Franz Wagner will miss his 18th consecutive game when the Orlando Magic play the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Friday, but here he is putting in some work after morning shooaround, via the Orlando Sentinel’s Jason Beede:
Wagner was playing at an All-NBA level before he tore his right oblique on Dec. 6. Before Orlando’s loss in Milwaukee on Wednesday, the team changed his status on the injury report — the game against Boston will be the second in which he has been listed as out due to “return to competition reconditioning” rather than the oblique injury itself. This means he’s ramping up to get back on the floor, rather than simply resting and rehabilitating.
“Obviously, he’s had to sit out for a while now, and we’re all eager to have him back,” Magic forward Paolo Banchero told reporters Friday. “It’s just good to have him back, participating in some shootarounds and stuff like that. Can’t wait to have him back out there.”
Banchero suffered the exact same injury on Oct. 30. He entered the “return to competition reconditioning” phase on Dec. 27 and was back in the lineup two weeks later. If Wagner’s timeline is the same, he’ll suit up again in late January/early February. Having the same injury, however, does not necessarily mean that Wagner’s ramp-up process will be identical to Banchero’s. If his body responds differently, he could clear the requisite benchmarks a little earlier or later.
Thanks to the NBA’s second-best defense, Orlando is 23-19 despite its two best players having not shared the floor since the fifth game of the season. Over the next few months, the question is how good the Magic can be on the offensive end when they’re both playing big minutes. Banchero has only been back for three games and remains on a minutes restriction, and Wagner will surely be eased in the same way. In theory, though, this team could be pretty legit pretty soon.
