He stayed with the 36ers until moving to the Brian Goorjian coached South East Melbourne Magic in 1998 to replace 7'0" (213 cm) tall centre Chris Anstey who had left to join the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA. Unfortunately for Wheeler who never won a championship in his time with Adelaide (losing the 1994 GF and two semi-final series in 1991 and 1995), while the Magic made it to the 1998 Grand Final series, they were defeated 2-0 in the best of three series by none other than the Adelaide 36ers.