UPDATE: Jalen Suggs will now miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season due to his ongoing knee issue.
UPDATE: Suggs was diagnosed with a trochlea injury in his left knee on Friday and now on Sunday, ESPN’s Shams Charania is reporting that Suggs will undergo an arthroscopic surgery to remove a cartilage fragment in his left knee. Suggs is out indefinitely, but he is expected to make a full recovery, per Charania.
In the latest brutal turn in what had previously been a promising season for the Orlando Magic, point guard Jalen Suggs has been ruled out indefinitely with a left trochlea injury, per Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel.
Suggs has played just 16 total minutes since being wheeled off with a non-contact back injury against the Toronto Raptors on January 3. Up until that point, Orlando was 21-15, the seventh-best record in the NBA, and Suggs was averaging 16.4 points per game to go along with elite defense. Since then, the Magic have gone just 9-17 and are almost assuredly going to finish in the East’s Play-In Tournament picture.
In Suggs’ absence, the Magic have started Cole Anthony, a 2020 first-round pick. Since Suggs’ injury, Anthony has averaged 13.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 45.8% from the field and 38.9% from downtown, but defensively, he grades out worse than Suggs does.
Without Suggs, a 2023-24 All-Defensive Team honoree, Orlando has little chance of winning a first-round playoff series. Although the Magic haven’t released any information on the severity of Suggs’ injury — although Beede reported that it is not considered a long-term concern — the timeline for full recoveries from such injuries typically stretches up to several months. With Orlando’s last game of the season scheduled for April 13, this injury seems likely to end Suggs’ season.
