Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac had season-ending surgery this week. It might mean the end of his time with the Magic.
The Magic had high hopes for Isaac when they drafted him with the No. 6 pick in 2017. Injuries limited him to 27 games his rookie year, but he became a starter by his second season and a defensive force by his third. Isaac was averaging 2.3 blocks and 1.6 steals in 2019-20 when he injured his left knee on New Year’s Day 2020. If he’d played enough games to qualify, that would have put him fourth in blocks and 14th in steals for the season.
Isaac returned to the Magic during the bubble season, but tore his ACL in the same knee in his second game back. He missed all of the next two seasons before coming back for 11 games this year.
Orlando signed Isaac to a four-year $80 million contract, even after the ACL injury. However, his contract was heavily dependent on playing time. $2.6M each year was a bonus for playing 70 or more games, and the deal became partially guaranteed once he missed the 2021-22 season. Now, next year’s deal is guaranteed for only $7.6M, and the 2024-25 is totally non-guaranteed.
The team has only expressed support for Isaac and his difficult recovery so far.
It’s truly terrible luck for Isaac, who will begin rehabbing the surgically repaired adductor muscle. While the Magic will certainly support his recovery efforts, they may not support him financially past Jan. 10, when next year’s deal would become fully guaranteed.
The Magic look like they’re ready to compete, after adding top pick Paolo Banchero to 2021 lottery picks Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner. They don’t have a single player over the age of 24 signed past this season, and both Gary Harris and Markelle Fultz have non-guaranteed deals next season. (Harris can be waived for nothing before June 30; Fultz’s $17.4 million is only guaranteed for $2M.)
This means that Orlando has a lot of options to increase its projected cap space to upward of $50M. They probably won’t ditch all three non-guaranteed deals, but they have the option of doing so or using any of them in trade. While Isaac has the largest guarantee, he’s also clearly the most expendable, with Banchero and Wagner established at the forward spots.
Isaac has shown flashes of being an impact player, but all those flashes were over three years ago now. It’s unlikely the Magic still see him as a $17 million player. They might not see him as a Magic player at all.
