The Orlando Magic’s top draft pick Jalen Suggs appears to be on track to play in the team’s season opener Wednesday in San Antonio after fully taking part in practice Monday.
Suggs, who has been out since missing the preseason finale against the Boston Celtics last week while getting over a “stomach bug,” may not be in the starting lineup, but he should see plenty of minutes.
“He was able to practice today and he’s just slowly getting himself back,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “He looked good out there.”
Suggs, who was the No. 5 pick in this past summer’s NBA Draft, and Franz Wagoner, the No. 8 selection, will play a big role this season as the Magic count on their youth in the team rebuilding project.
“There’s a reason why they are here. We talk about them being talented enough [with] a high basketball IQ, competitive enough,” Mosley said. “They have those skills, so now it’s all their ability to put it all into the framework of the game.”
The beginning of the Magic season will feature a lot of time spent on the road. Orlando opens at San Antonio, comes back to Central Florida for their season-opener against the New York Knicks on Friday night, before heading out to play at New York on Sunday and then at rival Miami Heat on Monday.
They return to host the Charlotte Hornets on Oct. 27, before embarking upon three straight road games at Toronto (Oct. 29), at Detroit (Oct. 30) and at Minnesota (Nov. 1).
The younger players will need to get acclimated to their road-game routines, patterns that began during the Magic’s preseason road trips.
“I really look at it as one game at a time, one practice at a time,” Mosley said. “We constantly talk about the ability to get better day by day ... putting in the work. Time on the court [in pregame is] when they’re shooting.
“Those preseason games help the guys a lot to get a routine down and it will work its way through as we get into the season.”
Six of their first eight games are on the road.
“I really look at it as one game at a time, one practice at a time,” Mosley said. “We constantly talk about the ability to get better day by day ... putting in the work.
“So as the games come up, we’ll look at it as who we’re playing, go from there, prepare the best way we can for them and then go to that next game.”
