The Orlando Magic announced today that Guard Jalen Suggs will undergo arthroscopic surgery, leaving him out indefinitely.
Suggs, who hasn’t played since January 25th in a win against the Detroit Pistons, is having surgery to remove damaged cartilage in his left knee. Suggs has been out of the lineup since January 3rd with back spasms against the Toronto Raptors. The young guard was in the middle of a break out year for the Magic, where he was averaging 16 points and 4 assists, as well as being the best defender on a staunch defensive team.
Suggs was ramping up conditioning and workouts when the discomfort in his knee occurred. The Magic announced Friday that Suggs would be out indefinitely with a trochlea injury and revealed today that he would require surgery to remove fragments from his knee. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Sugg’s injury is the latest in a rough year for the Orlando Magic. Beginning the year as a top seeded team, injuries to star forwards Paulo Banchero and Franz Wagner has seen the young team drop in the Eastern Conference standings, where they are currently 29-32 and 5 and 5 in their last 10 games.
The Orlando Magic entered the season with high expectations after taking the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in the 2024 NBA playoffs, and dropping 3 of their last four games isn’t helping the injury plagued team. With their best defender now out for the foreseeable future, the path to the playoffs becomes much more difficult.
The Magic aren’t completely out of the playoff hunt, but find themselves in the mix for the play-in tournament, where they are currently matched with the Miami Heat. Orlando also has the 24th easiest remaining schedule, albeit matches against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and Los Angeles Lakers will be tall tasks for the up and coming team.
With the rest of the league ramping up for the playoffs, the Magic will face a number of tough teams vying for playoff positioning. Orlando is currently five games out of the 6th seed to avoid the play-in tournament but will likely sit in the play-in spot, barring a massive slide or injury for the top seeds.
The Magic will play the Toronto Raptors at 6 pm Sunday night, the first of their final three games of a seven game homestand. They will face the Raptors again on Tuesday before hosting the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.
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