When is Isaac Returning? Ruled out for the entire 2021-2022 season

[Magic_Kingdom]

He suffered a significant setback. Hopefully we learn what that setback was at some point. Joe Harris just recently far exceeded his timetable to come back from injury and the organization had to finally come out and say that he suffered one.

Zion was a very similar situation as well.

I think those orgs. felt they had to partly because they gave both players a timetable to return in the first place. Isaac has never had an official one to my knowledge and our organization has never expressed the desire to keep fans in the loop on these things. This isn't pseudo-tanking and this isn't extraordinary caution. I'm sure some caution plays into it, but it wouldn't explain the extended absence that Isaac has had.

Our best hope is that when he does return he looks somewhat like his old self. Based on this injury and the setback though, it seems incredibly unlikely. Luckily, there is a good crop of frontcourt players at the top of this draft.

He damaged more than the ACL which is why it's taking more rehab time.

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Where did you get this information? The only pseudo-explanation we've been given for why his rehab is taking so long is the Weltman interview where he said they were working on Isaac's strength and balance to make sure his body was right. He said basically nothing about the injury itself, nothing about the mechanism of injury, nothing about parts other than the ACL being damaged.

It was reported separately that Isaac damaged his meniscus in addition to the ACL, but it is common to tear your meniscus when you tear your ACL. I can speak from personal experience on that. It is not something that doubles your rehab timetable. In fact there is not much to rehab when it comes to the meniscus itself.

Joe Burrow, on the other hand, tore his ACL *and* MCL, returned in 9-10 months to start the NFL season, and will play in the Super Bowl next weekend. He was injured *three months* after Isaac. So even if Isaac did injure more than his ACL (and meniscus) it still shouldn't take 18+ months to return to action. It is much more likely that he suffered a setback or they have discovered a structural deficiency that makes them hesitant to put him back on the court.

[Magic_Kingdom]

JI is officially out for tonight's game. Anyone who had the following JI return dates in the office pool lost:

-- Mid-December
-- After the new year
-- After the trade deadline
-- Before the All-Star break

Those of you who guessed the following still have a chance:

-- After the All-Star break
-- Next season
-- When Jupiter aligns with Neptune in conjunction with the Summer Solstice

It's looking more likely that he misses two consecutive complete seasons and part of a third (the injury season). The extension Weltman gave him is looking worse by the day. If Weltman knew Isaac was going to miss all of this season -- 25% of the contract's term -- then the 4-year, $69.6 million extension was like a 3-year, $69.6 million extension. The money is the same (assuming the guarantees are met) but he knowingly agreed to pay it in exchange for 3 (maybe) healthy seasons.

[LDNMagic90]

Read on Twitter

This is how I feel right now to be honest lol

[Max Power]

Seemingly I’m one of the few guys left on here who likes Issac, and I hope he comes back strong. But I have to admit my thoughts are turning to I don’t think he’s going to ever become what we hoped he would. I would not be surprised at all to see him packaged in a trade this offseason. I’m much more optimistic about Markelle Fultz at this point. I think he’s being left out due to enhancing our draft position.

[jezzerinho]

Seemingly I’m one of the few guys left on here who likes Issac, and I hope he comes back strong. But I have to admit my thoughts are turning to I don’t think he’s going to ever become what we hoped he would. I would not be surprised at all to see him packaged in a trade this offseason. I’m much more optimistic about Markelle Fultz at this point. I think he’s being left out due to enhancing our draft position.

Isaac was quite good when he played. But how can you care about a guy who never plays, much less one who seems to care more about things other than basketball.

It's like buying shares in a company with a great idea but through bad timing and unclear management the business plan never really comes to fruition.

By all means, keep the shares just in case - they're worth nothing anyway - but you won't be going to bed every night wondering if tomorrow will be the big payday...

[Xatticus]

I feel like a sucker. I actually thought he was going to be ready for the start of the year. I was excited about his return.

This situation couldn't have been handled any worse. I simply couldn't care less at this point.

[LDNMagic90]

I feel like a sucker. I actually thought he was going to be ready for the start of the year. I was excited about his return.

This situation couldn't have been handled any worse. I simply couldn't care less at this point.

Don't worry you're not the only one, I tend to be optimistic in general. However with this situation I don't know what to feel, I know he will play at some point but it feels like an eternity waiting for him to come back. It's just annoying that the front office has not been crystal clear with the injuries, it's extra frustrating because my soccer team do the exact same thing. The last update with both Fultz and Isaac was that Fultz was a 'couple weeks' away which was in January and we are now in mid Feb so thats more than a couple and Isaac was still some way from coming back.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

we're so lucky that he has an Exhibit 3 in his contract because 1 injury to that knee/leg and it sounds like Magic can get off the rest of his money. It's like a get out of jail free card except he has to be playing and it seems like that isn't going to happen.

I think his knee is so weak that he can't take the movements and physicality of the game and they're just using him as salary dump knowing they're going to be able to get out of it.

[MagicStarwipe]

It's really hard to believe that he's not ready to go.

