The Orlando Magic have managed to fill another offseason need by re-signing Evan Fournier to a five-year deal worth $85 million. Add this to trade for Serge Ibaka and other moves, and the Orlando Magic are ready to make some noise.
The Orlando Magic have been active at the start of the free agency period. Adding to their trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder of Ersan Ilyasova and Victor Oladipo for Serge Ibaka, they have made a couple of other moves which solidify their long-term plans.
Their most important move of the offseason is agreeing with Evan Fournier on a five-year, $85 million contract, per Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated.
The swingman has been in the league for four years already and is only 23.
What Fournier has done in those four years is quite impressive. He has increased his scoring average every season, and not by a small amount either. His first two seasons were with the Denver Nuggets and in those seasons he averaged 5.3 and 8.4 points per game.
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Then Denver made one of those decisions that will haunt them. They traded Fournier to the Magic with Devyn Marble for Arron Afflalo.
Since coming to the Magic, Fournier has averaged 12.0 points and 15.4 points per game. In four years Fournier has increased his scoring average more than 10 points per game. This is fantastic growth.
I can see Fournier continuing this growth for the next couple of years. He had a fantastic start to the season averaging 21.4 points over the first 14 games.
He slowed down for a period in the middle of the season. If Fournier can be more consistent throughout the year, he will help Orlando take the step back into the playoffs.
Fournier has a tremendous shooting percentage for a player in his position, going 46 percent from the field. His three-point percentage was also excellent at 40 percent.
With the addition of Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic, this should space the floor even more for Fournier to go to work. Opposing teams have to respect the ex-Oklahoma City forward’s shooting ability.
Fournier gives the Magic the ability to play wither big or small ball, depending on the team that they are playing against. He is quite a good defender on both small forwards and shooting guards.
When the Orlando Magic traded Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons, they had many people scratching their heads including myself.
I now see that they see Fournier as their franchise player. Time will tell if they were right but I can’t see much wrong with their choice considering they were able to add Ibaka with some of the pieces of that trade.
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The Orlando Magic are ready to make some noise, the rest of the NBA had better be listening.