Orlando Magic hope to recapture the spark, keeping Michael Carter-Williams

The Orlando Magic continue to believe they can run the team back and repeat their success. They kept their spark in Michael Carter-Williams.

There was plenty of skepticism when the Orlando Magic signed Michael Carter-Williams last March.

The former rookie of the year had a lot of baggage as he struggled to match those highs and got slowly squeezed out of the Philadelphia 76ers’ future plans and started bouncing around the league. He was working at local Los Angeles gyms after the Chicago Bulls cut him.

But one of his former general managers in John Hammond gave him something of a lifeline. The Magic were in desperate need for some point guard help and Michael Carter-Williams was available and ready to play.

He only changed the tenor of the Magic’s season.

And Orlando does not want to see that go away. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports the Magic have agreed to terms with Carter-Williams on a one-year deal, keeping the former 10-day contract signee with the team next year.

After Isaiah Briscoe went down with a torn meniscus, Orlando brought Michael Carter-Williams in to play the primary backup role. He took to it immediately changing the way the Magic played and supercharging their offense.

Carter-Williams himself averaged only 5.4 points and 4.1 assists per game in 18.9 minutes per game in the 12 games he suited up. But the impact went much further than that.

Orlando had a +14.0 net rating with Carter-Williams on the floor, the highest mark for any rotation player on the roster. The Magic played at an incredible 104.4 pace (they had a 98.7 season average) and even the offense got supercharged with a 116.8 offensive rating.

The Magic talked a lot about picking up the pace and moving into their offense faster. Carter-Williams did that tremendously. Orlando went 10-2 after signing Carter-Williams.

That kind of play will not sustain. Carter-Williams still has his weaknesses especially as a shooter. The Toronto Raptors more or less ignored him on the perimeter and stunted his impact. That is easier to do in the playoffs than in the regular season.

But re-signing Carter-Williams, such a key piece to the team’s late playoff push, is in line with the other signings the Magic made.

Orlando spent the bulk of its offseason retaining its own players — agreeing to terms with Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross on four-year deals. The team seems to believe that it can replicate the results from last year. At the very least, Orlando had a fear of losing their big pieces and taking a step back.

Keeping Carter-Williams is very much in that vain.

Orlando’s free agent moves have made it clear the team hopes running it back with internal improvement will deliver a second straight trip to the playoffs. Everything within the organization seems geared toward that goal.

It will be interesting to see if Carter-Williams can recreate the spark for an 82-game season that he had with the Magic to end the season. That will obviously be a bigger sample than the 12-game sample he played in.

The point guard position for the Magic is still in plenty of flux.

Orlando has D.J. Augustin as its starter. But behind him, the team seems to be relying on Markelle Fultz to return and contribute something. At the moment, Markelle Fultz and Michael Carter-Williams would split the backup minutes.

Of course, no one outside of the Magic organization has any idea just how close Fultz is to a return to the court. The team is exhibiting extreme patience with Fultz, at least publicly. The Magic are trying to keep expectations somewhat tempered it seems.

Carter-Williams certainly operates somewhat independently of that. He is a player who has shown he can contribute pretty heavily to the team and to its culture. Carter-Williams became a necessity last year with the injury to Briscoe. Now he becomes something more like a necessity and insurance.

Orlando wants that element there. They want someone they know and feel comfortable with.

The Magic decided to roll it back. They brought in one of their best reserves to help them repeat their success.