Orlando Magic: Is Evan Fournier Improving?

The Orlando Magic need Evan Fournier to become a real leader for them next season, but is he living up to his considerable contract?

With the Orlando Magic continuing to find new and more frustrating ways to lose games, attentions have turned to the performances of certain individuals on the team.

More specifically how the players who are supposed to be central to the Magic turning this thing around are improving with each game.

Wednesday’s loss at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder may have been a painful one, but winning isn’t the goal at this stage either.

With draft positioning to jostle for, a competitive overtime defeat in an entertaining game against Russell Westbrook and the Thunder is about as good as it gets.

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There were positives to take though, and they included Bismack Biyombo morphing into his playoff form from last season in the first half.

He scored 12 points and had 11 rebounds, but had already posted 10 and nine by halftime.

Evan Fournier also had himself a nice game, leading the team in scoring with 24 points, while adding six rebounds and five assists.

It was the kind of performance the team needs to see more of from Fournier, but has he actually improved all that much this season?

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Remember, Fournier was given a big contract during the summer and is expected to be central to the Magic’s hopes of returning to the postseason next year.

But should fans be worried that this is as good as they can expect from the fifth year player, or is the best yet to come?

Worth mentioning before examining if Fournier will ever get any better is that he is still only 24 years old.

This is also only his second season as a full-time starter, but even that run has been hampered by injury.

Fournier has never completed a full season (but then again who does these days?) and his five-year, $85 million deal isn’t eye-watering in today’s NBA.

But for $17 million a season, fans are right to expect an offensively gifted player who can lead this team and Fournier does at least tick one of those boxes.

He’s averaging career-highs in points (16.9), rebounds (3.2) and assists (3.0) per game. Those basic numbers alone are encouraging.

He’s doing this while shooting 5.2 three pointers a night, another career high and proof that he is adapting with the way the league has gone.

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The fact he’s shooting only 34.5 percent from three (a career low) should not be too alarming, as he’s letting it fly more than ever before.

He is also doing so on a Magic team that is sorely lacking in perimeter shooting. In fact, they’re the worst three point shooting team in the league this season (32.3 percent).

So it’s easier for opponents to close down Fournier quickly, especially if he’s sharing the court with the likes of Elfrid Payton and Biyombo.

He also leads the team in field goal attempts per game, with 13.8.

Clearly then the Magic would be in a bad way without his ever improving offensive game, and Fournier is diversifying it for the good of the team as well.

With the addition of Terrence Ross, the floor became more spaced for everybody, and took some of the pressure off Fournier.

To reflect this, he hasn’t just settled for long range efforts like you might think.

In fact, 41.3 percent of his made field goals come from between three and 10 feet from the basket.

His four free throw attempts per game (another career high) show he is taking the ball into contact more than ever before too.

The 245 free throws he’s shot so far this season is already a career high (beating out the 238 he attempted last year).

That he has made 195 of these (79.6 percent) is equally as encouraging.

About the only issue with how Fournier is playing offensively is his plus-minus in that category — 0.8 is above average, but way down on the 2.1 of last season.

But in looking at that number you need to consider Fournier’s extra responsibility versus the players he’s surrounded by.

Having a 23.6 percent usage rate (another career high) may also explain the dip in this area.

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The ball goes through him more than ever before, yet he still doesn’t average the most touches per game on this team (that would be Nikola Vucevic with 66).

Defensively he has slipped to minus-2.0 for the season (minus-1.5 last year) and his Player Efficiency Rating of 13.8 is below the league average of 15 and down from last year (14.6).

Minor details when he’s playing a team- and career-high 32.9 minutes per night and giving so much to a team that was out of playoff contention by the start of 2017.

That being said, the results may not matter now, but soon they will. Fournier is now the highest-paid player on the team (alongside Biyombo), so should we expect more?

For now he is doing all that he can, and has improved in many areas this season.

Fournier is more of a playmaker than ever before, and has added new ways to score for this team. That he is averaging career highs in many areas is even better.

So yes, we have seen real and tangible improvement from Evan Fournier this season and there’s every reason to think his productivity will continue to improve.

It would need to as well, as there will come a time when what he’s doing right now isn’t enough.

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