Orlando Magic not giving up on sought-after center ahead of offseason trade market

The bulk of the Orlando Magic's offseason is over.

The team spent its cap room and added to its roster—or maintained much of its roster. They feel confident in their continuity and the additions they have made. Summer League is whetting the appetite for young players and what they can bring to the team.

But the Magic have mostly finished their work. Their roster feels pretty set, even if it remains fairly familiar. They believe they have positioned themselves to foster internal growth and at least maintain their place in the Eastern Conference.

Of course, until the season begins, the offseason is not over. Everyone can recognize the Magic did not address every issue they face and that they still have work to do to improve the roster. There are teams around the league that still have work to do.

But Orlando seems set to go into the season with the roster they have, despite others trying to disrupt the continuity the Magic have built.

There are a lot of questions still to answer—both within the Magic's roster and around the league. For Orlando, a lot of those questions still center on Wendell Carter. For now, the Magic seem set to stick with the big man. But the noise is starting to grow.

Wendell Carter is at the center of the NBA's post-free agency trade market

As the post-free agency trade market begins to form, Wendell Carter's name has been at the heart of a lot of teams' wishlists.

Sean Deveney of Heavy quoted one executive who said the Los Angeles Lakers (who did not make any additions this offseason after finishing in the 7-seed in the Western Conference) should target a player like Carter despite his "red flags."

There are a lot of sites who want to try to swap D'Angelo Russell for Wendell Carter, even though the Orlando Magic seemingly passed on Russell in free agency (Russell ended up opting in rather than testing the free agent market, a likely sign he was not going to get the money he thought he would).

Even the Magic have openly acknowledged that teams have inquired about Carter. Jeff Weltman spoke to SiriusXM NBA Radio on Friday during the Magic's Summer League opener and lauded Carter for being the team's backbone before saying that, of course, other teams would be interested.

The Magic are probably not looking to trade Carter before their season begins.

This was a very weak center market in free agency and has left a lot of teams scrambling to fill their center positions—the New Orleans Pelicans are relying on rookie Yves Missi or veteran Daniel Theis, for example. And the trade market also seems to have an absence of big men—Lauri Markkanen may be the biggest player on the market, but Brook Lopez is also perhaps lurking around.

The Magic have questions at a position of need throughout the league. But they also have plenty of reasons to believe in Carter and stick with him. His value is not likely to decrease and his value to the team is still abundantly clear.

Wendell Carter faces a lot of questions after an injury-filled 2024 season

Undoubtedly, the 2024 season was a difficult one for Wendell Carter. There was no getting around that.

He averaged only 11.0 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game, both lows since joining the Magic during the 2021 season. He still was impressive shooting 52.5 percent from the floor and 37.4 percent from three on 3.1 attempts per game.

In the first playoff series of his career, he averaged only 7.6 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game while shooting just 40.4 percent from the floor. He dealt with back spasms late in the season and the decision to bring him off the bench in Games 1 and 2 was filled with controversy.

Injuries have been a story throughout Carter's career. He appeared in only 55 games last season and has eclipsed 60 games just once in his career.

It was not just the back spasms late in the season that may have slowed him down in the playoffs.

The injury that slowed him down in the 2024 season was a broken hand he suffered in the first weeks of the season. He missed 21 games with the hand injury. After the season ended, he acknowledged he came back too quickly from the injury, wanting to join the team in its playoff push. Carter had surgery on the hand in November and then had a second surgery on it after the season ended.

The rough 2024 season for Carter and thinking about what kinds of centers succeed in the playoffs put him in the spotlight. It puts him in the spotlight heading into the 2025 season.

With Orlando signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency, locking up Franz Wagner on a max extension and preparing to sign likely extensions for Jalen Suggs and Paolo Banchero within the next year, Wendell Carter is the only starter whose future is not secured (he has two years left on his deal).

There are a lot of fair questions to ask about Carter.

The Orlando Magic still have plenty of reason to believe in Wendell Carter

The Orlando Magic do not seem likely to be making a move before the offseason. President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman has spoken glowingly about the team's continuity as one of the team's superpowers. He has valued that as part of the team's growth and process.

Wendell Carter will be the starting center for the team on opening night assuming everyone is healthy. And Carter is more than capable of handling that role.

Carter averaged 15.0 points per game and 15.2 points per game in his first two full seasons with Orlando. His ability to spread the floor and step out comfortably to the 3-point line or his free-throw line jumpers gives the team tremendous spacing considering the team's lack of shooting on the perimeter.

Having a center who can pop to the perimeter does give the Magic's drivers more space to attack in pick and rolls. Last year, the Magic scored only 1.03 points per possession on pick and rolls where Carter was the ball handler. But in 2023, the Magic averaged 1.11 points per possession in pick and rolls.

He averaged 4.1 assist screens per 75 possessions, according to Basketball Index, placing him in the 88th percentile. Weltman is right in many ways that Carter is the backbone of the team who does a lot of little things that do not always show up on the stat sheet.

Carter is not a player who puts a ton of pressure on the rim. Carter still shot 69.1 percent within five feet last year with 42.6 percent of his field goal attempts coming that close to the basket. In 2023, Carter shot 75.4 percent from within five feet with 39.2 percent of his shots coming in that range.

Undoubtedly, the hand injury played a factor in his ability to finish and catch around the basket. But the criticism that he is not active around the rim is at least partially untrue.

As is his defense. Even last year when he took a step back, opponents shot just 58.4 percent at the rim against him. Opponents shot 3.10 percentage points worse at the rim than expected according to Basketball Index.

It might be easy for the Magic to dismiss his struggles then as a product of his injuries. They still have a lot to believe in. But it is now on Carter to step up and be the center the team needs to continue growing.

Carter is in the spotlight as much as any player. Orlando again covered itself for his injuries by retaining Goga Bitadze and maintaining the team's center rotation from last year. The league, as a whole, still sees value in Carter otherwise there would not be any trade discussion about him.

The Magic though still have plenty of reason to hang onto him. Most of all his skills as a shooter and defender fit perfectly with this team. They just need him to be healthy and see how he stands up to the Playoff tests ahead.

The Magic are not and should not be giving up on Carter any time soon.