In preparation for the 2024-25 NBA season, the Orlando Magic on SI will delve into Stat Stories: a series on the statistical performance metrics that could be most important to the Orlando Magic’s success this year.
Since arriving in the NBA, the road to full health for Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac has been complicated.
Since being selected with the sixth overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft, Isaac has played just 217 games, including the regular season and playoffs. His injury history is vast and unforgiving.
In his seven years in the league, Isaac has played in just 36.9 percent of a possible 555 regular-season games. Only twice in his career has he been healthy enough to play more than half the games in a given season.
But eventually, the light might just fall. To the delight of Isaac and the franchise that didn’t hesitate to believe in him, the 2023-24 season was one of those campaigns – an elite defender stayed on the field and made an impact for 58 games and all seven playoff games.
“This is my first real offseason without any signs of injury or feeling, rehab, anything like that,” Isaac said in a free-to-play video provided by the Magic earlier this summer.
Isaac is as important a role player as Orlando when he’s on the court. So when you consider the stats that should be the focus of each player to contribute to the Magic’s winning season, Isaac’s is perhaps as basic as it gets: games played.
Last season was probably the most productive of his career.
For the first time, Isaac shot over 50 percent from the field, including 59.8 percent on two-point attempts. While he has two seasons with points-per-game averages higher than the 6.8 points he contributed per game in 2023-24, last season was by far his most successful.
He had a 58.4 effective field goal percentage (eFG%*), four points better than the league average (54.7%), and three points better than the league average in true field goal percentage (61.0% vs. 58.0%).
*eFG% takes into account that a successful three-point field goal is worth more than a successful two-point field goal. So while the traditional three-point field goal percentage is determined by dividing the total three-point field goals by the total three-point field goal attempts, the three-point field goal percentage eFG% counts a successful three-point field goal as 1.5 three-pointers and a successful two-point field goal as 1.0. Example: the traditional percentage for a 5-of-10 successful field goal is 50%. But if all five of those three-pointers were three-pointers, multiply 5 by 1.5 and divide by 10. The three-point field goal percentage eFG% is 75%.
Isaac’s offensive play resulted in an offensive rating of 113.0 – a measure of the number of points produced per 100 possessions – which was the best of his career. But it’s on the defensive end where Isaac excels, which fits with the identity of Orlando’s team last season.
The Magic collectively had the third-best defense in the NBA with a defensive rating of 110.8, but Isaac’s individual defensive rating of 102.1 was by far the best mark in the league. The next closest qualified defender was Houston’s Jae’Sean Tate at 105.0. When factoring in his offensive and defensive ratings, Isaac was 10th among all qualified players in net rating with a career-best +10.9.
At 6’2” and 230 lbs, Isaac is a big, all-around player whose mobility allows him to play anywhere from No. 1 to No. 5. Being injury-free and having his size to withstand the demands of a high-level defense is crucial to Isaac’s game. His 7.1% block percentage and 2.3% steal percentage rank him as both a rim protector and an elite defender anywhere on the court—a status impossible to maintain if he is physically limited.
When Isaac was on the court, opponents scored 7.8 fewer points per 100 possessions played and had a 3.7-point lower eFG% than when he was off the court, according to Cleaning the Glass. Each ranking was in the 94th percentile of all relative players. Opponents also turned the ball over 1.9 percent more often when Isaac was on the court, which was in the 89th percentile in the NBA.
Jonathan Isaac: An incredibly talented defender. #Magic pic.twitter.com/4cuDC5XxMG
— Mason Williams (@mvsonwilliams) August 23, 2024
It’s clear that Isaac is one of the best role players who impacts winning. When he’s healthy, the Magic are a better team in every way. But how can Orlando ensure that they continue to use Isaac to his full potential? Part of that solution was found while he was sidelined.
Before injuries forced him to miss two full seasons, Orlando was starting Isaac and playing more than 26 minutes a night. After drafting forwards Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who now occupy prominent roles for the franchise now and into the future, Isaac’s role can be more specialized and he can play fewer minutes but more games.
Case in point: Isaac appeared in 58 games last season, but he played fewer total minutes than he did in the 34 games of the 2019-20 season.
The minutes-per-game gap between the two seasons is 15.8 in 2023-24 versus 28.8 five years earlier. That shift has been beneficial for both sides — both for Orlando’s team success and for Isaac’s health and productivity.
While all of Isaac’s stats are indicative of what he brings to the Magic, the main thing to track is games played. Because the best ability is availability.
