{"id":19045,"date":"2025-05-08T17:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T17:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/19045\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T17:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T17:21:09","slug":"magic-notes-kcp-f-wagner-suggs-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/19045\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Notes: KCP, F. Wagner, Suggs, Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After converting 40.3% of his three-point attempts from 2019-24, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/caldwke01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-08_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> struggled with his shot in his first season with the Magic, making just 34.2% of his outside looks \u2014 the third-lowest mark of his career.<\/p>\n<p>Caldwell-Pope, who signed a three-year, $66MM contract with the Magic last offseason, conceded his shooting wasn\u2019t up to par in 2024\/25, according to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2025\/05\/06\/kentavious-caldwell-pope-orlando-magic-kcp-jeff-weltman-jamahl-mosley\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot as I expected for my performance,\u201d Caldwell-Pope said. \u201cI finished a little solid, but shooting-wise that could be a lot better. That goes into a lot. I thought my season was pretty good despite everything we\u2019ve been through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Beede notes, injuries to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/banchpa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-08_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Paolo Banchero<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wagnefr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-08_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Franz Wagner<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/suggsja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-08_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jalen Suggs<\/a>, among others, made it difficult for Caldwell-Pope to consistently find the types of looks he likes, particularly since he was playing with new teammates. The veteran shooting guard won\u2019t have to worry about free agency this summer, so he plans to spend more time in the gym honing his craft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like I was a little bit more stagnant this year as far as not moving to get open or find open windows to be able to get those shots,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, just this summer, getting more attempts at the rim and being able to just shoot all summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s more on the Magic:<\/p>\n<p>Despite tearing a right abdominal muscle, which cost him 20 games, Franz Wagner posted career-best counting stats in \u201924\/25 and likely would have been an All-Star for the first time had he not been injured, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2025\/05\/03\/orlando-magic-franz-wagner-moe-wagner-paolo-banchero-jeff-weltman-nba-playoffs-jamahl-mosley\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Beede writes for The Orlando Sentinel<\/a>. \u201cI was put into a little bit of a new spot when Paolo went out and looking back on it, I handled it pretty well,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cI was pleased with how I was playing then. For me, the injury was at a terrible time because I felt like we were rolling as a team. But that\u2019s how it goes sometimes. I handled it well \u2014 the injury and the rehab stuff. I played a decent second half of season, got better at a couple of things and also saw a couple of things I need to improve on.\u201d<br \/>\nSuggs, who has dealt with numerous injuries over the course of his four NBA seasons, was limited to a career-low 35 games in \u201924\/25 due to back, quad and knee injuries. He recently discussed a number of topics at his end-of-season media availability, including his approach to the game and how his rehab is going, as <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2025\/05\/05\/orlando-magic-jalen-suggs-jeff-weltman-nba-playoffs-jamahl-mosley\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Beede<\/a> relays.<br \/>\nLike many members of the Magic, big man <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cartewe01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-08_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wendell Carter<\/a> struggled with his long-range shot this season. After making 35.1% of his threes over the previous three seasons, he made just 23.4% in \u201924\/25. He said rediscovering his outside touch will be a high priority this offseason (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2025\/05\/07\/wendell-carter-jr-orlando-magic-paolo-banchero-moe-wagner-goga-bitadze-nba-playoffs-jamahl-mosley\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">story via Beede<\/a>). \u201cBecome that knockdown shooter I was a year or two ago, and be in the best shape of my life,\u201d Carter said of his plans for the summer. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of goals I have for myself going into this next season \u2026 [including] being able to play as many games as possible, but also being at the top of my game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After converting 40.3% of his three-point attempts from 2019-24, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope struggled with his shot in his first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,403,461,865,48,6,47,76,3883,862],"class_list":{"0":"post-19045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-franz-wagner","10":"tag-jalen-suggs","11":"tag-kentavious-caldwell-pope","12":"tag-magic","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-magic","16":"tag-orlandomagic","17":"tag-wendell-carter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114473368560203504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}