Magic Can't Be Fully Evaluated Until Healthy

The Orlando Magic has been banged up all year. How can the team be evaluated when it hasn't played at full strength yet?

ORLANDO - The Orlando Magic is officially a quarter into its season, and at 5-16, many are already deeming the season over.

While the results haven't yielded positively for the Magic, the record doesn't exactly reflect the talent of the roster ... mainly because the roster has yet to be at full strength.

Out of all 30 teams, none of them have been fully healthy all year long, but none have been injured quite like the Magic has.

Franz Wagner and Bol Bol are the only players to have played in every game so far, but the rest of the team has missed 124 games combined due to injury. Wagner and Bol, along with No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero, have been the brightest spots for the team and bring enough to the table to identify the team as one with promise. However, the team on paper has not matched the one on the court.

Without true guard play, the Magic have had trouble getting the ball out in transition and moving the ball on offense. In fact, the Magic ranks dead last in the league in assists per game.

However, help is on the way.

The team is expected to see the return of Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks, a small step towards becoming the team it was intended to be.

While other players like Jonathan Isaac (knee) and Wendell Carter Jr. (plantar fascia) remain sidelined, the team is inching closer to carrying out its intended vision.

The talent is there with the Magic, but most of that has been stuck on the bench. As these talented players return to the floor, Orlando should see a bump in production. There will be a learning curve, but that's the first step towards truly fixing this team.

Once the team begins to improve health-wise, it will be easier to evaluate whether the players on the roster are right or not. For the time being, while the players are hurt, the Magic is taking its lumps and it's resulting in one of the worst performances during the first quarter of the season. Orlando can't exactly be mad at the scenario though because it will result in a high pick in 2023's extremely stacked draft, led by French big man Victor Wembanyama.

Maybe the Magic will be in the Wembanyama sweepstakes, or maybe it won't. We won't know until this team has a chance to get healthy as the year progresses. And that can't be evaluated given the small sample size of one-quarter of the year.

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You can follow Jeremy Brener on Twitter @JeremyBrener.

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