SPOTLIGHT: Magic’s Center Conundrum | Can Wendell Carter SILENCE Doubters and DOMINATE?

SPOTLIGHT: Magic’s Center Conundrum | Can Wendell Carter SILENCE Doubters and DOMINATE?

All eyes for the Orlando Magic are now on the center position where the Magic have an embarrassment of riches. How Wendell Carter, Goabatz, and Mo Vagner can hold down the spot. Today on Locked On Magic, you are Locked on Magic, your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And you are indeed locked on Magic. Today is September 18th. It will be September 19th, 2025. My name is Philip Rossman. the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. Credential member of the Orlando Magic media since the 2012 season. On today’s episode of Lockdown Magic, our countdown to camp continues. We’re going to look at the center spot, a spot that has all the spotlight on it, but is also one of the strongest positions for the Orlando match. We’ll break down what to expect from Wendo Carter, Goabat, and Mo Vagner this season. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. First, we want to thank you again for making Lockdown Magic part of your day every day. No matter when you listen to us, whether it’s first thing in the morning, whether it’s right when we upload, we truly appreciate you making Lockdown Magic part of your day every day. Be one of our Orlando Magic dailies and listen five days a week. Season’s right around the corner. Next week is the last full week without any new magic content or coverage or anything else. Training camp starts one week from Tuesday. Get in the habit now. That’s what training camp is for. Sign up, subscribe, wherever you download podcast. It’s all part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. A lot of things about the Orlando Magic’s future are completely settled. Halo Vancer’s got a five-year extension that starts next season. Fron Vagner and Jaylen Suggs start their extension, their four-year extensions this season. Desmond Baitton is under contract for three more seasons. In fact, even Wendell Carter starts a three-year extension next season as well. There’s a lot that feels very settled about the Orlando Magic and their lineup. And yet we know Paulo Beno and France Vagner are quarterstone players, allstar level players that the Magic aren’t going to let go or do anything with. They’re there. They’re going to stay there. Desmond Bane is the shiny new toy, the player that they acquire. Jaylen Suggs is the head of the snake on defense. That’s four of your five starters. And as many of you who listen to the show probably know, there is a lot of questions about Wendell Carter. And so the center position for the Orlando Magic is one where there is tons of depth. They have three players who are flawed, who are not perfect, but are capable rotation level players in the NBA that do something that is so valuable to this Orlando match. If you could just combine them into one center, you’d have an allstar. But three players who still have to prove themselves and get over the hump. Three players that still feel like it leaves the center spot with a lot of questions. If the Magic have another big trade in them, if the Magic have another move or what that next move is, at least for their starting lineup, because I think the bench could be spruced up a little bit too. Center is the next spot under the spotlight. It’s the next position under the spotlight. And a lot of that has to do with whether Wendell Carter can reach the levels of consistency that he was at two years ago, two even three years ago. Before the Magic really started to establish themselves as a winning team, Wendo Carter was one of the centerpiece players, averaging 15 points per game in 2022 and 15.2 points per game in 2023. That dipped to 11 points per game in an injury-filled 2024 season. And last year, despite accomplishing one of his goals and playing the most games he’s played in his career and the most consecutive games that he has played in his career, played about he played 50 some odd games in a row. He played 68 total. Wendo Carter had perhaps his worst offensive season of his career. In fact, not possibly. He did. Career low 9.1 points per game. 49.8% effective field goal percentage. Worst since his rookie year. Shot 23.4% 4% from three, 46% from the floor, his worst in his career. Sure, as players grow and and new players come in, you’re your your role changes, too. Wendell Carter is the fifth option in this offense. Orlando does not need Wendell Carter to be a dominant scorer like they may have two, three years ago, but they need him to be reliable enough as a shooter to be a threat. Just like so many other players, and we’re going to get to Jonathan Isaac and get to some of these other players next week, but like so many other players last year especially, the offense just wasn’t good enough. Now, like so many other players or his defense was good enough to make him valuable. In fact, for as poorly as Wendell Carter played throughout the season, he was the only player besides Paulo and Fron to average double figures in the playoffs. Now, I’m not saying go right home about it. He averaged 10.2 points and 10.8 rebounds per game in the playoffs. Shot 52 and a half% from a floor on eight field goal attempts per game. Still just 27.3% from three. His playoff series showed that he could up his game, that he could be this double