Orlando Magic: 2018-19 player grade for Evan Fournier
By Luke Duffy
Weaknesses
Evan Fournier is supposed to provide some firepower and yet he only scored more than 30 points once in the whole campaign. This game in the third game of the season, a one-point loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in which he had 31.
Nikola Vucevic was the primary option and many of the plays were called for him, but part of Fournier’s job is to fill in around him.
His aforementioned 3-point shooting wasn’t where it should have been, while his Player Efficiency Rating (league average 15) of 12.3 only highlighted more that he was not helping the organization in all the ways that he was supposed to.
Having the third-highest usage rate of Orlando Magic players who played 15 games or more with 22.1 percent only makes his PER number look worse.
In fact, only once in Fournier’s seven year career has his PER been above league average. That was 2017-18, when he posted a 15.5.
All of this points towards a player who fades in and out of games and who can have an impact from time to time but which cannot be relied upon to always close out tight games for the Magic.
Defensively Fournier actually made some modest improvements, and both he and head coach Steve Clifford deserve some credit for that. Playing alongside Gordon, Isaac and Birch helps as well.
Still, the 108.4 the Magic had when Fournier was on the court was the lowest number since his first campaign in Orlando, although the Magic were better on the season as a whole (107.6).
During the playoffs he, like so many others, went missing as he averaged 12.4 points and 2 assists in their five games first round series against the Toronto Raptors. Fournier also shot an unsightly 24.6 percent from deep, while also shooting 40 percent from the free-throw line.
Offense is where Fournier is meant to make a difference, and he was exposed badly in the playoffs.
The Raptors were an elite defensive team, but with the Magic hoping to make getting back to the postseason a regular occurrence, it was alarming how quickly Fournier was found out and taken out of the game as a result of an opponent’s game planning.
He didn’t change up his approach, instead retreating into himself as his game suffered massively.