{"id":99993,"date":"2024-10-07T22:58:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T02:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=99993"},"modified":"2024-10-21T13:59:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:59:29","slug":"magic-former-top-10-pick-wendell-carter-jr-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/07\/magic-former-top-10-pick-wendell-carter-jr-contract-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic, Wendell Carter Jr. Agree To Contract Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Though a young team, the Orlando Magic have structure. They\u2019ve established <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/07\/kentavious-caldwell-pope-explains-why-he-signed-with-the-orlando-magic\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a defensive identity<\/a>. They\u2019ve identified <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/18\/paul-george-reveals-who-he-thinks-is-the-next-nba-star-paolo-banchero\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a pecking order<\/a> on offense. They even recognize who <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/01\/orlando-magic-remain-hopeful-to-extend-crucial-piece-jalen-suggs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">their core players<\/a> are.<\/p>\n<h2>Magic, Former Top-10 Pick Wendell Carter Jr. Agree To Contract Extension<\/h2>\n<p>Magic center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/cartewe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wendell Carter Jr.<\/a> has agreed to a three-year, $59 million contract extension, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania. The seventh overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, Carter also signed a contract extension with the franchise in Oct. 2021, just five months after being traded by the Chicago Bulls. In 315 career regular season appearances, he\u2019s averaged 12.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 0.8 blocks per game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. has agreed to a three-year, $59 million contract extension, per his agent Mike Miller of LIFT Sports Management. Carter secures his maximum extension and $82M in new deal through 2028-29 season. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7qicNLEYcg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7qicNLEYcg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1843471418031272343?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In 2023-24, Carter made a career-high 37.4 percent of his three-pointers.<\/p>\n<h3>Not Much Competition, Internally<\/h3>\n<p>A versatile and surprisingly nimble big man at 6-foot-10 and 270 pounds, Carter\u2019s main issue is that he\u2019s good in multiple areas but not elite in any of them. Nonetheless, he\u2019s been a full-time starter throughout his career. In fact, he\u2019s started in 299 of the 322 games he\u2019s played, playoffs included.<\/p>\n<p>The Magic have so much depth at center that agreeing to another contract extension with Carter so early could be confusing to some. However, in Orlando, Carter doesn\u2019t have much competition for his starting spot.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wagnemo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mo Wagner<\/a>\u2019s skill is underrated and he plays with a lot of gusto. Yet, the former first round pick doesn\u2019t have as much success as Carter at either end. It\u2019s a similar story with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bitadgo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Goga Bitadze<\/a>, though the Georgian giant is a solid shot-blocker.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/isaacjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Isaac<\/a>, who added 30 pounds over the offseason, is regarded as a forward but may be able to switch to center. At 6-foot-10, he\u2019s a vaunted defender who has made 37.8 percent of his three-point attempts the past two seasons. Still, he may not play center nominally until 2025-26.<\/p>\n<p>Wagner\u2019s contract expires at the end of the 2024-25 season. The Magic seem to like the German pivot and his relationship with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wagnefr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frank Wagner<\/a> will factor into his future with the franchise. Still, there\u2019s no guarantee that they\u2019re going to be able to re-sign him. Frankly, if the opportunity to make a splash trade and increase the team\u2019s talent level arises, M. Wagner has a pretty good chance of being part of the package.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, Carter could be part of one too. Like Wagner, he\u2019s agreed to an affordable contract that teams won\u2019t shy away from. Furthermore, teams like the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks have been linked to Carter for months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though a young team, the Orlando Magic have structure. They\u2019ve established a defensive identity. They\u2019ve identified a pecking order on offense. They even recognize who their core players are. Magic, Former Top-10 Pick Wendell Carter Jr. Agree To Contract Extension Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. has agreed to a three-year, $59 million contract extension, per [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":100000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1608,62,12,3,4721],"tags":[49021,821,1531,2802],"class_list":["post-99993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magic","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-goga-bitadze","tag-jonathan-isaac","tag-mo-wagner","tag-wendell-carter"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}