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Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner is out indefinitely with a torn right oblique suffered during his team’s 102-94 road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
It’s a devastating blow for the Magic, who have already been without All-Star Paolo Banchero for all but the first five regular-season games due to a torn right oblique.
Wagner has enjoyed a phenomenal season, helping the 16-9 Magic sit third in the Eastern Conference thanks to his 24.4 points, 5.7 assists, 5.6 rebounds per game. He had averaged 31.7 points per game over his last three contests.
He and Banchero were one of the NBA’s best duos in the early going, as the 2022 No. 1 overall pick had 29.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists in his five games.
Banchero doesn’t have a timeline for a return quite yet, but he did offer some encouraging updates on Dec. 1, per Mason Williams of Magic on SI.
“I’m feeling good, man,” Banchero said. “I finally got to do some court stuff on this trip at practice – some ball handling, some spot shooting. It felt really good just to do that stuff again because I literally hadn’t done anything in a month. It was my first time really getting to dribble a ball, shoot a ball, so [it] felt really good doing that.
“Obviously wasn’t any sprinting or cutting or anything, but hopefully in the next few weeks, I can start getting into more of that and just work my way back into playing shape,” Banchero added.
In the interim, the Magic will need to play without both of their star forwards, which is a tall task for a team whose offensive production revolves around those two.
Jalen Suggs (15.5 PPG), Moe Wagner (12.8 PPG), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (8.3 PPG) and Anthony Black (8.0 PPG) will certainly be called upon to provide more offensive production. The same goes for rookie Tristan Da Silva (7.1 PPG), who has been starting in place of Banchero. Jett Howard is also an obvious candidate to see more playing time.
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