Magic's Jalen Suggs Still in Non-Contact Phase of Quad Injury Recovery

ORLANDO, Fla. – Despite his doubtful listing for Saturday night's contest with the San Antonio Spurs, Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs was present at the team's morning shootaround.

While Suggs, sporting KT tape on his left leg, went through an individual workout after the team's session concluded, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley detailed the latest on his fourth-year guard's status.

"He's doing on-court work a little bit, but non-contact still," Mosley said. "So I think just finding and figuring out how he responds to treatment, how his body adjusts to it and what he's capable of doing."

Suggs has missed six straight games with a left quad contusion he picked up in Orlando's Jan. 25 win over Detroit. In that game, he was returning from a three-week absence because of a sprain in his lower back.

The Magic rarely give exact timelines on when a player dealing with injury should be expected back on the court. Counting the Spurs contest, Orlando has three games at home before the annual All-Star break arrives.

When having to play without Suggs this year, the Magic are just 5-13, with all 13 losses having come in this stretch where he's missed 16 of 17 games.

While dealing with the quad injury, his status on Orlando's injury reports have fluctuated. For the first three games, Suggs was listed as questionable to play before eventually being downgraded to out. The last four, however, he's began with a doubtful designation.

When asked if that's an indication of his healing process taking longer than originally expected, Mosley noted the "extremely tricky" nature of the injury.

"Everybody's body is different, so they respond to things differently," Mosley said. So yeah, it's tricky. It's extremely tricky.

"You’d like to say that it’s going to work this way one day and then [it] responds differently another day. We have to adjust. That’s part of life, part of the game, part of what we do as coaches. You have to adjust to whatever you’re given and whatever is put on your plate."

Those adjustments because of injury have overrun a large portion of the Magic's season.

Torn right obliques forced a 34-game absence for Paolo Banchero and a 20-game stint on the sideline for Franz Wagner. If Suggs doesn't go Saturday night versus San Antonio, it'd be his 19th total game missed.

In total, 166 games have been missed because of injury or illness, and the Magic have utilized 21 different starting lineups. Orlando's contest with the Spurs is their 54th of 82 this season.

Thus, with the 25-28 Magic gearing up for a playoff push, Orlando wants to best ensure itself that Suggs will be an on-court contributor for it.

"Our main thing is because we've had guys out for so long ... our ability to get guys back for the long haul is going to be more important," Mosley said, "so we're careful and smart about how we go about it."

Up Next

Orlando hosts San Antonio at 7 p.m. Saturday night in the Kia Center.