Orlando Magic: 3 goals for Evan Fournier in 2018-19

After finishing the 2017-18 season as the leading scorer for the Orlando Magic for a second straight season, here are three goals for Evan Fournier in 2018-19.

Evan Fournier is a confounding player. He was the Orlando Magic’s leading scorer last season and the team was -3.8 points per 100 possessions when he was on the court, which was 1.6 points per 100 possessions better than we he was off. In simple terms, Orlando was a better team when Fournier was in the lineup.

He averaged a career-high in scoring (17.8 points per game), rebounds (3.2 per game) and Player Efficiency Rating (15.6) and also shot the ball at a high clip with .459/.379/.867 shooting splits. These statistics and numbers show that Fournier is a good NBA player and valuable to the Magic franchise.

However, do the Magic improve with Fournier as their best player? Can they become a playoff team with Fournier as the No. 1 option?

In Fournier’s four seasons with the Magic, three of which he has been the primary scorer, the Magic have won a combined 114 games. They’ve posted a 114-328 record overall and an average of 28.5 wins a year. In these four seasons, Fournier has averaged 15.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists a game. That scoring average is good for second among all Magic players during this time.

Fournier has been good for the Magic and has improved every year, but it might have come at the cost of other players’ development and stunted winning.

I wrote previously  about how Fournier might be a better option for the Magic playing as a sixth man. He would be able to cook other teams’ second units and not take shots away from Aaron Gordon or Jonathan Isaac, both of whom Magic fans would probably like to see score more in 2018-19.

Fournier is playing a role he was probably never expected to in the league. He is a team’s go-to scoring option in a sixth man’s body. Yes, he is a bucket-getter, but at a high usage rate and with high shot totals.

He would probably be better suited being on a playoff team as a mid-usage player (think Eric Gordon for the Houston Rockets), but for now he is a member of the Magic and the 2018-19 season could be important season for both his future with the team and as an individual player.

Let’s take a look at three goals for Evan Fournier going into the 2018-19 campaign.