2018-19 Orlando Magic Player Evaluations: Evan Fournier

The Orlando Magic rely upon Evan Fournier for his floor spacing and shooting. While other parts of his game rose, his shooting never came around.

Evan Fournier is an easy target.

He was the guy the Orlando Magic chose to re-sign in the same summer they traded Victor Oladipo. It was presented as an either/or choice for a lot of fans — this site guilty of that narrative too — and Evan Fournier eventually took the brunt of the criticism.

He was never quite enough, it seemed. Fournier’s scoring went up with each season, an unbroken chain showing he was getting better, but his team’s win total floundered. It felt like the Magic were always in trouble if Fournier was their primary perimeter scorer.

But that was the role they always asked him to play. Fournier would have to keep improving on other parts of his game and keep up his relatively efficient shooting. That would deliver the kind of play the Magic need.

It was a bit of a contradiction then that Fournier had his worst season in a Magic uniform, struggling with his 3-point shooting all year, yet the team thrived and made the playoffs. The Magic put the ball in his hands a bit more to use him as a playmaker and found other areas where his game expanded.

But on that most important piece, Fournier struggled. It was beyond his explanation. He recognized he struggled and fought for new ways to contribute to the team. He did in a lot of ways. But he could never solve his shooting woes.

His defense was better than it has ever been, drawing praise from coach Steve Clifford. Fournier may not have been the best defender but he was better.

He was also a better passer and playmaker, adding that new dimension to his game. The Magic could rely on him to contribute in a lot of different ways throughout the season.

Fournier was the Magic’s best clutch playmaker too. He hit several shots late in the game that delivered key wins for the team and seemed to be cathartic for him during a sometimes rough season.

But everything eventually came back to his shooting. Fournier’s primary role throughout his career with Orlando was to be a shooter. He was the Magic’s most reliable and dependable outside shooter throughout his time with the team. And that was what became most unreliable this season.

It put a pall on his season. A season that saw him and his team accomplish the thing they had been fighting for so long for.

The Good and the Bad

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/20/2019.

Evan Fournier statistically had perhaps his worst season in an Orlando Magic uniform.

For the first time in his career, he did not increase his scoring average from the previous year. He shot a career-worst 34.0 percent from beyond the arc. The one thing he was supposed to give the Magic was that outside shooting presence, and that is where he struggled most.

Fournier tried to explain it throughout the season, but could come up with little reason for why his shot just seemed to be off.

This was most present during the playoffs. Fournier’s struggles were one of the big reasons that series with the Toronto Raptors was so lopsided. He made only 8 of 34 3-pointers (23.5 percent), including just 1 for 8 performance in Game 3. It was hard to say many of those looks were bad looks too. Those are shots the team expects Fournier to make.

If Fournier makes one or two of those 3-pointers, the Magic almost certainly win that game and force a sixth game in the series (and take a 2-1 series lead). Orlando needed someone to hit some outside shots to loosen the defense and give Nikola Vucevic more room to operate. Everyone looked a bit hesitant and Fournier’s poor shooting only increased that hesitancy.

Everything with Fournier has to start with his shooting because that is his primary role. He had some good stretches throughout the season where he was able to hit shots and get himself going.

The season was not a complete loss for him though.

Evan Fournier was a better defender and someone Steve Clifford came to trust on that end. Maybe not as the primary defender on the best players in the league, but he held his own.

He did a good job defending James Harden — or at least containing his impact — in two close games against the Houston Rockets. The idea of Fournier guarding someone like Harden was probably a nightmare in previous years. But the Magic obviously benefited from the efforts.

According to Basketball-Reference, Fournier had a career-best 2.5 defensive win shares and -1.1 defensive box plus-minus. He may not have been a positive defensive player — and playing with the best defensive team of his career certainly helped boost his numbers — but he was clearly improving and able to contribute in spots.

The Magic had a 107.7 defensive rating with Fournier on the floor, slightly above their season average. So Fournier’s defensive impact is certainly only by comparison to the rest of his career.

The promising part of Fournier’s game was his playmaking and passing. Fournier developed a bit of a reputation of searching for his own shot too much. Indeed, there are still moments where it feels like Fournier takes a “my turn” approach to his shot selection.

But adding some passing and playmaking helped boost his value through his shooting struggles. He averaged a career-high 3.6 assists per game. And that helped get the team moving, especially as Fournier worked more off the ball. Orlando put the ball in his hands a lot in the half court especially with the second units he played with.

