LOS ANGELES — Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner is the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, the eighth pick of the 2021 NBA Draft and in the final year of his rookie deal before a five-year, $224 million extension kicks in. But he isn’t exactly a household name yet. This week, The Athletic asked him how he would describe his game to people who haven’t seen him play.
“I don’t know if there’s someone who I would say I play really close to,” said the 23-year-old German who watched Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki growing up. “I think I’m definitely like a tall guard, I would say that. I’m a perimeter player, but pretty tall. I try to do a lot of different stuff out there. And I hope when you see me play, you see that I’m having fun and play for the right reasons. That’s what I hope people see when they see me play.”
People will also see a star — and team — on the rise. That was evident Thursday night, when Wagner drained a game-winning 3 over Los Angeles Lakers wing Cam Reddish to give Orlando a 119-118 win, the Magic’s seventh victory in their past eight games.
FRANZ CALLS GAME@franzboogie https://t.co/KIkC3lwYLt pic.twitter.com/0yat4TOPa1
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) November 22, 2024
“He’s at the top of the key, and I’m looking,” Jalen Suggs said of Orlando’s final possession with the ball in Wagner’s hands. “We have a guy on each wing and normally you want to cut one out, so you have space to drive. He got to the point where I didn’t want to cut and mess up his spacing, so I just stared at him and said, ‘You got to hit it.’”
That’s exactly what Wagner did, capping off a 37-point, 10-assist performance. Even more impressive, Orlando’s recent hot streak has come without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero, who tore his oblique Oct. 30 against the Chicago Bulls and has been sidelined ever since. The Magic dropped to 3-6 at one point, but thanks in large part to Wagner, they have turned things around.
During this two-week stretch where Orlando has won seven of eight games, Wagner is averaging 28.1 points, 6.9 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.6 3s per game. Against the Lakers, Wagner had a career-high 11 assists, and he had a season-high four steals for the second straight night. He’s been doing it all while playing up a position at power forward, with rookie first-round pick Tristan da Silva starting at small forward with Banchero out.
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“I think it’s more about who handles the ball on pick-and-roll and stuff like that, that’s always a big key,” Wagner said Wednesday of his responsibilities with or without Banchero on the floor. “I feel like I’ve just been doing more of what I was asked before a little bit with Paolo out. But it hasn’t really been that big of a change, honestly.”
Wagner, listed at 6-foot-10, 220 pounds (although he insists he is bigger: “230! Put a little more on, 230! Working!”), has always played a versatile offensive role for Orlando. He and Banchero were the primary ballhandlers last season, when the Magic made the postseason for the first time in four years. Orlando still ran its offense through Banchero to begin the season, although Suggs and 2023 lottery pick Anthony Black were given more responsibility in October. With Banchero out though, Wagner’s touches per game went from 46.4 in October to 72.2 in November.
In addition to creating for himself and others, Wagner remains a sharp off-ball player. His 3-point shot, up to an acceptable 35 percent this season, has come around after a forgettable year last season. But Wagner has always been a sharp cutter, consistently utilizing his combination of size and agility to present himself as an enticing target.
Wagner’s offensive contributions are critical, especially for a Magic team that ranked 22nd in offensive efficiency last season and has dropped to 25th this season. It was ironic that the Magic beat the Lakers with 3-point shooting given that the Magic are the least accurate 3-point shooting team in the league this season at 30.9 percent.
But Orlando is a winning team because of how it defends. The Magic allow 105.2 points per 100 possessions, ranking behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets. Orlando is the only Eastern Conference defense ranked in the top eight. And the Magic are arguably the most physical defense in the league, with a roster that prioritizes positional size.
“That’s something that the coaches put a lot of emphasis on, and we take a lot of pride on as a team,” Wagner said of Orlando’s physicality. “Coming into the season, even last season, in training camp, it’s probably some stuff that should be a foul. We don’t really call that stuff in practice. And I think it just becomes a habit. And I think over the course of the season, the kind of mindset … they’re not going to call every single foul, you know what I mean? So it’s hard to do that for 82 games. But I think we do a pretty good job of playing really hard every game.”
In addition to Wagner, the 6-10, 250-pound Banchero and 6-8 da Silva as forwards, Orlando has three useful centers in 270-pound Wendell Carter Jr. (currently injured), 6-11, 245-pound Moritz Wagner (Franz’s brother) and 6-10, 250-pound fill-in starter Goga Bitadze. The point guards are 6-5 Suggs (who still defends like a football player) and the 6-7 Black. The bench features 210-pound guard Gary Harris, 6-6 2023 lottery pick Jett Howard and 6-10 power forward Jonathan Isaac. The most “average” starter in terms of size may be two-time NBA champion Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a 6-5, 204-pound shooting guard who, at age 31, is the oldest player in the rotation.
All that youth and size allows the Magic to lead the NBA in fewest second-chance points allowed, rank second in defensive rebound percentage and points in the paint allowed and fourth in opponent turnover percentage. The Magic lost to the LA Clippers on Wednesday but forced 25 turnovers in the game.
This is a continuation of how the Magic came to prominence last season, when they won 47 games and finished fifth in the East. Only the Minnesota Timberwolves and Boston Celtics were better defensively than Orlando in 2023-24. That was the first time since 2010-11 that the Magic had a top-five defense. The common threads this season and last season have featured cons such as a high foul rate (24th in opponent free-throw attempt rate last season, 22nd this season) but also pros such as allowing a low number of 3s (Orlando ranked fourth in fewest 3s allowed last season and ranks third this season).
To watch an Orlando game is not for the faint of heart. The Magic rank 25th in pace this season and have never ranked higher than 24th in points per game in coach Jamahl Mosley’s four seasons. They average 106.8 points per game, ranking ahead of only the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Orleans Pelicans. No team allows fewer points per game (103.2) than Orlando. The Clippers are the only other team in the NBA that doesn’t score or allow at least 110 points.
“First one to 80,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said before Wednesday’s game against the Magic, referring to how rough he expected the game to go offensively for both teams.
Mosley said his players have “bought into exactly how we want to play.”
“I don’t know if we are the most physical team in the league,” said Mosley, who was the defensive coordinator of the Dallas Mavericks prior to taking the Orlando job in 2021. “The film shows a lot. We watch film, we watch the hits, we watch the defense, we watch how we get into the basketball. How we are trying to do it best without fouling. Not really a number on it, more than anything, but I think it’s really our ability to watch it and see it and know exactly what we’re trying to take away, what we’re trying to force.”
With a 10-7 record, Orlando is right around where it was last season, with a real shot at home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Wagner’s strong play with Banchero out of the lineup, combined with the Magic being one of only four teams in the East with a winning record, gives Wagner a real chance at making his first All-Star appearance. There’s more work to be done, but Wagner is pleased with where he and his team are right now — and that was before he called game on the Lakers.
“I think I’m playing pretty well,” Wagner said Wednesday night. “It’s a new situation for me. So I just try to take it as a challenge and try to grow from it. And, you know, try to do my best out there every game.”
(Photo of Franz Wagner and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
