Franz Wagner works because he can be placed anywhere and in any role.
Need him to take over and be the top scorer? He is an efficient pick and roll player who can get downhill and score at the rim.
Need him to be a cutter and slasher? Wagner thrives sliding into gaps and cutting to the rim to finish at the basket.
The one role that Wagner has not played very much is "point guard" in the Orlando Magic's often positionless alignment. The team's unique makeup is that it has two ball-handling forwards. But Wagner has often not been the primary playmaker.
Paolo Banchero was the one who looked more like a point guard, bringing the ball up and initiating actions. Part of Banchero's struggles is that he always had to use his dribble outside the 3-point arc to start the Magic's basic sets.
That will still happen. But the Orlando Magic's preseason debut, a 122-118 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, saw Franz Wagner take on that role. And the Magic's offense seemed to open with Wagner as the main initiator.
Wagner tallied seven assists in 14.5 minutes in the first half. The Magic had a 157.1 offensive rating with Wagner on the floor in that debut game.
It is just a preseason game, and the first one at that, but it was an intriguing and positive sign for an offense that has often looked stuck.
"That's just what he does," Tristan da Silva said after Wednesday's win. "The way that he plays and skill set that he has allows him to be a threat at all times and attack the paint at all times. Whether that is from long range, the mid-range or from short distance, he is a guy the defense has to collapse to. Franz is somebody who is really patient in the paint and makes the right decisions there. It makes everybody else's life way easier."
Wagner has always been able to do everything for the Magic. That part is not new. He is someone who can hold the team together with his versatility.
Featuring him as a playmaker could change a lot of things. And that is something the Magic have rarely seen.
Who has the ball?
The biggest question facing the Orlando Magic was just how differently Sean Sweeney would use his key players. What different context would he put them in?
The Magic needed the players who stirred the drink to be their engines. In Wednesday's preseason opener, both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner took over as passers to lead the team, totaling 12 assists combined (do not sleep on Banchero's five assists in the first half, too).
Passing was definitely an emphasis for the team. Sweeney wanted his star players moving quickly and getting downhill and whipping the ball out to the perimeter quickly. The Magic took 45 3-pointers (making 20, for good measure).
It was not merely the assists they racked up, but how they got them.
Under Jamahl Mosley, the team would often have Paolo Banchero bring the ball up. He averaged 5.2 assists per game and built a reputation as an improving playmaker. But that often meant Banchero was dominating the ball and slowing the offense down.
Putting it in Wagner's hands leveraged his playmaking and decision-making in some new ways.
Wagner averaged 3.3 assists per game last year and 4.7 assists per game in 2025. In the games Banchero missed last year, he averaged 3.9 assists per game. In 2025, he averaged 6.3 assists per game.
To put that role in perspective, Wagner averaged only 48.9 touches per game, according to data from Second Spectrum. That was fourth on the team behind Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane and Anthony Black.
Wagner was third in frontcourt touches with 30.8 per game. Wagner was simply not a point guard.
In the 2025 season, Wagner ranked second on the team with 62.8 touches per game and 36.6 frontcourt touches per game. The injury likely took the ball out of Wagner's hands.
That likely depressed some of his playmaking. Wagner has a career average of 3.6 assists per game. He hit 4.7 assists per game last year, the only time he was above 4.0 assists per game.
Wagner had seven assists in the preseason opener. He has hit that mark just once last year (the home win over the New York Knicks in late November) and 11 times in the 2025 season.
The Magic never gave Wagner this kind of primacy and control. Wednesday was a sign they could. And they could see its effects.
The effect of point Franz
Franz Wagner is clearly capable of being a primary creator and playmaker. It is just about opportunity.
If the Orlando Magic are going to have an egalitarian approach to the point guard position, Wagner should have a bigger role in it. The Magic should spread that responsibility around.
But putting the ball in Wagner's hands had another impact: It gets Paolo Banchero the ball on the move and uses him more effectively as a screener and cutter, another thing Banchero was not asked to do very much.
Banchero and Wagner both went 2-for-7 in Wednesday's game. They were not particularly asked to score. Everyone knows that will come.
But how Banchero got his shots -- and to the line for 10 free throw attempts -- was completely different. He was moving quicker and making quicker decisions. He had his pivot foot to set things up. He did not have to give up his dribble.
Both Banchero and Wagner settled into some over-dribbling iso play. But even those were much quicker. There was a much more aggressive and intensive way that the team attacked the game.
Sharing that ball-handling duty spreads that responsibility and makes everyone better.
Wagner is more capable of leading that charge than he has shown so far in his career. If there is one thing that looks and feels different through one preseason game under Sweeney, it is this.
The Magic will find balance -- Desmond Bane hardly touched the ball, making all three of his 3-pointers and Jalen Suggs did not play. The Magic will initiate more with Banchero at some point during this preseason too.
But as an initial experiment, the Magic certainly raised some eyebrows of what Wagner is capable of doing. And what that can do for the Magic.
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