Evan Fournier reportedly seeing wrist specialist, calls season most disappointing

Evan Fournier had perhaps his best individual season of his career. But it was all for naught as he called the season the most disappointing of his career.

The 2017 season presented an opportunity for Evan Fournier. That has always been what Fournier’s presence in Orlando was all about at the end of the day. He was struggling to get minutes off the bench for the Denver Nuggets and his trade to the Orlando Magic was his first chance to play regular minutes.

Fournier would be part of the team’s growth.

He flourished in the role with the Magic and became more than a reliable role player. He became a clear starter.

Fournier’s play in his first two years with the Magic helped him earn a four-year, $85-million contract and the Magic’s trust. Orlando felt comfortable letting Victor Oladipo go in a trade because of their confidence in Fournier.

Individually this season, Fournier had his best year. He averaged a career-best 17.2 points per game, adding 3.0 assists per game. Fournier was one of the Magic’s most consistent scorers.

But things were not all good. The team struggled and Fournier was at his most inefficient playing a larger role and posting a career-high 23.5 percent usage rate. The role as primary perimeter scorer seemed to be a lot for Fournier.

So even with his individual success, the season was a massive disappointment for him because his team struggled.

Fournier told L’Equipe Magazine the season was made harder by his individual success because it did not translate to team success:

"“No, it’s harder,” Fournier said (translated by Google Translate). “It’s hard to cash in when you have high expectations as a team and it’s a completely fair. The year I got here, we knew we were rebuilding and we were not going to be good. It was not pleasant but it was part of the process. This year, we had to be good, we had to find the playoffs and in the end, it did not work.“Orlando has many talented players, but a team is not just that. We had seven new players, a new coach, we started from scratch. We had to find an identity, a rotation, our systems … The system never took. This is my most disappointing season collectively since I played in the NBA.”"

Fournier had his own issues to deal with too.

Despite his individual success, Fournier got nicked up quite a bit this season. He missed 12 games in December and January with a calf injury. He missed five games and then tried to come back but was clearly out of rhythm. Fournier admitted he came back a bit too soon from it.

After missing an additional seven games, Fournier needed some time to find some rhythm. He did not seem to pick his rhythm back up fully until March. He finished the season strong, averaging 18.4 points per game and shooting 45.8 percent from the floor and 39.1 percent from beyond the arc in the final 22 games.

He played 21 of those games as he did not fully escape the injury bug. He missed a game late in the season with what was then described as a sore wrist.

Fournier told L’Equipe he would be seeing a specialist to look at the injury. This may end up affecting his summer plans.

When asked about the potential of playing for France in Eurobasket this summer at exit interviews, Fournier declined to comment. It is unclear if he will rejoin the national team this summer.

Last year, he was openly upset about not being included on the Olympic team after he missed the qualifying tournament to settle his contract situation.

Fournier said in the interview he is not done playing for the national team. But he remains unsure if he will play this summer.

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But first Fournier has to get to the bottom of his wrist issues. And, probably more importantly, enjoy some vacation away from basketball.