Steve Clifford: Cole Anthony will start in place of Markelle Fultz
On Friday, rookie Cole Anthony will earn the first start of his NBA career when the Orlando Magic travel to play the Houston Rockets to begin a two-game road trip.
The Magic will turn to Anthony with starting point guard Markelle Fultz ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a torn left ACL on Wednesday versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Cole will start,” Magic head coach Steve Clifford said on Thursday. “We’re looking at some other things, some bigger lineups. We’re kind of in process of doing that. We had a long staff meeting this morning about it. There are a lot of things to consider. Some of it could be game by game but Cole, in my opinion, is the starter right now. I think he is ready to take it and grow with it and we all have great confidence in him.”
Anthony produced eight points, four rebounds and three assists in a season-high 32 minutes of work on Wednesday in place of Fultz. He had only topped the 30-minute once prior to Wednesday, in a blowout loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on New Year’s Eve, but the increased workload will certainly be a precursor of things to come.
Despite playing in just eight games to this point of his career, the team is confident that Anthony will be able to step in and perform well in place of Fultz.
“He is built for this,” Terrence Ross said. “He is not shy of any moment. He’s a tough kid. He is improving really fast. He is picking everything up. It’s going to take some time but you gotta go through it. That’s how everybody goes through it when they first get into the league.”
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