double threat for the Magic and maybe not space the floor out to three-point line, but be a weapon for them. And that’s all the Magic need. You see, Wendo Carter is still the foundation of this defense. What makes this Magic defense work is that you don’t know what kind of defense they’re going to play. The principles are mostly the same. Keep players on the perimeter. Guard your yard. Don’t give up threes. Pound and be physical with anyone that tries to get in the paint. Make make them pay for trying to drive to the paint. And Wendo Carter’s ability to switch comfortably onto wings, onto perimeter players, and be a multiple defender on that end allows the Magic to be that much more unpredictable on defense. allows him to do different things. Wendo Carter is no flash and I think that’s what gets at people a lot of times. Look, again, he had a bad season last year. He didn’t have a great offensive season. I thought he was fine defensively, but he did not have a great offensive season. He’s got to make enough shots to keep defenses on us. And he’s and essentially he’s got to make enough threes because he’s not a big enough threat around the basket to draw people in to to suck people in. He doesn’t have that kind of gravity on rolls because he’s not a vertical spacer, a concept that I’ve talked a little bit about where he’s just going to play below the rim. But Wendo Carter is also not going to make a lot of mistakes. Wendo Carter is not going to be in the wrong spot or do the wrong thing. He’s not going to put your defense in a compromising position. He’s going to be where you need him to be. And that and that is still supremely valuable and that is still vital for the Magic and their ultimate success. I won’t say that the whole season hinges on window Carter. There’s a lot of things the season hinges on. We’ll get to Paulo and France next week. They’re the stars. You know, Desmond Bane being a quality shooter, Jaylen Suggs being a quality shooter, Anthony Black stepping up and improving off the bench. But Wendo Carrer is a big piece. As constructed, the Magic are a team that can win a first round playoff series, but that’s not the goal. The goal is to win the championship, to get to the finals, to go deeper into the playoffs. And for the Magic to do that, Wendell Carter has to be the backbone of this defense. Jaylen Suggs might be the head of the snake. Wendell Carter is the backbone. And if you know anything about snake anatomy, it’s the head and the and the backbone. That’s that that’s literally it. That’s the only part of the skeletal system. That’s who Wendell Carter is. That’s who the Magic need Wendell Carter to be. And he’s proven time and time again that he can do that on defense. And so if with a little extra spacing, with a summer, a healthy summer, which he didn’t have last summer, to get better, to get himself right, to get back to where he was even 2024 when he shot 37.4% on 3.1 three-point attempts per game, that’s all the magic need. 35% from three on three attempts per game from Wendell Carter is going to be enough to make centers think twice about leaving him because he does so many other things well. He can be a great rebounder. 7.2 rebounds per game last year. Again, double double average double double in the playoffs. He can be a great rebounder. He can be a great passer. I still think he is a vastly underrated passer from the high post. He can do all of these things. And if he’s able to be that foundation at the center position, a a lot of questions go away. And again, we’ll see what it looks like in the playoffs. I think the playoffs are ultimately where we find out if Wendell Carter is the guy. And last year, he looked like it. Did did it, you know, Jaylen Brown got him a few times, but huge part of the Magic’s defensive strategy to switch Wendell Carter on Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum and make them go one-on-one and eliminate the three-point shooting. That strategy largely worked. Again, I Boston made a ton of mid-range shots on a ton of shots the Magic wanted them to make and then ultimately won the series because they got enough transition opportunities where they were able to get their threes that the Magic couldn’t match. Wendo Corner was huge in making that series feel more competitive than it was perhaps. Now the Magic need that every night on both ends. If they have that, they have their foundation. But like I said, the Magic have an embarrassment of riches at the center position. Let’s talk about what to expect from Gogabat and then Mo Vagner coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at Open Phone. 