SI:AM | Paolo Banchero’s Injury Is a Brutal Break for the Magic

Can Orlando stay afloat while he’s sidelined?

Banchero, who will be out at least a month, was among the most durable players in the league in his first two seasons. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’ve been rewatching Garrett Wilson’s touchdown catch all morning and I don’t plan on stopping. 

In today’s SI:AM: 

😔 A significant NBA injury

⚔️ Army’s return to relevance

This is a bummer

One of the NBA’s most promising teams suffered a serious blow Thursday when it announced that its star player will be out for at least a month. 

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero was diagnosed with a torn oblique muscle, the team said, and will be sidelined indefinitely. He will be re-evaluated in four to six weeks. 

It’s a tough break for a team that entered the year hoping to build on a breakout 2023–24 campaign in which it posted its first winning record in five years before losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games. Banchero was undoubtedly the biggest reason behind the team’s success. After winning the Rookie of the Year award in ’22–23, he was named an All-Star in his second season while leading the Magic in scoring, rebounding and assists. And through five games this season, he was already proving that he had staying power as one of the game’s top young stars. On Monday, the 22-year-old had 50 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists in a four-point win over the Indiana Pacers, becoming the youngest player in franchise history to drop 50 and the second youngest player in NBA history to have at least 50 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a game. 

Banchero had been among the most durable players in the league in his first two seasons. He played 72 games as a rookie and last year was one of 29 players who played at least 80 games while ranking fifth in the league in minutes played. 

Losing Banchero is a serious setback for a team that appeared poised to take another step forward this season. Banchero and Franz Wagner are a top-notch frontcourt duo, and Jalen Suggs is one of the best defensive guards in the league in addition to being a solid three-point shooter. The trio forms an impressive young core that should keep the Magic relevant for years to come. (At 23, Suggs is the oldest of the three.) And Orlando made a few moves this offseason to keep several important role players in place, re-signing Moritz Wagner, Gary Harris and Goga Bitadze. 

The biggest move the Magic made, though, was signing veteran Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a three-year, $66 million contract. Not only is Caldwell-Pope a dangerous three-point shooter and talented perimeter defender, he gives the Magic something last season's squad was sorely lacking: championship experience. No team in the 2024 playoff field had less postseason experience (as measured by cumulative career playoff games) than the Magic. 

Only four Orlando players had appeared in a postseason game before last season: Harris, Jonathan Isaac, Markelle Fultz and Joe Ingles. They had played a combined 91 playoff games before last season (50 of them by Ingles, who is no longer with the team).  Caldwell-Pope, meanwhile, has played 62 career playoff games and won two championships (in 2020 with the Los Angeles Lakers and ’23 with the Denver Nuggets). 

Signing Caldwell-Pope was a signal that the Magic were prepared to enter the upper tier of the Eastern Conference. This wasn’t just a promising young team full of blossoming stars but an experienced squad ready to be considered a real contender. 

The Banchero injury throws a wrench into those plans. Even if he misses the minimum of four weeks the team cited in its announcement, that’s still 15 games. A six-week absence would mean missing 21 games—a quarter of the season. The relatively new playoff format—which includes pathways for teams placed as low as 10th in the standings to qualify for the playoffs via the play-in tournament—provides a cushion for Orlando, but a team that finished fifth in the conference last year would be disappointed to have its fate determined by the play-in crapshoot. The Magic will have to find some way to replace Banchero’s multifaceted production. Otherwise, his injury might mean Orlando will have to wait another year to realize its full potential. 

Wilson’s jaw-dropping touchdown grab helped snap the Jets’ five-game losing streak. / Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Pat Forde went to West Point to learn how Army has built an undefeated College Football Playoff contender in an era when every other program in the sport is changing rapidly. 

• The Jets are still alive in the playoff hunt after snapping their losing streak with a win over the Texans, and Gilberto Manzano isn’t exactly impressed with what the loss says about Houston. 

• We have more college basketball preview content with the season starting on Monday. Kevin Sweeney concocted best- and worst-case scenarios for every team in the men’s AP top 25, and Kristen Nelson and Clare Brennan did the same for the women’s top 25. 

• There’s an obvious choice atop Zach Koons’s college football watchability rankings this week. 

• Koons also previewed this weekend’s F1 Brazilian Grand Prix, one of the final races of the season. 

• Freddie Freeman wasn’t just playing through an ankle injury in his incredible World Series. He was also dealing with a really painful-sounding rib issue. 

The top five …

… things I saw last night: 

5. Kyrie Irving’s fadeaway buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter. 

4. Ja Morant’s alley-oop while sitting on the floor. 

3. The fight between the Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin and Predators’ Jeremy Lauzon that ended with three vicious punches from Podkolzin. 

2. Southern Nazarene’s game-winning tight end screen to beat Ouachita Baptist. Southern Nazarene entered the game at 0–8 and went on the road to Ouachita Baptist, the No. 3 team in Division II, and came away with an 18–17 victory. 

1. Garrett Wilson’s one-handed touchdown grab. His full extension was very reminiscent of another famous catch at MetLife Stadium.