Magic forward Franz Wagner missed a chunk of time due to a left ankle sprain he suffered in early December. He has played two games since returning to action but he may need another extended period of recovery.
Head coach Jamahl Mosley said Wagner was “really, really, really sore” after Thursday shootaround, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel tweets. Mosley confirmed the soreness is lingering from the high left ankle sprain that kept Wagner out for 16 straight games. Wagner isn’t playing tonight against Charlotte.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard as heck to deal with,” Mosley said. “But he came up really, really, really sore after shootaround. And we’ve got to obviously look at the long-term view for how we’re deal with our guys and he’s one of those guys that we have to continue to look at in that situation.”
Mosley later added: “I hope it’s not long term. … We want to monitor it to make sure it’s the right time for the long term for our entire group and this organization, as well as Franz.”
Wagner played 27 minutes in his return last Thursday and 26 more on Sunday, both against the Grizzlies in Europe. The 24-year-old averaged 16.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in those contests, the first of which was the NBA’s first-ever regular season game in his home country of Germany. Overall, he has appeared in 26 games, averaging 22.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.1 steals per night.
The Magic have 10 more games after tonight prior to the All-Star break. It certainly sounds as if Wagner could be sidelined a few weeks if the soreness persists. Rookie Noah Penda was playing heavy minutes this month prior to Orlando’s trip overseas and he could get the bulk of Wagner’s minutes once again.
Orlando’s approach to the trade deadline could be altered by Wagner’s lingering injury. The Magic entered Thursday’s action tied for the sixth spot in the East but just three-and-a-half games behind second-place Boston.
Another starter, Jalen Suggs, was ruled out of his eighth consecutive contest because of a right knee MCL bruise. However, Suggs appears close to returning, Beede reports.
“Jalen’s doing well,” Mosley said. “(He) came up OK after (Wednesday’s) work. He’s going to get some more work in (Thursday). We’ll see how he goes from there. Won’t be ready to go (Thursday) but try looking forward to the next couple games, maybe.”
I recall someone here said him potentially rushing back and risking injury to play in Germany was a great idea because he had so much to lose by not playing in that game. And now we’re exactly where I was worried about with him coming back prematurely out of sentimentality
Without Suggs they are cooked. No one cares about either Wagner.
Time to just trade Wagner and Suggs. They are constantly injured.
Magic have gone thru their growing pains. And their injury woes. I seriously expected them to be better than Detroit at this point. At 23–20 they are still hanging around top 4 in East. Still just 2 1/2 gms out of 4th seed. I see them deeper than Pistons. One of deeper teams in East. With a young team on the rise. Detroit has really stepped up this year. I still expect Magic to make an impact this year. Only half way thru so far.
Orlando needs a real shot blocker and paint defender. Wendell Carter Jr. is not doing the job. Perhaps they need to start Goga instead of Carter; shooting is still the biggest problem for Orlando. The D Bane trade didn’t make any difference with the struggling shooting problem.
Entire team is soft af…
Orlando needs to package Suggs and Carter Jr. and try to acquire a real shooter, possibly Michael Porter or a big man like Sabonis, but they need to do something as soon as possible to fix the mess they have after the DB trade.