That all helped blunt the effects of his poor shooting. But clearly, it was not a good season for Fournier. Or not everything the Magic hoped it would be from Fournier.

Best Game of 2019

Jan. 21 at Hawks: 29 points, 7 assists, 9/18 FGs, 3/6 3FGs

Whenever the Orlando Magic needed to fix any problems they had, the Atlanta Hawks always seemed to be the ones to fix those issues. Orlando outscored Atlanta by 20.2 points per game in their four meetings, winning by no less than 10 points in any of the four meetings.

Each game seemed to be one better performance than the last — even that 10-point win saw the Magic hold the potent Hawks to 91 points.

For Fournier, the Magic’s first meeting with the Hawks was exactly what he needed. A game that broke him momentarily from his funk while still maintaining the added playmaking that began to characterize his game.

It was also big that he got better as the game went along and as the Magic took control of the game.

Fournier struggled early in the game, especially with turnovers. He was falling into the same struggles that had made his season so difficult. He was trying a bit too hard.

Fournier let go of a lot of that as the game went on. He got hot and into one of those zones he has gotten into throughout his career. Fournier will just go on massive scoring binges. That was the threat that seemed to be missing from Fournier throughout the season. He just could not get hot.

Not for long stretches.

The game against the Hawks was one of the few times he was able to get hot and get things going in the right direction. It was one of the few games where Fournier had his rhythm working and looked like the Fournier the team had relied on.

2020 Outlook

Evan Fournier’s struggles throughout the 2019 season made his contract feel weighty for the first time in his career. He was productive and largely in the ways the Orlando Magic wanted that at least made his $17-million contract seem palatable. It did not feel completely overwhelming.

Now that Orlando has tasted success and is looking for ways to improve the roster without sacrificing its young players, Fournier feels like a bit of weight on the team. Especially if he is not able to surpass this past season.

Fournier has two more years left on his contract at $17 million. The second year is a player option, but there seems little chance he will pass on that option at this point.

Any major deal involving the Magic trying to get better likely involves using Fournier. He is probably the rotation player the Magic would be most willing to let go in a deal.

That feels far too reductive, but that feels like the truth. Any deal that fans can concoct probably starts with offering Fournier over anyone else.

That probably also means any deal that fans really want to pursue probably will not happen. That means the whole league knows the Magic’s desire to move on or move in a different direction and look for improvements. It will be tough to create any cap relief that way anyway.

It is hard to reduce a player only to his contract. That is the worst part of the league.

The reality is that Fournier had a down year. It was a season that seemed like an outlier for him. And so there is no reason to believe he cannot still right the ship and become the shooter the Magic have relied upon for so long.

Evan Fournier’s role may have to change some — especially if Nikola Vucevic departs in free agency. The Magic need Fournier at a baseline to be a better shooter. The kind of shooter the team relied on for several years before.

If he does that, his efficiency will increase and the team will be a lot better.

Final Grade

Evan Fournier was not a complete loss this season. He showed steady improvement with his defense and his passing throughout the year. He found other ways to contribute to the game that helped the Orlando Magic win in the end.

That was an important expansion to his game.

It might be overstated though. He was still a player who searched for his own shot a bit too much, sometimes bringing the game to a halt.

And his defensive improvements went from negative to slightly below average. It was not like Fournier suddenly became a strong defender. He was simply passable.

Those are important steps that should not be completely lost. If Fournier continues with these trends he will be a better player for the Magic. Someone who may not feel as weighty as the team looks to improve and take its next steps — and, yes, move on to the new generation of the team.

But the bottom line with Fournier is that his one main job is to be a shooter. The team absolutely needs him to make shots and spread the floor. His reputation helped spread the floor anyway. But when it came time for him to hit shots in big moments, he was inconsistent.

A Fournier shooting as he normally does in the regular season certainly makes the Magic a higher seed. In the playoffs, it might have won them one more game. Orlando was at a point where results mattered more than the process.

Fournier was getting all the normal shots and looks he has gotten for much of the last four years. But he was just missing them. Quite simply he was missing shots he has to make and normally makes.

Fournier consistently recognized this issue and could not come up with a good explanation. It was just a strange season on that front for him for that reason.

The question left for Fournier is whether he can maintain the improvements he made in other parts of his game and bring back the shooting the team has relied on for so long. And then figure out exactly what that player can do and add to this team.