Paolo Banchero vows to stay ‘engaged’ with Magic during injury

Paolo Banchero knew something was wrong. He was surprised to learn the extent.

The Orlando Magic All-Star will miss the next several weeks with a torn right oblique, an injury that happened in his team’s loss to Chicago on Wednesday night. The abdominal muscle injury was diagnosed Thursday, causing Banchero to miss the game Friday in Cleveland.

“I felt it when it happened,” Banchero said Friday, speaking with reporters in Cleveland after Orlando’s shootaround. “Didn’t know what it was but knew it didn’t feel good. Just tried to play through it, wanted to get it looked at after the game, was hoping it wasn’t too bad but obviously it was a little worse than I thought.”

Banchero was off to a huge start — his 29 points per game ranked seventh in the league entering Friday. He’s one of only three players who started the day averaging that many points along with 8.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists. The others: Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.

“It sucks. There’s no other way to put it,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. “It sucks for him, the way in which he started this year, the way in which he was playing, the way he’s carrying us in so many ways. And in the same breath, you have to say it’s an opportunity — it’s an opportunity for guys to step up, step into their role, opportunity for guys to continue to play to our standard of basketball.”

To make matters worse for Orlando, center Wendell Carter Jr. was scratched from the lineup just minutes before Friday’s game due to tendinitis in his right knee.

The Magic said Banchero will be evaluated in four to six weeks. He referenced the six-week timeline. If he misses six weeks, that means he’ll be sidelined for at least 21 games. It would also mean he’ll almost certainly be ineligible for most end-of-season NBA awards voting under the new policies that went into effect last season.

“Hopefully, it’s not a multi, three-, four-month injury,” Banchero said. “Hopefully, it’s just six, something weeks. Just trying to stay engaged as much as I can and stay positive, take it one day at a time and be ready to come back.”

Banchero had a career-high 50 points Monday against Indiana, the first — and entering Friday, still only — 50-point game in the NBA this season. The Magic said he was hurt in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s game in Chicago. Banchero, who finished that night with 31 points, was still on the floor at the end of that contest.

He intends to travel with the team while sidelined, Mosley said. Banchero will be involved in some coaches’ meetings, giving the 2022-23 Rookie of the Year, No. 1 draft pick and first-time All-Star last season a chance to see the game a different way.

“It’s another opportunity for his growth,” Mosley said. “There won’t be as much physical activity going on, but it’ll be a mental version of it. His ability to be in some the coaches’ meetings, to see the game differently from that side of the floor, it’s an opportunity for his growth in that realm.”