The Orlando Magic need all hands on deck if they are going to meet their goals, and they especially need Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs.
The Orlando Magic have high expectations for themselves in the 2026-27 season, and if they want to reach their potential, it is going to take a little bit of luck.
In recent seasons, the Magic have struggled mightily with the health of their best players. When one player is healthy, another goes down, and the cycle of unavailability has been detrimental to the team.
Paolo Banchero was mostly healthy last season, missing only 10 games, and Desmond Bane played all 82 regular-season games and each game in the playoffs. However, it was a brutal campaign for Franz Wagner, and Jalen Suggs missed plenty of time, too.
In the latest episode of the Full Court Magic Podcast, I talked about the importance of health for Wagner and Suggs, as well as the production of Suggs on the offensive end:
"And then you got Franz Wagner, who I cannot begin to express how important it is that Franz Wagner is not playing in Germany this summer. The Magic need him, and he needs to rest his body, right? Like, when you look at Wagner's first five years in the NBA, you saw progression; you saw very small, mind you, but 79 games played his rookie season, 80 games played his sophomore season, but the last three years have just been a decline, right? Like, he has played 72 games, 60 games, and then last year, obviously, just a brutal, brutal season for him. 34 games played, 32 starts because of that nagging high ankle sprain and, you know, just the troubles that accompanied it thereafter.
And that's not his fault, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that it's good that he's finally getting to rest his body, because the Magic need him, they need him there as Paolo's kind of 1A or a legitimate second option, because while we've seen that Desmond Bane can take over a game, and while we've seen that he can be a legitimate option within this core, you need Franz Wagner, you need your 6-foot-10 wing, All-Star caliber wing that is just dominant on both ends of the ball, because let's not forget, against the Pistons [in the playoffs], he had Cade Cunningham in jail. He was absolutely terrorizing him on the defensive end, so that's going to be important.
Another player that needs to stay healthy is Jalen Suggs, and can he be better in a playoff atmosphere than what he was last year, because, I mean, outside of a hot start in Game 1 against Detroit, he just fell apart, absolutely fell apart, and was just abysmal for this team, and they need him to be the other part of what should be a very productive backcourt, right? Like, I understand that Jalen's game, first and foremost, is predicated on defense, and that's fine, but you got to hit your shots when you take your shots, right?
It cannot all be on Desmond Bane to handle the scoring load of this backcourt, and, you know, because Bain has proven that he can have some stinkers, and that he can have some rough games, and so those are things to look for."
