Magic extend Franz Wagner with five-year, $224 million max extension.

Franz Wagner is one of the core pieces of a Magic team on the rise, one that won 47 games and was the No. 5 seed last season, so the Orlando Magic locked him up.

Wagner agreed to a five-year, $224 million max contract extension to stay with Orlando, a story broken by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and confirmed by other reports. That sum could rise to almost $270 million if Wagner makes an All-NBA team next season.

His brother, Moe Wagner — who just signed his own two-year, $22 million extension with the Magic — celebrated Franz’s signing in the most brotherly way possible.

Wagner, along with Paolo Banchero, is at the heart of the Magic’s offense and shot creation. Wagner averaged 19.7 points and 5.3 rebounds a game last season for Orlando and had seven 30+ point games. He does not space the floor but knows how to get downhill and is fierce in transition.

The Magic have played hardball, waited a year to extend Wagner and seen if they could have gotten him to take less than the max, but that’s not how a franchise treats its cornerstone players. Maxing them out is how you show respect. Wagner needs to answer that respect by growing his game, developing his 3-point shot, and proving he is a franchise cornerstone worth a max deal.