The Magic will be without Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac for the rest of the season due to their torn ACLs, but the team is moving closer to getting some of its other injured players back on the court. According to Josh Robbins of The Athletic (Twitter link), head coach Steve Clifford said that veteran guard Michael Carter-Williams (foot) could return as soon as Friday after missing Orlando’s last 12 games.
Meanwhile, Clifford couldn’t provide exact timetables for when Magic forwards Chuma Okeke (knee) and Al-Farouq Aminu (knee) will play again, but did say that Okeke will likely be ready to go before Aminu is, Robbins adds.
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- After winning 24, 29, and 20 games in the last three seasons, the Hawks are in playoffs-or-bust mode this season, prompting Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer to consider whether the team is finally on the other side of its rebuild. As Tjarks notes, Atlanta has barely gotten anything out of its veteran free agent additions so far, so the emergence of De’Andre Hunter as a capable running mate for Trae Young has been huge.
- Rockets guard John Wall, who suggested earlier this week that he was disappointed by how the Wizards handled his exit from the franchise, got a chance on Tuesday night to show his old team what it’s missing, as Fred Katz of The Athletic writes. Wall had a team-high 24 points in 24 minutes en route to a 107-88 Houston win over Washington.
- Hornets head coach James Borrego is still experimenting with his rotation to determine which lineups work best, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. “There is not going to be a set rotation for a bit,” Borrego said on Wednesday. The team sent five players to the G League this week, but Borrego still has 11 healthy players available on the NBA roster.
. “There is not going to be a set rotation for a bit,” Borrego said on Wednesday.
Really Hornets are 7-11 almost a 1/3 of the season in. And you don’t know who your starting 5 is. You wonder why Charlotte has been rebuilding like forever.
Starting center Cody Zeller just returned from a broken hand and has played just 5 games this season. They are trying to break in a 19-year-old lottery pick who plays point guard, their only position of depth, and Borrego’s frontcourt options include three guys who are 22 years old. So, yes, it takes some time to establish roles and lineups.
Wall and his new teammates will finally all be on the court together at the same time tonight on national TV against a Portland team that’s missing 3 starters. It will also be interesting to see what the guys on TNT have to say about the meteoric rise of Christian Wood. And his backup has also been playing great after a slow start.
They played like crap at the start and fell down by 20, but still won by 3.