[Knightro]

I feel like a sucker. I actually thought he was going to be ready for the start of the year. I was excited about his return.

This situation couldn't have been handled any worse. I simply couldn't care less at this point.

There's only two plausible scenarios and neither one are particularly soothing for Magic fans.

1. Isaac had a setback at some point during his rehab and he and the Magic have repeatedly lied about it by denying it.

2. The front office willingly gave a player a 4 year, 70M extension that they either knew was going to miss two full seasons or at the very least were comfortable with the possibility of him missing two full seasons.

I think it's No. 2 and candidly that makes it even worse to me for a few reasons.

The "oh well the money doesn't matter because the Magic are tanking" doesn't really apply because when that contract extension was agreed upon, the Magic still had Vucevic, Fournier, Gordon and Clifford and were actively trying to be competitive and make the playoffs. The front office wouldn't have blown it up last year had they been 22-22 or even 20-24 instead of 15-29 at the deadline.

The Magic could have opted to not give Isaac the extension, extended him a qualifying offer for this season and then resigned him for much less than 4/70 coming off two full years out.

It's just bad business.

[ChosenSavior]

What frustrates me the most about this whole situation is the reporting on all of this. It is completely nonexistent except for any rare practice footage that emerges like it was a Bigfoot sighting. Some honest reporting on his status would be welcoming.

[thelead]

JI and Fultz are healthy. They're in the gym and at games. We're simply tanking. It's frustrating but I would be doing the same if I were running the team. Fultz and JI coming back this year vs next isn't going to change the outcome of this rebuild. Let's be honest. So as fans, yes it's frustrating but I can't blame Weltman and actually applaud the efforts going into this tank.

[zaymon]

What frustrates me the most about this whole situation is the reporting on all of this. It is completely nonexistent except for any rare practice footage that emerges like it was a Bigfoot sighting. Some honest reporting on his status would be welcoming.

How do you want to do honest reporting about tanking moves ?

[ChosenSavior]

What frustrates me the most about this whole situation is the reporting on all of this. It is completely nonexistent except for any rare practice footage that emerges like it was a Bigfoot sighting. Some honest reporting on his status would be welcoming.

How do you want to do honest reporting about tanking moves ?

Just rule him out for the season and give a legitimate reason as to why (continued rehab, etc). Honest reporting right there and the "tank" continues.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

JI and Fultz are healthy. They're in the gym and at games. We're simply tanking. It's frustrating but I would be doing the same if I were running the team. Fultz and JI coming back this year vs next isn't going to change the outcome of this rebuild. Let's be honest. So as fans, yes it's frustrating but I can't blame Weltman and actually applaud the efforts going into this tank.

Fultz is healthy and they're letting him sit as they get Suggs and Cole more run, I have my doubts that Isaac is healthy and ready to play NBA games. There's no reason to sit Isaac when your big rotation is WCJ Bamba Okeke & Lopez. Isaac isn't good enough to push us into wins and if he was then you put him on a 15-20 minute restriction and make sure he's finished mid way through the 3rd quarter.

[davey_wavy]

Dude is gonna walk away from basketball and pump all of his money into growing his church. I can see him on the political scene too- I believe he just signed a book deal with Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire.

Draft JI's replacement this year and let's all move on

[fendilim]

What is the rush to have him back?

Isaac is injury prone, a full year’s rest have a high chance of doing wonders for him. See what happened to Embiid.

I’ll be more concerned if he isn’t ready to play next season. But let him be this year. You’re not paying his salary anyway, the team is.

[OrlChamps2030]

JI and Fultz are healthy. They're in the gym and at games. We're simply tanking. It's frustrating but I would be doing the same if I were running the team. Fultz and JI coming back this year vs next isn't going to change the outcome of this rebuild. Let's be honest. So as fans, yes it's frustrating but I can't blame Weltman and actually applaud the efforts going into this tank.

Do we actually know Isaac is fully healthy? It seems like Fultz has been doing full contact practices, but I haven’t heard the same about Isaac.

JI and Fultz aren’t derailing this tank. Especially if the FO got creative and utilized minute restrictions, load management, sitting b2bs, etc.

Playing 2 games in 900 days is terrible for the development of a young player ..

[jezzerinho]

The media (what's left of it in Orlando) has been absolutely spineless about demanding some kind of answers from the team about Isaac's situation.

They're all petrified of getting frozen out of the dull, scripted, press conferences that tell the fans nothing anyway to actually ask a few tough questions.

[PrimeThyme]

I think us trying to explain away the Isaac situation as "tanking" or "overprotectiveness" is again us not acknowledging the severity of the injury. I think it's clear that he suffered some sort of setback. I truly believe that his knee is wrecked.

As much as I don't want to believe it, this amount of recovery time for an ACL injury combined with his long injury history tells me that something pretty catastrophic happened. I'm ready to move on from the situation. There are some really solid frontcourt prospects in this draft and hopefully there is another team out there who'd be willing to take a flier on Isaac if what is said about the injury conditions in his contract are true.