Jameer Nelson Out 4-6 Weeks

Last night, it was one small step forward and one giant leap back for the Orlando Magic.

Rashard Lewis made his season debut after being suspended for the first ten games of the season, but in the fourth quarter of the same game, Jameer Nelson injured his left knee. Reports out of Orlando today are that Nelson needs surgery to repair cartilage in that knee, and will miss 4-6 seeks.

The injury to Nelson is a big blow to the Orlando Magic. This is a team that many, including myself, thought coming into the season were a favorite to win the Eastern Conference. They were very successful last season, and achieved most of their success without Nelson, who was injured shortly after being named to his first all-star game.

In the offseason, they made the biggest splash in the Eastern Conference by adding Vince Carter.

I liked the move at the time, and still do. The way I saw it, it would take this team about two or three months to really acclimate Carter into their system, and they should be peaking right around the all-star break and be poised to make another serious run at the NBA Finals.

Now, with the injury to Nelson, everything gets pushed back 4-6 weeks, and that’s a best case scenario.

Instead of hitting their stride around the all-star break, this team will be lucky if they can put all the pieces together by April.

It takes time to acclimate any new player to a new team, especially one as talented as Vince Carter. The only real way to make it work is by playing together. Not one or two games, but a long time. It takes weeks, maybe even months, before you can see every possible situation that may arise and figure out a way to deal with it.

With Nelson sidelined, the Magic are going to establish an entirely new identity with Jason Williams as their starting point guard. They will get into a rhythm, players will start to learn their new roles, and they will develop continuity.

Then all of that will be thrown out the window when Nelson comes back and they will have to start all over, defining new roles and developing a new rhythm once their all-star point guard returns to the floor.

As long as the Orlando Magic has a healthy Dwight Howard, they will always win a lot of regular season games. But unless they can have their entire core playing together and playing well, they have little chance as repeating as the Eastern Conference champs.

I was hoping that, with the return of Rashard Lewis, this would be the week that we could finally evaluate the Orlando Magic and see if they are as talented as everyone thinks that they will be.

Now, we have to wait 4-6 weeks.

I guess if Nelson is going to be hurt, it’s better that it happened now as opposed to the end of the season like last year. But the fact is, it’s a three team race (with Atlanta sitting in a close forth) for the Eastern Conference crown, and this injury is a major setback for a team looking to make back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals.