. For what 7, 8th seed. Get swept in 1st rd. Gordon was suppose be their trade chip. Having Isaac take over at SF. This is not going to end well. I would restructure team next yr. I would definitely take a chance on a player who drops in draft. Like Carey Jr or McDaniels seems to be doing. I like Carey a lot. Get his weight right, I see him as a PF. McDaniels looked real good in behind g of yr. Then just stopped wanting it. Orlando is in a bad spot.
The notion that a payroll needs to be equivalent to record or playoff seeding ignores a basic characteristic of the NBA…every market is unique.
Because not all markets are the same, how every team utilizes its payroll will be vastly different.
Orlando is a small market with a history of being poached of their top talent by bigger markets. Acquisition and retention of their top players is a massive issue.
Tanking for talent has no guarantees, something the Magic know all too well.
In first 3 years of the post-Howard rebuild, despite having the worst -to- 3d worst record those seasons, the Magic got jumped all 3 times by teams with worst records. Twice they were pushed out of the top hyped players that draft. The one time they didn’t get pushed out, the visible top prospect was Oladipo. Unfortunately for the Magic, he came in very raw and would take years to develop. He didn’t break out until he was 25…well into his 2nd contract and 3d team.
Because of their market AND their history, the Magic have to rebuild while staying competitive in order to maintain desirability of franchise to retain the players they develop. The only way to do that is by using their payroll to maintain a high baseline for a rebuilding team.