{"id":527746,"date":"2026-01-10T19:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/527746\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T19:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:59:11","slug":"orlando-magic-upgrade-status-of-nba-center-moe-wagner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/527746\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic upgrade status of NBA center Moe Wagner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moe Wagner<\/a> is back.<\/p>\n

After more than a year spent rehabbing a torn ACL in his left knee, the Magic<\/a> center was upgraded to available for Sunday\u2019s game against the Pelicans at Kia Center.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wagner, a 6-foot-11 center who is the older brother of Orlando<\/a> star Franz Wagner<\/a>, last played Dec. 21, 2024. That night, he exited within 90 seconds of stepping onto the court against Miami when it became clear something was wrong after he fell to the floor.<\/p>\n

An MRI then confirmed Wagner tore the ACL in his left knee and he underwent successful surgery on Jan. 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

The return of Wagner couldn\u2019t come at a better time for Jamahl Mosley<\/a>\u2018s squad that is working to remain afloat as injuries to Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs<\/a> and other key players have piled up. After Friday\u2019s 12-point loss to Philadelphia<\/a>, Orlando had alternated between wins and losses the last 12 games.<\/p>\n

Prior to his left knee injury, Moe Wagner was in the middle of a career-year averaging personal-bests of 12.9 points on 36% shooting from beyond the arc with 4.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per night in 30 games while making a run for NBA Sixth Man of the Year.<\/p>\n

At the time of his injury, he ranked second in the NBA in points scored off the bench (372) and 15th in field goal percentage.<\/p>\n

During the 2023-24 season when Wagner played a career-high 80 games, Orlando\u2019s reserves averaged 41.5 points per game, the fourth-most in the league. This season, Orlando\u2019s reserves average 32.2 points per night, a mark that ranked 25th league-wide entering Saturday, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, Wagner\u2019s impact goes well beyond the box score, too.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the type of player teams want on their squad but get irritated to face due to his electric reactions and bullish play style. Wagner was never afraid to show how he felt and would often say he was at his best when he wore his emotions on his sleeve.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one you know you can rely on,\u201d Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday night. \u201cNot necessarily just scoring, but his energy. He comes in with great energy, always smiling, lifting up his teammates and of course, physically.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, he was one of the best guys off the bench in the whole entire league,\u201d Carter added. \u201cThat\u2019s a guy who you want on your team.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why Orlando signed him to a one-year, $5 million contract<\/a> over the summer even though he only played 30 games last season and would likely miss a portion of this year as he continued to rehab.<\/p>\n

And his recovery has been long and, at times, challenging.<\/p>\n

Only recently did Wagner rediscover the happiness of competing in the sport he loves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing really good,\u201d he said last month at a holiday event<\/a> with his brother about his recovery. \u201cI\u2019m feeling really good about where I\u2019m at, finding the joy again of playing basketball and enjoying the process a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he won\u2019t be able to solve all of Orlando\u2019s problems \u2014 the team will still miss Franz Wagner and Suggs on both ends of the court \u2014 the Magic understand what his return could mean for the group at almost the halfway mark of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to fight for you and he\u2019s going to play as hard as he probably can,\u201d Carter said about his teammate. \u201cNot saying the guy\u2019s on this team aren\u2019t doing that, but we\u2019re at Game 40. Guys are banged up, guys are tired.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding a guy like that to the fold is only going to boost us even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moe Wagner is back. After more than a year spent rehabbing a torn ACL in his left knee,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-527746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115872580544182972","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527746","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=527746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}