Magic's Jalen Suggs Feeling the 'Steady Progress' in Day-By-Day Rehab Process

Over two weeks have passed since Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs left the floor in a wheelchair with a low back strain. Now, the fourth-year guard is "feeling better" and "itching to get back onto the court" as he works through his rehab.

Orlando Magic guard Jalen Suggs (4) thanks the crowd with a few seconds left in the game against the Phoenix Suns at Kia Center. / Jeremy Reper-Imagn Images

BOSTON – As many of his Orlando Magic teammates headed for the first team bus back to their hotel, Jalen Suggs remained sat in one of the many leather-padded courtside seats at TD Garden.

For now, the fourth-year guard remains without a timetable to return after suffering a scary-looking non-contact low back strain Jan. 3 in Toronto. He'd be helped off the floor in a wheelchair, and Suggs recalled the moment being unlike any he'd ever experienced before. After the incident, Suggs wasn't again visible on the Magic's bench until last Sunday, January 12, when Orlando hosted Philadelphia.

However, further testing showed he'd avoided a more serious injury. Now, not only is he back on the road and around the team, but he's on the floor in some capacity with his teammates. No matter how monotonous his tasks are at this point in his rehab, the fact that he has a task alone is better than the alternative.

"I'm feeling better," Suggs told reporters Friday morning. "Really itching to get back, especially [being] out watching the game [again] at home. That s--t had me itching to get back onto the court. So just taking it day-by-day, trying to make progress every day.

"It sucked," Suggs later added. "That first week was really hard, it was very limited movement."

Suggs said Arnie Kander, the Magic's VP of player performance and wellness who wheeled him away in the moments after his incident at Scotiabank Arena, stayed with him in Toronto as the team carried on.

Friday morning, it was Kander who spent the portion of the Magic's shootaround visible to media working with Suggs and his teammate Jett Howard, who's been battling a left ankle sprain as of late, through a series of stationary ball-handling drills. Before that, Suggs shared he did some triple threat work and went through some movement.

In the past, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley has described injuries like the one Suggs is dealing with as "tricky." Suggs himself has called it an "interesting" process, learning for himself that there isn't always a defined method for how to go about treating it.

"One day you'll wake up feeling pretty good, try and movement and it creeps back in," Suggs said. "Just to feel the steady progress I've been getting day-in and day-out has been something that I've been trying to remember. This is a small process. God's slowing me down, that's all.

"For five days, I really didn't move, wasn't on my feet at all," he added. "Then, next couple of days, slow movement, taking more steps each day until I get to the point now where I can walk at least more comfortably."

Before the injury, the fourth-year pro posted averages of 16.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists and nearly 1.5 steals in 29 minutes per contest. Due to the absences of Paolo Banchero (a recent returnee from a torn right oblique) and Franz Wagner (currently in the return to competition reconditioning phase of torn right oblique recovery), the defensive ace Suggs was shouldering the burden of No. 1 option in the Magic offense, too.

While a reeling Orlando team searches for stable ground to stand on and awaits several bodies to come back, Suggs' always-on motor is a glaring element the Magic are still learning to trek without.

"His energy, his enthusiasm, his ability to keep spirits up in the locker room; he has a contagious energy, and I think that's what we miss a ton of out of him other than his defense and playmaking," Mosley said Friday.

How the time away arrived was undesired. If it offers a silver lining, however, it's that Suggs has been afforded the chance to dive deeper into how the first half of his fourth journey through the NBA calendar went. After all, Suggs says there's not much else to do when you're left with your thoughts while resigned to bed rest.

"Injuries always suck in the moment but if you're able to channel that energy, work on other things that are still able to [be] work[ed on], it can really be a blessing in disguise," Suggs said.

"[It's been] a good break to get the mind sharp, rejuvenate the body and then get back to work with my brothers."

Upon his eventual return, Suggs aims to combine the lessons learned from last year and this one with his refreshed body to provide a much-needed boost to Orlando's on-court presence. He's seen both sides of Orlando's growing inactive list.

For a while, he was stretching himself thin trying to plug gaps and lead the Magic to improbable wins. Now, he's the one watching from the sideline and waiting on an anticipated return.

Until then?

"I'm really just kind of taking it how it is, seeing when God's ready for me to get back out on the court," Suggs said. "Arnie's been taking care of me, and hopefully I'll be out here soon."

As his chat with reporters finished, Suggs flashed his usual smile as he resumed watching Howard and Franz Wagner go through individual workouts inside the nearly empty arena.

Then, as Howard's workout neared its conclusion on his end of the floor, Suggs lifted himself off the bench and called for the ball. Not to go through his own shooting workout, but rather to deliver passes to Howard.

One after another, Howard's shots hit nylon off of Suggs' assists as the sound of the swishes filled the lower bowl, aside from a brief comment.

"That's a f--king dime, J."

The itch had to be scratched.

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