{"id":589146,"date":"2026-02-07T22:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589146\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:07:14","slug":"jevon-carter-explains-decision-to-sign-with-orlando-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589146\/","title":{"rendered":"Jevon Carter explains decision to sign with Orlando Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, the day of the NBA<\/a> trade deadline, Jevon Carter<\/a> received a phone call from his agent.<\/p>\n

Carter, who was waived by the Bulls on Feb. 1, was told the Magic<\/a> were \u201cvery interested\u201d in him.<\/p>\n

Things moved quickly after that for the free-agent guard.<\/p>\n

On Friday he signed with Orlando<\/a> and by Saturday morning he was inside the AdventHealth Training Center<\/a> for shootaround, hours before the Magic hosted the Jazz at Kia Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a like a no-brainer for me,\u201d Carter said about his decision to join the Magic for the final 32 games of the regular season. \u201cThey wanted me. I like to go where I\u2019m wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalking to Jeff (Weltman), he still remembered my pre-draft work out that I did here back in 2018,\u201d Carter added. \u201cSo, he was excited to have me, and I\u2019m excited to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weltman, the team\u2019s president of basketball operations, had said Friday<\/a> the Magic would look to add a veteran-type player to their locker room after the franchise sent guard Tyus Jones<\/a> to Charlotte ahead of Thursday\u2019s deadline (Jones was later moved by the Hornets and sent to Dallas).<\/p>\n

Carter is in the middle of his eighth season in the league and has built up a reputation\u00a0 as a tough defender around the perimeter, while still shooting accurately from distance on the other end.<\/p>\n

In 23 games this season with Chicago, he averaged 5.4 points and 1.1 rebounds during 11.1 minutes per contest, while shooting 41% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Opposing players have shot almost a full percentage-point worse (minus-0.9%) from 3-point range with Carter as the closest defender, according to NBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll have a hard time fitting in with Orlando, which often relies on forcing defensive stops to power its offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey play together,\u201d Carter said about the Magic. \u201cYou can tell it\u2019s a good group, that they gel well together and they take pride on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be able to just plug right in and just do what I do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

So what does Carter do when he\u2019s at his best?<\/p>\n

\u201cDefense,\u201d he said. \u201cPressuring the ball, making it tough on you and knocking down shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was music to the ears of Magic coach Jamahl Mosley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching Jevon over the years, just his level of toughness, professionalism \u2026 Defensively, he is a tenacious defender,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cHe pushes his teammates. And his ability to knock shots down as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose things are the key pieces that he brings to the table for us,\u201d Mosley added.<\/p>\n

Carter perked up when he was asked about his new coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly how I thought he was going to be,\u201d Carter said of his first impressions of Mosley. \u201cLike, tough-nose. The film session was a little tough. I was like, \u2018Yeah, this is the type of stuff I miss.\u2019 You know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my type of energy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Magic hope he matches that energy on the court throughout the final stretch of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Orlando was 2.5 games back of No. 6 Philadelphia entering Saturday\u2019s slate of contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m that guy you just plug in to just to try to pick up energy, making shots, picking up full (court) \u2026 Whatever you need me to do,\u201d Carter said. \u201cEvery game could be different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just ready whenever my name\u2019s called.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Bucks<\/p>\n

When: 7:30 p.m., Monday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV: Peacock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, the day of the NBA trade deadline, Jevon Carter received a phone call from his agent.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-589146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116031628641819726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}