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Open phone, no missed calls, no missed customers. We have talked a lot about Goa Batate. Like Georgia had an incredible run through Eurob basket, got to the quarterfinals. We went pretty deep into where Goa’s at and and what might develop and we’ll we’ll go into some of it here in a minute, but I want to start with what Goa does that really few other players on this roster can do. Go Matadier is a vertical spacer and you heard me say that in the last segment talk about Wendell Carter. I you know we talk about spacing a lot in terms of three-point shooting and that’s big. you know, having defenders take a step away from the paint because they have to worry about three-point line. That creates driving lanes, that creates space. But another element is this is a three-dimensional world. It isn’t just X and Y. There’s a Z-axis on this thing. And what the Magic lack are guys who really play above the rim lob threats. Your typical Tyson Chandler type dive down the rim, Dwight Howard type dive down the rim, and you got to worry about them throwing the ball over your head and him just cleaning up at the basket. There is definitely a part of of the there’s definitely a part of me that thinks this is ultimately what’s going to hold the Magic back. that when you get to the playoffs, you just need to be able to throw the ball up and let your center go get it. We all remember the Valoop uh with DeAndre Aton. Sometimes you just need an athletic big that can just finish and throw down on guys and the Magic don’t really have that really. The only guy that does that is Goget and that’s among the many reasons that Goa is super valuable. Now, a lot of people would say no, well Goget is this excellent rim protector and look, he’s a great shot blocker. gets one, two blocks per game. Give him the playing time, he’s got to block some shots. He’s he’s a he’s an instinctual blocker. He’ll chase some blocks, which is one of my criticisms of him. Actually, I want to see more discipline. I’d rather see you contest a shot, rebound, then necessarily block a shot all the time. Sometimes you need to block a shot, but but you don’t want to be out of position doing it. Um, and in in fact, in reality though, like the Magic actually one of the best teams at blocking shots last year. I think they were first or second in the league in block shots per game. And Goa is a part of that. Obviously, but it isn’t just the center position. What you know, the Magic are very, everybody does everything for this magic, but Goat does something that no one else on this Magic team does. He is a shot blocker. He is a dunker, a rimroller, someone who’s going to crash hard to the basket and finish on a lob. And that makes him valuable because every time the Magic need an emergency center to step in and start games because Wendell Carter has his injury history just whatever it is, he gets hurt. And hopefully last year was a good sign that Wendell Carter is going to be able to play 70 75 games, but there’s still going to be 10, 12, 11 games that you’re going to need Goa to step in. The question has been, can go be consistent? And that was a big thing that we banged on throughout the course of Euro Basket. And look, he was largely consistent for the Georgian national team, but there are just still these little pockets where his emotions get the better of him, where he is chasing blocks and out of position, where he just isn’t where this team needs him to be. And ultimately what’s going to make success when you’re dealing with playoff series, when you’re dealing with deeper, the deeper you go in the playoffs, the more important small details are because the margin between the one and the two seed in a seven game playoff series is extremely small. It it it’s extremely tiny. And if you want to be in the game late, you can’t make little mistakes throughout the course of the game. And again, each game’s going to be different and and all that. Well, we we we’ll get there in a few months. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. We will get there. Goat is a rotation level big. He should not be the third center on the Orlando Magic. He should be a backup center somewhere or a spot starter somewhere in this league. And again, he starts when Wendell Carter’s out. He is too good for the role the Magic play him in. Plain and simple. He has earned more opportunity, but Goa has to prove he can do more. And that’s one of the reasons why Eurob basket was both a warning sign, but also a a a clear signal that yes, he is going to do more. Dogs took 27 threes all of last season. He took 22 in seven games at Eurob or six games in Euro Basket and he shot them pretty well. So if Gogat has added a three-point shot, not that you want to get rid of his his crashing or or his diving to the rim, but all of a sudden now he is a more dynamic offensive player. One of the problems with Kogat is he was just not a threat outside of the paint. Yes, you had to worry about him crashing the lane or diving through the lane, but with the Magic’s poor shooting, you’re collapsing the paint anyway. You have a lot of bodies to commit to the paint. if you got to worry a little bit about him making shots, that changes the geometry on the court. And so, like with so many things with the center position, it’s about how do these pieces come together? Like, we know Wendell Carter has the tools. We know that he can be a solid three-point shooter for a big. We know he can be a great rebounder. We know he’s a great positional defender. It’s being healthy. It’s making no shots. It’s making good on the talent. That’s always been the window Carter story. And Goa Bat has the same deal. We know and can see the talent. We see so many flashes of it. When he gets consistent playing time, he delivers numbers. He is going to rack up stats whether you want him to or not. He’s going to gobble up offensive rebounds, get put backs, be a scavenger. It’s expanding his game and finding consistency. It’s finding that base to grow from that that that high level, that high floor to grow from. And that’s one of the things Goabat has