Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Evan Fournier

The Good and the Bad

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/18/2015.

The Good: Offensive versatility.

Early on Fournier showed he clearly has what it takes to score at the NBA level. While Fournier is a good catch and shoot threat (39.7 percent on catch and shoot 3’s), his most valuable offensive trait is his driving ability. Fournier shot 45.7 percent on drives, scoring 3.3 points per game on about five drives per game and generating 5.9 points per game for his team off those drives, according to NBA.com.

Fournier showed himself to have a somewhat poor man’s Manu Ginobli drive game. Fournier gets to the rim with ease thanks to his ball handling and unexpected first step, however once Fournier gets to the rim it can be a struggle. Fournier does not possess anywhere near the vision or creativity that Ginobli has and thus ends up with some low-quality looks at the rim.

That said Fournier attacking the rim is Fournier at his best because breaking down the defense even for the simple pass (which Fournier is adept at making) is better than settling for a bad jumper.

The Bad: Well I sort of already mentioned part of the bad. Fournier can make some puzzling decisions on his drives to the rim. The biggest area of improvement Fournier will need to make is the consistency of his jumper.

While Fournier was a solid three-point shooter last year his mid-range game was abysmal (31 percent from mid-range).

In addition to improving on the offensive end, Fournier needs to improve his man-to-man defense. While Fournier appears to understand defensive schemes and play well off the ball, he is not much of a defender on the ball.

Fournier has the ability to be a very useful bench player for the Magic for a long time but he will have to carve out that role by being a consistent scorer.

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