Markelle Fultz injury update: Magic guard to return Monday against Pacers after missing a year with a torn ACL

Orlando Magic point guard Markelle Fultz plans to return to the floor on Monday against the Indiana Pacers, he announced on the Orlando Magic Pod Squad. "I'm just blessed just to be able to, one, be where I am today after going through an injury like this and being able to fight and just be back on the court with my brothers and friends," Fultz said. "So, one, I'm just blessed and I'm thankful for the process and the journey that I've been through. I'm very excited just to get out there with my teammates and go out there and compete."

Fultz, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, was dealt to Orlando at the 2019 trade deadline and had improved steadily since his underwhelming tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers. In early January of 2021, though, he suffered a torn ACL in his left knee. He hasn't played since, and given his history of injuries, the Magic needed to be cautious with their young guard.

Fultz has dealt with other knee issues in the past, but the first two seasons of his NBA career were ruined by a case of thoracic outlet syndrome in his shoulder that played a part in ruining his jump shot. He's never quite recovered, and even as he improved in Orlando, he has still never shot better than 28.6 percent from behind the arc in the NBA.

The Magic team he'll be returning to is a very different one than he had been playing on. Veteran stalwarts Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier are gone. The team is now rebuilding, and young guards Jalen Suggs, R.J. Hampton and Cole Anthony are now entrenched in the backcourt. Fultz will have to compete with not only them but veterans Gary Harris and Terrence Ross for playing time.

But the Magic, at the bottom of the standings, have little to lose by putting him back on the floor. Fultz is in the middle of a $50 million contract, so Orlando would surely like to get him back up to speed and contributing as quickly as possible. Monday will be first chance to prove he has a place in Orlando's future since last season's injury.

Comments

From Deep: At long last, Nikola Jokic's Nuggets can envision getting to the top of the mountain

Jamal Murray tore his ACL on April 12, 2021. Leading up to that night, he'd been playing at an All-NBA level for two months: In a 25-game stretch, Murray averaged 24.1 points on .509/.459/.935 shooting splits, 4.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists. He was even more efficient than he was in the bubble playoffs, and his defense had improved, too. Murray only got to play with Aaron Gordon, the Denver Nuggets' big trade-deadline addition, for five games. They won them all except the one in which Murray got injured. In 110 minutes, their new starting five scored slightly more efficiently than any iteration of the Kevin Durant-era death lineup in Golden State and defended like a top-five team. Two Nikola Jokic MVP awards later, Murray is back. So is Michael Porter Jr., who signed a five-year extension about a year ago and needed back surgery nine games into the 2020-21 season. The Nuggets remember how easily everything slid into place with Gordon in the mix. Newcomer Kentavious Caldwell-Pop...

Klay Thompson to sit out Warriors preseason games in Japan as Kerr says he needs more time to ramp-up

Klay Thompson may have returned healthy to the Golden State Warriors last season, but the scars from his two missed seasons are still quite visible. The Warriors played their first of two preseason games against the Washington Wizards on Friday and will play another on Sunday, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson will not be playing at all during the trip to Japan. "Just feel more comfortable giving him a little more of a ramp up," Kerr said before Friday's victory over Washington. "He's just not quite ready to play at this point just based on where, you know, we're so early in camp. We just want to be safe and make sure he gets a good ramp-up before he plays in games." Typically, so little time to ramp up wouldn't be a problem for a veteran in a preseason context. The games tend to be so low-impact and demand so few minutes out of a team's best players that they can safely jog through them. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played 1...

LeBron James says he has 'no relationship' with Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

It's not a matter of if LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the No. 1 spot on the NBA's all-time scoring list, it's when. James sits just 1,326 points away from passing the Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers legend, a milestone that should happen at some point this season given James is still performing at peak levels and is coming off a year in which he averaged over 30 points a night. If he averages around the same amount of points as he did a season ago for the Lakers, James could break the record somewhere in the middle of the season, assuming he stays healthy. It's a highly anticipated moment heading into the season, but in regards to LeBron's thoughts about and his relationship with Abdul-Jabbar, he didn't have much to say on the matter. Following the Lakers first preseason game Monday night, a reporter asked James what his thoughts were on the Lakers legend and if the two had any relationship, to which LeBron gave a very short answer. "No...

Crossover World

Search This Blog