to show this year because until Mo Vagner comes back, again, that will likely be in December. Until Mo Vagner comes back, that’s his spot. He is the backup center. He is going to play and he’s going to get ample opportunity to show us that he’s ready to fill the spot. He’s ready to not only just provide depth, but be a player for this team. It’s going to be really hard for the Magic not to play all three of their bigs, just plain and simple. And I’m going to explain here in a little bit why I think that’s going to be the case. But goat is that good. The question then is how good will Movagner be? Let’s remind you what Movager does coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to my friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. FanDuel makes every game more exciting. Whether you’re watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup, it’s quick, easy, and the best way to add a little more energy to your Sundays. So, are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanuel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com to place your first $5 bets. Mo Vagner has been very much out of sight, out of mind. I mean, credit to France. Uh, I loved that he wore Moe’s jersey when he picked up the trophy uh to be part of the All-Star 5 uh at Euro Basket. I love that he was wearing the jersey throughout the entire postgame. it it was meaningful to to represent his brother and represent a teammate not just with the club team obviously but with the national team that this is an extremely close national team. The German national team is a team and that’s that’s one of the reasons why they’re so good and one of the reasons why they won. Uh Mo is of course on the broadcast with Magenta Sport in um in Germany. You could you could see the emotion from him about about winning that tournament like he was so happy for his guys. But Mo Vagner is at a little bit of a crossroads. It’s not just that he signed a one-year deal and has to kind of prove himself all over again. That’s that’s a big piece of this. It’s he’s coming back from a pretty major injury. And while ACL tears aren’t what they used to be. They’re are very recoverable injuries, by all accounts, it sounds like Bo is able to do everything. It’s just the clearance to get to contact now. So maybe he’ll be back by Thanksgiving. I don’t know. We’ll find we’ll we’ll get an update on that at media day for sure. That that’s going to be one of the things that we certainly ask is like just where where he’s at, what he’s doing, you know, when does he think he’ll be back? He’ll probably avoid the timeline question, but ACL tears are not what they used to be. It is still a major injury. And like the going thought that I’ve always had is that it takes a year to come back and a year to get back to where you were. So, in all likelihood, we are going to see a Mo Vagner that is not 100%. Not Mo Vagner. But is it important to remember what he does? Last year, he averaged a career-high 12.9 points per game, career-high 4.9 rebounds per game, shot 36% from three. That was also a careerhigh. Shot 56.2% 2% from the floor on just 8.3 field goal attempts per game. As Jamal Mosley has often joked, he falls out of bed scoring 10 points. And when we talk about guys who do stuff that no one else on the roster can do, Mo Vagner is just a bucket. He is he is just going to make shots. He’s going to be in the right spots. He’s gonna the ball’s going to find him. He’s clever in the post. He he makes great post moves. He’s a great three-point shooter for big. He He runs the floor hard. He takes charges. He understands his weaknesses and is able to work around them. It’s really incredible how good Mo Vagner has become and how how important how big he has been for this team. form a team that relies so heavily on its bench and maybe they’ll rely less on it now that they have more scoring in their starting lineup that for a team that relies so heavily on its bench Mo Vagner’s scoring ability is truly a lift. I I’ve cited this stat often but before Mo Vagner’s injury the Magic were fifth in the league in bench scoring. They were fourth in 2024. After Mo Vagner’s injury they were 21st. There’s a difference of about seven points per game. doesn’t feel like a huge difference, but for a Magic team that struggles to score, getting points anywhere they could mattered. And losing an offensive player like Mo Vagner mattered. Now, we don’t know what Mo’s going to look like. Like, it’s at the end of the day, we got to see Mo on the floor and and he’s got to get on the floor and the Magic got to give him opportunities to get healthy and give him opportunities to play. And that might lead to some hiccups and some bad games here and there because it’s a major injury. It’s it’s a hard injury to come back from. But Mo Vagner is going to be there and he’s you don’t lose that instinct to score. You just got to find the ability and confidence again. And we know Mo is a confident guy. He’s a realistic guy. They need his attitude and his swagger out on the floor. He’s just so about his team. He he has a big role to play this season. And as you can tell, the Magic have three rotation level bigs. They have an embarrassment of riches at the center position. And figuring out how to manage this is going to be one of the big challenges. And that’s not even including Jonathan Isaac who will spend some time