Last summer, the news hit like a ton of bricks around the league.
As rookie extensions started to get handed out, the league did a double-take when the Orlando Magic were quick to offer and agree to a max contract extension with Franz Wagner. There were reports of teams around the league upset with the Magic for upsetting the market and overpaying for a nice player who had yet to make an All-Star team.
After watching Wagner tear through the NBA in his fourth season in the league, the Magic believe they have made the right bet. It is clear to many that Wagner is worth every penny.
With the NBA calendar flipping from the 2025 season to the 2026 season and the beginning of free agency, the league has officially locked in the amount of that max contract.
The league set the salary cap at $154.6 million (the expected max 10 percent increase as the league begins its new TV deal), the luxury tax line at $187.9 million and the first apron at $195.9 million, all important numbers as the Magic enter free agency.
The one thing the Magic can do now is lock in Wagner's salary for the next five years. Under his max contract, he receives 25 percent of the salary cap in the first year and an eight percent raise every year after that.
It is a lot of money, but that is what you pay for a max player like Wagner.
His new contract is as follows now:
Year | Salary |
|---|---|
2025-26 | $38,661,750 |
2026-27 | $41,754,469 |
2027-28 | $45,095,065 |
2028-29 | $48,702,670 |
2029-30 | $52,598,884 |
Total | $226,817,059 |
Wagner's contract is the richest contract in Magic history. He is the first player to sign a contract that will pay him $50 million in a single season.
All of this was expected. With the league's new TV deal taking effect next season, the league anticipated the maximum 10 percent raise in the salary cap.
Franz Wagner proved he was worth every penny
The Orlando Magic are likely feeling a little bit of sticker shock. But they know Wagner is worth every penny.
Wagner had a stellar 2025 season, averaging a career-high 24.2 points per game to go with 5.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. He followed that up with 25.8 points per game, 4.8 rebounds per game and 5.6 assists per game in his second playoff series, putting aside some notable struggles in his first series in 2024.
More than the scoring average, Wagner took over games and proved he could be a leading star. He carried the team after Paolo Banchero's early season injury and would have made his first All-Star team if he had not suffered his own oblique injury and missed 20 games.
The only weakness he showed was his mysterious shooting woes that saw him shoot 28.1 and 29.5 percent in the last two seasons after solid showings in his first two years.
The Magic were confident enough to go after a player like Desmond Bane and be aggressive with their payroll and spending because they got this confirmation that Wagner is a star.
Orlando is going to go deep into the second apron in the 2027 season when Paolo Banchero's extension kicks in -- he, too, will get a max contract. But the team feels it is on the verge of competing for a championship and worth paying the tax and suffering those penalties to build an elite team around Banchero and Wagner.
The Magic have their max guy and their superstar players. Wagner proved all those doubts about his extension were worth it last season.
Now that price is locked in.
Salary cap uncertainty remains
The only downside comes with the report from Bobby Marks of ESPN that the league is projecting a moderate seven-percent increase in the salary cap next season. That changes some of the math for the team.
The first year of the contract is locked in at 25 percent of the cap. But many around the league expected the maximum 10 percent increase in the salary cap because of the new TV deal to take effect, meaning the cap would increase faster than the maximum eight percent raises on player contracts.
The second year of Franz Wagner's contract will now take up a projected 25.2 percent of the cap in 2027. It would have been 24.6 percent with a 10 percent increase.
That may not matter much in 2027 when the Magic are expected to be above the second apron when Paolo Banchero's extension kicks in. But it will matter further on as the Magic try to maneuver around the aprons and the cap to add players in the future.
Those were likely concerns the Magic understood and considered as they negotiated the contract.
But clearly they valued Wagner as a cornerstone piece of the team. As they deal with the consequences of their payroll down the line, the Magic know they have their star player locked up.
They have zero regrets and are happy to pay their best players.