The Orlando Magic are getting a massive boost to their starting lineup, as All-Star forward Paolo Banchero is expected to return on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks, per Chris Haynes. Banchero sustained the injury in Orlando’s fifth game of the season, a tough blow for a team that had high expectations after making the playoffs last year.
Banchero has missed the Magic’s last 33 games, and he will reportedly miss a 34th on when they host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday. On the official injury report, he is still listed as “questionable” for that game, as of Thursday afternoon.
Orlando managed to weather the storm nicely thanks to Franz Wagner’s performance on a nightly basis until he went down in early December also with a torn right oblique. Wagner was expected to miss at least four weeks, which means the Magic could be getting him back relatively soon as well.
The return of Wagner may still be in the air, but getting Banchero back is a significant deal for an Orlando team that has been playing .500 basketball in their last 10 games. That’s to be expected when your two best players are out, and quite frankly, the fact that Orlando has managed to tread water over the last month without both Banchero and Wagner is an impressive feat.
Thanks in part to a weak Eastern Conference, the Magic sit fourth in the standings with a 22-16 record, and now that Banchero is back, they’ll stand to improve on that mark going forward.
“It’s amazing, really,” Banchero told reporters at shootaround on Thursday. “Thinking back to when I first went down, it was just those four games, and then after that they were rolling. Franz was carrying [the team] and then he went down. I think that was the true test, just for our team, our two main guys being out. And guys stepped up even more. It’s really encouraging for guys who are out, seeing their teammates step up, get wins, still play the right way, and just uphold that standard that we set at the start of the season. It’s really encouraging, and it just makes you excited for when we get back to full strength.”
Prior to Banchero’s injury, he had a strong start to the season. Five games is obviously a small sample size, but the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft put up a career-high 50 points in a win against the Pacers in late October. Banchero was averaging 29 points to start the season, and while that’s sure to change when he gets more games under his belt, he was in store for a career year before the injury. Assuming that he’ll be able to return to form with little issue, Banchero should be able to pick up where he left off in October.
