After a turbulent season with high expectations ended in another first-round playoff loss, the Orlando Magic’s offseason is in full effect, and the full body of work from their best players can be properly evaluated after 91 games between the regular season, the NBA Play-In Tournament, and the playoffs.

Recently, Law Murray of The Athletic took the time to rank the NBA’s top-100 players based on four tiers and sub-tiers within them (labeled A-E). In those rankings, each of the Magic’s core players in Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs were all ranked according to Murray’s view of their respective seasons.

My role in this is to provide Magic fans, especially those who do not subscribe to The Athletic, the ranking Murray assigns to each player, as well as what I agree with and what I also disagree with based on my coverage of the team throughout the season. I have already reviewed Murray’s rankings of Banchero and Bane while providing my thoughts and analysis, and next up is Wagner.

Wagner falls into the 3C tier of Murray’s list alongside Bane, which is a rather dramatic drop off from his previous 3A placement in the 2025 rankings. 

Mostly, Wagner’s decline in Murray’s rankings was a result of his incredibly limited availability. Between lingering ankle troubles due to a high sprain suffered against the New York Knicks on Dec. 7 and trouble with his calf, Wagner was limited to just 34 regular season games, and a calf strain suffered in Game 4 of Orlando’s first-round series against the Detroit Pistons served as a defining blow for the Magic they would not recover from en route to letting a 3-1 lead fall apart.

Murray also takes the time to acknowledge Wagner’s improvement as a catch-and-shoot perimeter threat after he went from 29.3% on such shots in 2024-25 to 37.8% in 2025-26, but he still criticized Wagner for what he called "bouts of unsightly shooting."

Wagner missed significant time in 2024-25 when he suffered a torn oblique, but even with the extended absence, he still tallied 60 games and produced a top-10 scoring average in the playoffs. Missing 26 more games during the 2025-26 campaign is quite a precipitous drop in availability, and his numbers suffered because of it. 

I cannot fault Murray for viewing Wagner’s season through this lens because he is not wrong; the statistics don’t lie. However, more credit could have been given to Wagner for his defensive presence, especially in the playoffs.

A critical key to Orlando’s success that allowed it to jump out to a 3-1 lead against the Pistons was Wagner’s ability to defend, especially against Cade Cunningham. 

When Wagner was the primary defender on Cunningham, he held him to 17 total points on 6-for-24 shooting from the field and 3-for-16 from 3-point range, according to ESPN’s tracking. Overall, Wagner held the Pistons to 35.8% shooting, according to NBA.com.

While I believe Wagner’s defense deserves more flowers, Murray’s analysis was short and to the point. Wagner did not provide much more than flashes to go off of due to his health, and it will be worth watching if he can avoid the injury bug during the 2026-27 season and bounce back.

Don't miss out on our ROUNDTABLE community and the latest news!

It's completely free to join. Share your thoughts, engage with our Roundtable writers, and chat with fellow members.

Download the free Roundtable APP, and stay even more connected!

For additional coverage, subscribe to our Full Court Magic Podcast!