Evan Fournier named to initial France Eurobasket roster
Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier has been named to France’s initial Eurobasket roster for this summer’s FIBA competition.
Evan Fournier has been named to the preliminary roster for Team France for this summer’s Eurobasket. NBA players Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Gobert, Alexis Ajinca, Kevin Seraphin and Ian Mahinmi are also part of the preliminary roster. Other notables on the roster include Nando de Colo, Florent Pietrus (Mickael Pietrus‘ brother) and Mickel Gelabale.
Eurobasket will take place September 5-20 in four countries across Central Europe, including France. The final will take place in Lille, France on September 20.
France are the defending Eurobasket champions after winning this major competition in 2013. They followed that up with a third place finish at the FIBA World Cup last summer in Spain.
Even with Parker and Diaw getting older, it seems like France is entering a golden age of basketball. As you can see in the stacked preliminary roster above, France has a ton of talented players making major contributions in the NBA.
Fournier is one of those.
Coming off of last season where he averaged a career-high 12.0 points per game with consistent playing time from the Magic, Fournier should be hoping to make a bigger contribution to his national team.
At last year’s FIBA World Cup, Fournier played 14.9 minutes per game, scoring 6.9 points per game and shooting a 45.2 percent effective field goal percentage. It was Fournier’s first appearance on the senior national team for his country.
With the added confidence from this season, Fournier could be poised for a bigger role. Of course, he will be fighting for playing time with plenty of experienced veterans of the international game. This should not be Fournier’s last opportunity to play for his country and play meaningful minutes.
These games would also mark Fournier’s first major playing time since his late-season core injury. Fournier missed all but two games in the final month of the season thanks to that injury, despite his desire to come back and finish the season on the floor.
Fournier said after the season ended, he would receive a cortisone shot a few days later and hopefully be able to work his way back to basketball activities. As you can tell by his social media accounts, he is still out and about in Orlando early on this offseason.
It is all but certain Fournier will play for his national team late this summer and play in some meaningful games as France tries to defend its Eurobasket title.
Andrew Nicholson should also be taking on international duty this summer too. He participated in Canada’s European tour last year, since the team fell short of the FIBA World Cup. The FIBA Americas Tournament will take place in Mexico beginning August 25.
It is expected Andrew Wiggins will join the Canadian national team this summer too as the team hopes to make the Olympics in 2016.
Nicholson has historically done pretty well for his national team. The FIBA game fits his style a little bit better. Even with Canada getting stacked with talent — including Kelly Olynyk and Tristan Thompson likely playing this summer — expect Nicholson to be competitive for minutes and participate this summer.
Montenegro did not qualify for Eurobasket and so Nikola Vucevic will not have international duty this summer.
h/t Project Spurs