The Whiteboard: Magic hit breaking point with Aaron Gordon injury

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That perfect 4-0 start feels like a lifetime ago. Hell, even 6-2 is a distant memory now.

The wheels have fallen off for the Orlando Magic since that exciting start to the 2020-21 NBA season, one debilitating injury at a time.

First, it was a bubble injury that predated the new season, as young cornerstone Jonathan Isaac tore his ACL and meniscus in August, ruling him out for the foreseeable future.

Then, another key building block in Markelle Fultz tore his ACL on Jan. 6, ruling the Magic’s starting point guard out for the remainder of the season and taking two of the franchise’s three most important youngsters off the table in the process.

Now, Aaron Gordon is expected to be out for 4-6 weeks with a severe left ankle sprain, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. While the team itself is not providing a specific timetable, and while it’s encouraging this latest stroke of misfortune is not a season-ending injury, it really couldn’t have come at a worse time for Orlando.

After the promising first couple of weeks to the season, the Magic completely lost their, well, magic. They’re 4-13 since winning their first four games and 2-11 since the 6-2 start. They’re sitting at 12th in the East, with the worst point differential in the conference (third-worst in the league), and are now staring at playing the next 4-6 weeks without their starting power forward.

Nosedive, meet cliff.

Gordon will be back eventually, but the timing is terrible for an organization that was already trending in the wrong direction as perpetual first-round playoff fodder. The Magic have been krill for the whales of the Eastern Conference these last two years, finishing seventh and eighth in the standings, respectively.

Both times they stunned the world by taking Game 1 from a potential title contender, and both times they went on to lose four straight in a gentleman’s sweep. That was their ceiling heading into the 2020-21 season without Isaac, and especially once Fultz went down, but now? With Gordon expected to miss at least 15 games based on that timeline, while Orlando is in free-fall?

It might be time to finally face harsh realities about what needs to happen now that this attempt to build through the middle has failed yet again.

Nikola Vucevic has become an All-Star in The City Beautiful, but any team whose best player is Nikola Vucevic will always top out as a first-round playoff exit. He’s under contract for two more seasons after this one, but if this shorthanded Orlando squad flounders over the next 4-6 weeks, will the front office consider cashing in on his value to aid the youth movement that’s currently on hold?

This upcoming stretch represents the make-or-break point for the Magic’s season and possibly their current core as well. If the losses continue to pile up at a precipitous rate like they have for the last month, Orlando could quickly become one of the league’s biggest tankers … and potential sellers at the trade deadline.

Evan Fournier, who is averaging 17.3 points per game on .440/.355/.803 shooting splits, is playing on a $17.2 million expiring contract. Terrence Ross, a well-established bench scorer averaging 14.7 points per game, only has two years remaining on his deal at an affordable $24 million. Vucevic, the Magic’s best player, can help a playoff team if it can squeeze in his remaining two years and $46 million somehow. Trading him now would also allow Orlando to tank to its heart’s content.

Even Gordon, who will be coming off this ankle sprain, could be on the way out soon. He’s been on the trade block for years now, and this felt like a prove-it kind of year. The results — 13.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game on 36.7 percent shooting from 3 — aren’t bad, but with this injury piled on top, they’re hardly enough to change Orlando’s minds about him being nonessential to the rebuild. His optimal position is the same one Isaac needs to play when he finally returns.

All of this is conspiring to turn the Magic into one big fire sale in the coming months, especially if this downward spiral continues. Isaac, Fultz, Cole Anthony and Mohamed Bamba are the future. Two of those four are out for the season, one is a rookie who will still get his opportunities no matter what, and the other is incredibly raw and has only played seven games this season anyway.

This season is rapidly becoming a wash, and if these mounting injuries force the front office to shift its gaze fully toward the future, Aaron Gordon’s ankle sprain — while insignificant in a vacuum — could be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back.

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