at center throughout the year. That’s not even including Paulo Beno who with the shooting the Magic now have they could easily run some small ball five lineups. Now, I would argue the Magic actually need to go the other way. That with teams like Cleveland, with Jared Allen and Evan Mobley, with New York probably gonna try a Mitchell Robinson, Carl Anthony Towns lineup, with Oklahoma City with Isaiah Hartenstein and Jed Holgrren, the Magic are going to have to try and are going to have to play Goa, Betad, Wendell Carter lineups together or Wendell Carter, Movager. I I I would venture more toward Betaz Carter um just for defense sake. They’re going to have to experiment and try these lineups at some point in the season. Mark this down. Mark 2611 into this episode. Mark it down that I said this is going to happen. It’s going to happen. They’re going to try this lineup and you’re going to get annoyed by it. And I’m going to tell you when it happens, no, no, no. They need to work on this. They could need it in the playoffs. It could be a vital lineup for them in the playoffs. But they have the depth to do it. They have the talent. They have the players to do it. And the question will be who’s going to step up. I think that’s the biggest thing among this center group is we see the talent. It may not be top end talent. It’s not where the Magic are investing their money. There’s clear talent and ability in these three. There’s reason to believe in this group. And again, the salary cap may say like, “Hey, you can’t keep this group together. It’s a luxury to have three rotation level bigs. You’re going to have to make a sacrifice somewhere.” That that’s where the cap crunch is going to come in in the next few years. But you can see what they can do. And so the center position to me has this spotlight, but it is far from the weak link. It is far from a weakness. It it it contains three players who can play a role that can elevate this team. If the Magic are successful this year, obviously it’ll be about Powell and France. Obviously, it’ll be about Bane and Sucks, but it will also be about how well the Magic man the center position. And if they tend to struggle or or if they falter in the playoffs, I can guarantee or they don’t perform to the expectation in the playoffs, I can guarantee you success or failure, they’re going to look at the center position and say that’s where this season was won or lost. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. Of course, find me on Twitter, Philip RR_OMD, and on Blue Sky, Philip RR. can subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast tune in H Google Play Spotify Odyssey and all the fun places you download podcast to your podcast enable device you can find us on YouTube as well just search for locked on magic for the latest on the Orlando Magic be sure to check out Orlando MagagicDaily.com you can find us on Twitter omagic daily and for even more Orlando Magic content be sure to check out my Patreon page Orlando Magicub at patreon.comlando magagicub as always thank you for your support now that you’re done listening the lockdown magic. Be sure to go look at the lockdown NBA top 100. It is here. Voted on by the NBA hosts of the Lockdown podcast network. Our top 100 was formed by experts that cover these teams and players every day. Find the full list on Lockdown Sports Today in YouTube on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. You go check out my reaction to the list. That was last Wednesday as well as last Tuesday when I spoke with Cukahill of Locked on Pistons to do the Paulo versus Cade debate. You can check that out in our archives. Be sure to check out the NBA Top 100 as well. It’s all part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. That’s going to do it for me today though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. We’ll be back again next week, our final week before the season officially tips off. Or not officially tips off, but before we get to media day and fresh Orlando Magic content every single day. Not that we we we’re going to stop doing every day, but we’ll get through we’ll get to our count our countdown to camp next week. Monday we will hit the stars Paulo and France. What to expect from them next year. We’ll get to that on Monday. But until then, have a great weekend everyone for Orlando Magic Daily and Locked on Magic. This has been Philip Rossman Reich. We’ll see you again next time for another episode of Locked On Magic.

Orlando Magic’s center position takes center stage as Wendell Carter, Goga Bitadze and Moe Wagner all have proven themselves capable but with something to prove this coming season.

Carter has proven himself vital to the Magic’s defensive foundation. But he struggled last year on offense as the Magic need to find shooting to improve.

Bitadze has proven himself a solid fill-in starter, but he is looking for more consistency to take advantage of all of his talents. And Wagner is a walking basket. But he is recovering from a major injury.

The Magic’s season might hinge on their center rotation. Can they unlock their potential this season?

0:00 Intro: Magic’s center position in focus
5:45 Wendell Carter’s playoff performance and defense
14:29 Goga Bitadze’s unique skills as vertical spacer
24:48 Moe Wagner’s scoring ability and injury recovery

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