Magic forward Franz Wagner has been diagnosed with a torn right oblique and will be sidelined indefinitely, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports that Wagner will be reevaluated in four weeks.
The Magic have confirmed the news (Twitter link). The injury occurred during Friday’s game in Philadelphia.
It’s a brutal blow for an Orlando team that has already been without one star, Paolo Banchero, for more than a month. Not only will Wagner join his fellow forward on the injured list, but he has sustained essentially the same injury — Banchero has been out since October 30 due to a torn right oblique of his own.
Wagner served as the second option on offense behind Banchero for the past couple seasons, but the Magic gave him a five-year, maximum-salary extension in July, signaling their confidence in his ability to continue developing into an All-Star caliber player. His star turn was taking place this fall as he took the reins of Orlando’s offense with Banchero sidelined.
In 20 games without Banchero available so far this season, Wagner has averaged 26.1 points, 6.3 assists, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 35.0 minutes per contest.
Banchero said in mid-November that he hoped to return to the court by Christmas, though he admitted that was his own goal and wouldn’t necessarily be approved by the Magic’s medical team. Even if Banchero meets that timeline, Orlando will likely have to get by for at least a couple more weeks without either of its top two scorers.
Jalen Suggs and Moritz Wagner have been the Magic’s next-best scorers behind Wagner in recent weeks and will be asked to take on additional scoring responsibilities. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Anthony Black, Wendell Carter Jr., Cole Anthony, and Goga Bitadze are among the others who figure to be leaned upon more on that side of the floor. However, it seems safe to assume the Magic, who already rank just 24th in the NBA with a 110.3 offensive rating, could have some trouble scoring in the immediate future.
After starting the season with a 3-6 record, Orlando has won 13 of its last 16 games and sits at 16-9, good for third in the Eastern Conference. That strong start should help the club stay afloat until they get Banchero and Wagner back.
Not surprised. Hope he heals up quickly.
What does that even mean?
It means I hope he gets better so he can play basketball again. Any more brainbusters?
I think he’s asking how you’re not surprised that Wagner is injured.
Really not in the mood today to get into am argument…
Ahahahahah take your Mydol bud
What is mydol? I’m not junkie chief
Wow this guy is terrific
Not sure as to how he managed to do this….anyway i hope he heals quickly
Huh? How do you think it happened?
Trying to get Dryer for a great price at Best Buy on Cyber Monday
This is where Bol should be stepping up. Still so weird that they chose to keep Caleb Houstan over him.
lmao shut up. Bol Bol is on a minimum now. They drafted Houstan 32.
Bol is clearly better at basketball than Houstan. This was never more obvious than when both guys were on the same team a couple yrs ago. Like I said it’s crazy that Orlando chose to keep Houstan. Bol being on a min contract is yet another reason they should have kept him.
Bol can’t even get minutes. He had 1 good season in his career and the otherbhe as been releases to mop up duty. Something is off about him, and teams know it.
Horrible news, what a year Franz was having! The silver lining is at least the Magic know they have two MVP-tier players in Paolo and Franz and when they both finally get healthy together they are going to be a top 2 team in the East, easily. Might not happen this year, but sometime soon the Magic are going to be major players in the playoffs.
Hawks in 6 if we see these guys in the playoffs. We may sweep em tbh, esp if we have home court adv. I respect Paolo & Franz but Orl don’t have enough shooting to hang with us.
Agreed. Klay Thompson would have been a great add for them.
This is sarcasm coming from Davey J. Thompsons biggest hater
Hawks don’t have enough talent to hang with the Magic if Franz and Paulo are healthy.
Hawks got enough talent to hang with any team in the league. Where are we lacking in talent at?
Maybe not lacking in talent but too inconsistent to predict how they’d fare in a series. They’ll lose to the Pistons and Bulls, then beat the Celtics, then lose to the Blazers. They’re also the only team the Wizards have beaten and the Wizards have beaten them twice. Although they have been playing well the last week and a half.
They been pretty consistent when healthy. They’re 10-3 when Dre plays this season. If he’s healthy they’re gonna fare well in any series.
The Hawks have some talent but in a hypothetical series with the Magic where both teams are healthy the best two players on the court are Paulo Banchero and Franz Wagner.
Trae & JJ both probably better than Franz but either way Hawks have the better overall team, more experienced players, more exp coach. We have better guards, better bigs, similar forwards, better bench.
You’re a homer while I’m not a fan of either team so I can look at things objectively. I’ve defended Young even when you wanted the Hawks to trade him and although his offense more than makes up for his atrocious defense he’s not on the level of Wagner. Let’s see the Hawks run their offense through Johnson, then talk to me about Jalen and Franz? Trae would be the best guard overall between both teams but I’d take Suggs over anyone else. Even though I’m not a fan of the person himself, Johnathan Issac comes off the bench and is better than any big the Hawks have. I do like Quin Snyder though, he’s a great coach.
What an insane thread here. Never change Stanky
FW’s skill set is similar to Banchero’s. So, it didn’t surprise me that ORL continued to play well when PB went down. But with both guys down, I think they could easily have real issues on the offensive end (unless they have another 6-10 athlete they can run their offense through). ORL’s PGs haven’t been operating as lead facilitators. Maybe now they’ll get their chance.
Both forwards getting the same injury makes me wonder if this could be the result of a particular regimen of training. Wishing them both a successful recovery.
Not surprised
Kinda like how Wiseman and IJax from the Pacers both tore their achilles
Injuries are really weird this season, feels like everyone is getting hurt
They should look for the exact pieces they want. Make sure that PG, SG and C positions are exactly how you want it. I would make some tweaks
Do these guys work out in the off season anymore. Yes sometimes things happen but none of these guys being able to play 82 unlike ANY generation of NBA players before them then these players who cannot play defense, be coached, dribble etc etc these players are the weakest ever. Weakest era ever