{"id":24772,"date":"2025-05-11T06:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T06:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/24772\/"},"modified":"2025-05-11T06:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T06:29:12","slug":"magics-moe-wagner-continues-rehab-working-to-be-ready-by-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/24772\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic\u2019s Moe Wagner continues rehab, working to be ready by next season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moe Wagner<\/a> could only watch from the sidelines when younger brother Franz Wagner<\/a> and star teammate Paolo Banchero<\/a> returned to the court to help the Magic<\/a> make their way back to the playoffs and battle Boston before a second straight first-round exit.<\/p>\n

Keeping its season afloat was already tough enough for Orlando<\/a> in December without Franz Wagner and Banchero, but things took a turn for the worse when Moe Wagner tore his left ACL four days before Christmas.<\/p>\n

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And after guard Jalen Suggs<\/a> appeared in only one game following Jan. 3 because of a back injury and left knee cartilage tear, Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad had just two of its four double-digit scorers in the postseason.<\/p>\n

The quartet played just six games together in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to watch, but at the same time you have a decision,\u201d Moe Wagner said recently. \u201cYou can sulk about it and be mad, or you can take it as an opportunity to grow and learn from it, and view the game from a different perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to do that, tried to ask questions and tried to look at basketball from a different view, and I learned a lot about this group and myself, especially,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m very excited to be playing again to use that and become more professional, more equipped to [have] a successful career.\u201d<\/p>\n

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His goal is to be ready for the start of next season.<\/p>\n

But the rehab is long and taxing for the 6-11 center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of the rehab \u2014 you go day-by-day, you figure it out, but, of course, that\u2019s what I\u2019m working toward,\u201d Wagner said of next season. \u201cI\u2019m pretty positive-minded toward that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wagner didn\u2019t share specific information about the work he\u2019s done recently, but throughout the end of the regular season and the playoffs, he was seen regularly exercising in the weight room, riding a stationary bike or doing some light spot-shooting on the court.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI work every day,\u201d he said. \u201cI honestly told the people that are responsible for me that they take care of all the stuff around me and I just show up every day. So I can\u2019t really give you specific data about that. I just show up with a smile, figure it out and hope I\u2019ll be ready by the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where he\u2019ll spend next season is still to be determined.<\/p>\n

The Magic have to make a decision by June 29 about the second year of Wagner\u2019s two-year, $22 million contract that he signed last summer. If Orlando declines the club option, he\u2019ll become an unrestricted free agent but could return on a new contract.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s any indicator, Orlando declined Wagner\u2019s team option last summer for the second year of his previous two-year, $16 million deal before signing him to his current contract.<\/p>\n

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Wagner, who played on four teams the first three years of his career, has enjoyed his time in Orlando, where he\u2019s spent the last four seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019ve felt great here,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very excited to be here. I feel like I\u2019m valued here. I understand that this is a professional environment, so there are no givens. That\u2019s all I can say about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he played just 30 games (one season after appearing in 80 for the first time), Wagner was in the middle of a career-year when he went down.<\/p>\n

He averaged 12.9 points and 4.9 rebounds on 36% shooting from 3-point range, all marks that were personal bests. He scored in double figures 23 times, 20-plus points twice and 30-plus points once, including a career-high 32 points on Dec. 15 vs. New York.<\/p>\n

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The night he got hurt, Wagner was second behind only Boston\u2019s Payton Pritchard (the NBA Sixth Man of the Year) in total bench scoring up until that point of the season (448 points vs. 372), according to NBA.com<\/a>. Wagner\u2019s total rebounds (143) among bench players were seventh-most<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Orlando started the year 18-12 with Wagner and went 23-29 without him but continued to play hard regardless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of what you want to be a part of, a group like that playing hard,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been playing hard ever since we got here. That\u2019s what Moe stands for. I know that even if we didn\u2019t win, I know that nobody wants to see us. I know that playing the Orlando Magic is not a fun night and that\u2019s something we embrace. That\u2019s something we\u2019ve got to continue to work with and be confident in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our M.O. and we\u2019ll continue to do that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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The Magic know their M.O. but they missed their Moe.<\/p>\n

And the \u201cE\u201d in Moe stands for effort, something Magic fans appreciate from him.<\/p>\n

And in turn, he appreciates them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe turnover in the league is so high that being a part of something that\u2019s bigger than your individual career is very rare and something that you have to embrace and appreciate. \u2026 That\u2019s something that we have here,\u201d he said. \u201cI look in the stands every night and you kind of remind yourself on nights like the win against the Celtics or Atlanta, there were times where we won 20 games in a season here and now we\u2019re playing in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat feels really good to be part of that journey of an organization and you feel the city buzzing about basketball again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moe Wagner could only watch from the sidelines when younger brother Franz Wagner and star teammate Paolo Banchero…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[676,7,45,46,403,461,48,8163,6,5034,47,76,3883,402,405],"class_list":{"0":"post-24772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-celtics","12":"tag-franz-wagner","13":"tag-jalen-suggs","14":"tag-magic","15":"tag-moe-wagner","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-next-season","18":"tag-orlando","19":"tag-orlando-magic","20":"tag-orlandomagic","21":"tag-paolo-banchero","22":"tag-payton-pritchard"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114487791832181143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24772","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=24772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}