Orlando’s problem without Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs is not simply replacing points. It is creating ordinary possessions when the preferred options are unavailable. Someone has to start the action, bend the defense and make the next pass before a possession turns into Franz Wagner trying to solve everything at once.
The Magic received a potentially important availability update Wednesday. Anthony Black was removed from the team’s injury report for Thursday’s game at Phoenix, while Banchero and Suggs remained listed out. Jonathan Isaac, Noah Penda and Izaiyah Nelson were also out.
Black had missed Monday’s loss to Washington under an ankle designation and maintenance listing; his removal from Wednesday’s report places another guard back in Orlando’s possible mix without promising a specific role or number of minutes.
The timing is easy to understand after Monday’s 103-94 defeat. Washington won the third quarter 19-9 and took a 79-68 advantage into the fourth. Orlando answered with 26 points in the final period, but that rally had to climb out of a hole created when routine offense became scarce.
Nine points in a quarter does not explain every possession, yet it captures the larger problem: the Magic needed more than a scorer waiting for the ball. They needed another player capable of organizing the possession before the defense settled.
Jase Richardson did some of that work Monday, and his passing deserves a fair accounting. He played 29 minutes, scored nine points on 3-for-8 shooting, missed all four of his three-point attempts and made all three free throws. He also recorded five assists.
That is not a failed night as a connector, even if his scoring did not supply much relief. Orlando should not treat Black’s possible return as a reason to discount Richardson’s ability to move the ball.
It is better understood as a chance to divide the job. Across Black’s first four appearances, he averaged 4.8 assists and the same number of rebounds. RotoWire lists his scoring at 16.5 points per game in 28 minutes, with 2.3 made threes and 1.3 steals.
The appeal is having those contributions available from the same guard in the same stretch of minutes. That is a wider package than asking one guard merely to bring the ball up and hand it off.
Still, four appearances can describe an opening stretch without establishing a dependable pattern. Black’s production helps explain why Orlando would welcome another creator, but it cannot prove he would have repaired the third quarter against Washington.
The report update says he is no longer listed as out; it does not say that his ankle issue has vanished, that he will start or that he can carry the offense for long stretches.
