Wendell Carter Jr. has signed a three-year, $58.7M contract extension with the Magic, Shams Charania of ESPN tweeted. The Magic confirmed the signing in a press launch.
Carter is coming into his third 12 months of a four-year, $50M contract that was frontloaded. The brand new deal will maintain him underneath contract by way of the 2028-29 season.
In keeping with ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Carter will make $18.1M in 2026-27, $19.6M in 2027-28 and $21M in 2028-29 (Twitter hyperlink). It’s essentially the most cash Carter might have obtained for a three-year extension; Carter’s 2025-26 wage is under the estimated common participant wage, so he was eligible for as much as 140 % of the typical, Keith Smith of Spotrac famous (Twitter hyperlink). Given the rising wage cap, Carter’s wage is an affordable price for a beginning middle.
The Magic now have each of their prime massive males underneath long-term offers. Franz Wagner signed a max five-year extension in July. By signing the extension at the moment, Carter can be ineligible to be traded this season, Smith added in one other tweet.
That is Carter’s seventh NBA season, however he’s nonetheless simply 25. He’s averaged 12.5 factors and eight.5 factors in 27.6 minutes by way of 315 regular-season video games. Carter has suffered a wide range of accidents all through his profession; he’s by no means appeared in additional than 62 video games.
Carter performed 55 video games final season (48 begins), averaging 11.0 factors and 6.9 rebounds in 25.6 minutes. He made his playoff debut final season, averaging 7.6 factors and 6.3 rebounds in 26.4 minutes over seven video games.
Carter underwent surgical procedure on his left hand after final season. The preventive process concerned inserting a plate on the web site of a fracture on Carter’s hand. He suffered the fracture in early November and had it surgically repaired on the time. He additionally missed some video games final season attributable to proper knee irritation.
