The availability of Michael Carter-Williams signals the start of buyout season, but should the Orlando Magic be interested?
Despite hitting a rough patch lately, the Orlando Magic have so far stayed the course this season with the roster they have in place. With good reason too, as they are not a bad team.
The problem is that the fit still feels off, with the roster being too heavy and center Nikola Vucevic being the only true consistent contributor. He’s playing like an All-Star, although it remains to be seen if he’ll actually get picked for the game.
This is a roster that looks like it has more than one trade to make before it reaches anything close to its final form, but what about buyout players? Typically these are the guys that playoff outfits and contenders snatch up right away.
The case of Michael Carter-Williams is different, however, as it is the rolling Houston Rockets who have decided to let him go. They did this on Monday, trading him to a Chicago Bulls organization the’s played for in the past in a salary cap maneuver.
He’s being waived by the Bulls before his contract is guaranteed for the rest of the season. Since winning Rookie of the Year back in 2014, Carter-Williams’ career has stalled, but is Orlando the place where it could be revived?
The obvious reasons for potentially signing Carter-Williams up are there for all to see. The Magic need depth at the point guard position, as well as a more long-term solution at the position. D.J. Augustin has been arguably the Magic’s second-best player for stretches so far this season, which tells you more about where they’re at right now than the win-loss column ever could.
As great as he’s been, he’s still better suited to being a quality backup. Jerian Grant has fallen out of the rotation altogether, with Jonathon Simmons taking his spot as the backup. It says a lot about Grant, a player on his third team in four years, that somebody who’s never played the position before has usurped him from the job halfway through the year.
Isaiah Briscoe has had tiny moments to prove himself and hasn’t done much wrong when given the opportunity, but it is clear head coach Steve Clifford doesn’t trust him to take on a bigger role. If he did, Simmons wouldn’t be running plays for the second unit.
Jonathon Simmons is really the backup point guard. And this isn't a knock on him. It's a knock on the Magic front office. Crazy how everyone knew we needed a PG and the front office ignore it anyways.
— Ant J Pierre (@_BlackMagic_5) January 6, 2019
That’s where Carter-Williams comes in. It’s not often that a team like the Magic get a chance at bringing onboard a former Rookie of the Year on what would be their own terms and for a price that would suit them.
Why not add him to the roster for a playoff run to shake things up, put Simmons back to his natural position and see what happens? They’d have no commitment to MCW beyond the summer, when guys like Vucevic and Terrence Ross could also come off the books. It’s not like any other former Rookie of the Year winners are walking through that door, as amazing as that would be.
On top of that, the potential of playing Carter-Williams with Jonathan Isaac and Mohamed Bamba is downright scary defensively. That five-man unit, with Ross and Simmons or Wesley Iwundu, would certainly struggle to score.
They might just have the worst offensive rating in the league together if Ross is having an off night, but on the other end they could be terrifying. The Magic are already an above-average defensive team (14th), and much of that has to with the play of starters like Aaron Gordon.
Aaron Gordon talks with @DanteMagic about his game high 17 points and what the @OrlandoMagic need to do on defense in the 2nd half to get the win.#PureMagic #NBA pic.twitter.com/ANdN0o5uu5
— Bally Sports Florida & Bally Sports Sun (@BallySportsFL) December 6, 2018
Imagine adding Carter-Williams to that group. Last season, the Charlotte Hornets had a defensive rating of 105.7 when he was on the court, a number closer associated with a top-seven team in this category. It would also reunite him with coach Clifford, who played him in 52 games, giving him two starts.
Of course, there’s a reason why Carter-Williams is currently unemployed, and that is because he is capable of very little offensively. The Magic aren’t a great 3-point shooting outfit as it is (17th, 34.9 percent) and Carter-Williams would be bringing zero to the table in that area.
He shot a hideous 23.7 percent from deep for the Hornets last season, although with the 3-point heavy Rockets, that number shot up to a much more respectable 36.8 percent. The caveat here being that he only went 7-for-19 from deep in Houston, which is not a huge sample size.
The Philadelphia 76ers, who drafted him, also traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks less than 12 months after winning Rookie of the Year honors. To date, he has played for five different organizations. Clearly something is causing him to constantly be moved.
Despite having deficiencies in many areas, the Magic appear to be a cohesive unit with guys who play hard for each other and don’t create a stir in the media with what they say about each other. We are reaching a critical time in their season as well, and we will learn a lot more about them by the end of this month.
There will also be other players who become available over the coming months, so there is no need to jump at the first person who happens to tick some boxes on the depth chart just because they are able to.
There’s no question the Orlando Magic need to add to their roster if they want to make the playoffs. They’ll probably have to make a trade or two as well. But Michael Carter-Williams is not the answer.
The prospect of how he could play with others on this team defensively is intriguing, but there are enough drawbacks to his game — especially offensively, as well as the nagging feeling that others have let him go for reasons unknown — to not take a chance on him.