Franz Wagner and Germany are setting to make history Sunday.
Germany is in the EuroBasket final for the first time since 2005 and will be aiming for their first EuroBasket title since 1993. They are also going for a rare double of being EuroBasket champions while also being World Cup champions.
Wagner's run with the German national team over the last four years has been nothing short of astounding — a bronze medal at the 2022 EuroBasket, a gold medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup and a fourth-place finish at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Wagner has achieved considerable success with his national team. But it has undoubtedly been a big boon for him early in his career.
With his national team, he has taken on an increasingly larger role that has only given him confidence heading back to the Orlando Magic and the NBA season, even with the short turnaround time typical between FIBA tournaments and the start of training camp.
Wagner has come back from international tournaments better and gotten off to strong starts after his summer playing for the national team.
That should have Magic fans very excited. Especially considering Wagner is again playing in high-pressure games and leading Germany to another medal in an international tournament. That has helped him grow each year.
The proof is in the numbers.
Franz has used FIBA play to preview his regular season
Franz Wagner had a breakout rookie season, averaging 15.2 points per game. He took the team a bit by surprise, especially since everyone considered Jalen Suggs the more likely star prospect for the team after their rookie year.
It was encouraging to see Wagner play this well. But nobody knew what his ceiling was -- having the first overall pick would seemingly force reconsideration throughout the roster.
Then Wagner went to EuroBasket and averaged 15.4 points per game to help Germany win a shocking bronze medal. In that tournament run was a 32-point game in a group play game against Lithuania. He still looked like a young player, but Wagner made a statement.
Wagner came back to the Magic and scored 18.6 points per game. In his first 20 games, he averaged 19.5 points per game and shot 50.0 percent from the floor (just 30.0 percent from three before recovering the rest of the season).
The tournament helped Wagner hit the ground running. And it was the same after he made a clear star turn in his World Cup appearance for Germany in 2023.
Wagner averaged just 16.8 points per game in the World Cup. His numbers were depressed by an ankle injury he suffered in the first game. He returned in the knockout rounds and had 22 in the semifinal win over the U.S. and 19 in the final against Serbia.
He returned to the Magic with not just a gold medal but even better as a player as his scoring continued to increase -- to 19.7 points per game. In the first 20 games of that season, Wagner averaged 20.7 points per game. He came back with much more confidence and ready to take on a bigger role.
That was certainly the case after last summer's Olympics too.
Wagner truly emerged as a potential All-Star with his showing at the Olympics, including a 26-point showing in the group play game against France. That created the iconic dunk over Victor Wembanyama.
Wagner was sixth in scoring for the tournament with 18.5 points per game. And he clearly carried that over into last season when he averaged 24.2 points per game and took on a more featured role after Paolo Banchero's early-season injury.
Wagner was going to get better naturally as a young player. But he came to the season ready to play and ready to go.
After averaging 21.1 points per game entering the championship game, what does Wagner have in store for this coming season? There are loads of expectations.
The FIBA bump is a real thing
There are always concerns about players getting hurt playing these intense basketball games right before the start of the season. There is always a risk for injury whenever anyone steps onto the court.
There have been a few injuries already in this tournament -- LA Clippers guard Bogdan Bogdanovic is out with a potentially major injury and Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly is having surgery on a torn thumb ligament.
That is a risk no matter what kind of basketball you are playing. But there is a real benefit to playing in these tournaments.
Coach Steve Clifford was always excited to have his players play in these FIBA tournaments believing it brought them to training camp sharper and ready to hit the ground running. They did not need to get into gameshape or use camp to be in season mode.
They are already playing at a high level.
The best example was before the 2020 season.
Coming off the breakthrough into the Playoffs in the 2019 season, Fournier averaged a career-best 19.8 points per game in the 2019 World Cup.
Fournier ended up averaging a career-high 18.5 points per game in the 2020 season. He had 19.8 points per game and shot 44.7 percent from three in the first 20 games of the season.
More recently, Paolo Banchero learned a lot from his run at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. He averaged only 9.3 points per game coming off the bench as the team's backup center.
But he came back and made his first All-Star Game averaging 22.6 points per game. He scored 19.5 points per game in his first 20 games. It was a good experience for him, even if he was not playing the same role he would in the NBA.
There is plenty of evidence that playing FIBA basketball is a boost. And Franz Wagner has only gotten better and better with each trip to the FIBA courts.
If this tournament is a sign of anything, it is that Wagner is going to be ready to hit the ground running when the season begins.