Magoon Gwath announced in a social media post Wednesday that “I will be forgoing the remainder the NBA draft process” and instead returning to San Diego State next season.
He neglected to mention a key reason why.
SDSU coach Brian Dutcher confirmed Friday that the 7-foot forward had arthroscopic knee surgery earlier this week but expects him “to be ready for the start of the season,” which is 6½ months away. Dutcher did not provide specifics about the nature of the surgery or the anticipated recovery time.
Gwath first injured the knee in the early moments of a Feb. 22 game at Utah State, crashing to the floor on the baseline after blocking a shot. He missed the next five games — the final four of the regular season and the quarterfinal loss against Boise State in the Mountain West Tournament — yet still was named Mountain West Freshman of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and honorable mention all-conference.
The initial concern given the way his knee buckled was with the posterior cruciate ligament, or PCL, that crosses behind the knee t and provides stability. A subsequent MRI, team officials said at the time, found no major structural damage to the ligament, buoying hope he could play again before season’s end.
And he did, starting against North Carolina on March 18 in the First Four play-in game for the NCAA Tournament in Dayton, Ohio. Wearing a bulky knee brace, he overcame a rusty start to finish with nine points, five rebounds and two blocks in 24 minutes of a 95-68 loss that ended the Aztecs’ season.
The following week, Gwath entered the transfer portal, with Dutcher estimating he would command between $1.5 million and $1.7 million, more than SDSU’s NIL collective could offer given the superior financial resources of power conference programs.
Gwath reportedly spoke with Kentucky and Michigan before, on the evening of April 1, he dramatically announced he would stay at SDSU if he didn’t turn pro. Players have until Saturday to provisionally declare for the NBA draft (and until May 28 to withdraw and retain their college eligibility), but Gwath, despite stating his intention to test pro waters, never formally submitted his name.
Workouts with NBA clubs begin in earnest over the next month, and the two major pre-draft combines are in Chicago in mid-May. Gwath also would have requested and received a preliminary evaluation from NBA general managers about his projected draft range.
“Thank you for all your as I gathered valuable ,” Gwath said in Wednesday’s social media post. “While the NBA remains a goal of mine in the future, I’m looking forward to an amazing year ahead in San Diego. I’m focused on doing everything I can to help our team achieve great things. Go Aztecs!”
Dutcher said “rehab was going well” over the past two months, and indicated there was not a setback or reaggravation of the initial injury.
“I let guys make their own medical decisions, and I them,” Dutcher said. “After he decided to stay (April 1), they sought multiple opinions and felt this was the best course of action for his future. We fully that.”
PCL repair, especially when the ligament has not ruptured, is debated among orthopaedists. Some recommend a rehabilitation regimen without surgical intervention. More recently, many NBA team physicians prefer “augmented repair,” an arthroscopic procedure where the ligament is reinforced with a fiber suture tape to stabilize it and promote healing.
Gwath presumably did not require full PCL reconstruction with a ligament graft, which typically requires up to nine months of recovery and would have wiped out most or all of his sophomore season. If he received a form of augmented repair, recovery by the season opener in early November is reasonable without unforeseen complications.
The target is typically five to six months.
“This protects the ligament during the healing phase, allowing natural healing whilst permitting early mobilization and accelerated rehabilitation,” a 2021 study in the Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics said of augmented PCL repairs. “Moreover, the proprioceptive properties that are retained in the native PCL could also contribute to improved functional recovery and return to sporting activity.”
It is Gwath’s second surgery since coming to SDSU. Shortly after arriving two summers ago, X-rays revealed an ankle condition that required pins to be inserted in the t. He redshirted, returning to practice 5½ months later and spending the remainder of the season on the scout team.
He started in the 2024-25 opener against UCSD, his first college game, and never came off the bench all season. He hit stride in late January, averaging 12.1 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 44.4% on 3s in the eight games before the knee injury.
The Aztecs have two other 4-men on the roster, 6-9 grad transfer Jeremiah Oden from Charlotte and 6-8 incoming freshman Tae Simmons from Heritage Christian High School in Northridge. Neither, however, shoots it as well from distance (Gwath made 37.8% of his 3-point attempts last season, best among the returnees) or block shots like he can (ranking sixth nationally at 2.62 per game).
A five-month recovery would put him back on the floor in late September, when practices are ramped up to five days per week. Six months would give him about two weeks before the season opener.
“The main thing people need to know,” Dutcher said, “is that he’ll be ready for the season.”
