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Fultz4thewin

2016-2017 Season Discussion Thread

By Fultz4thewin, in Orlando Magic Forum

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The Neighborhood Bully    266

The Neighborhood Bully
Posted
Fournier plays his best basketball in situations where he’s catching the ball, usually on a kick out to the wing or arc, and being able to choose how he’s going to attack his man. If the rotating defender gives Fournier the space to put the ball on the floor he’ll do this and dribble right by his man for easy points, or a chance to kick it right back to the corner. However, play too far off Fournier and he’ll destroy opponents from deep. He’s gotten so incredibly good at attacking the rotating defender, and his numbers have increased as a result.

 

Funny enough, Fournier’s greatest strength also happens to be his biggest weakness. When you play him exclusively in this role as someone meant to attack the weak side, and take advantage of the rotating defender he’s incredible. The problem is when you start getting him more involved with the main offense, where he’s shown a tendency to struggle. Orlando liked to give Fournier the ball in late game situations, and when tasked with creating for himself or others with an entire defense focused on him it led to many contested shots. Fournier is very good at creating offense for himself in certain situations, but when it comes to creating for other players he’s not reliable. He’s not going to be another point guard on the floor for Orlando, and if they ask him to do that he is going to fail.

 

Where most people can’t agree on Fournier is his ability as a defender. Nobody expects him to shut down the opposing team’s greatest scorer, but the eye test usually says that he’s at least passable. However, in the midst of Orlando’s awful defense last season, Fournier was a notable weak spot and the Magic actually gave up 106.8 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor. Compare this to the 100.8 when he was off the floor and that’s a noticeable difference. However, lineup information is very context driven information and it could be as simple as Fournier played a lot of his minutes with other bad defenders. With Frank Vogel taking over as coach, and a jump in defense to be expected, we should finally know our answer on how capable a defender Fournier is.

 

If he can improve then that defense may be Fournier’s saving grace this season, because his offense is likely to take a hit. With Victor Oladipo and Tobias Harris gone, Fournier remains one of the few creators left on the team, and it’s unlikely the Magic gave him that contract to stay in the same role he’s played so far. Fournier is going to start, and they’re going to be feeding him the ball quite a lot on offense out of necessity. Just imagine, at some point this year Orlando is going to run out a lineup of Elfrid Payton-Evan Fournier-Aaron Gordon-Serge Ibaka-Bismack Biyombo and they’re going to ask Fournier to be the perimeter scorer for them. That is dangerous. The sample size we have now tells us that this is not the proper role for him. He’s still young, and there is potential for improvement, but this could end up being a good player in a bad situation.

http://fansided.com/...ashing-the-pot/

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Fultz4thewin    2,464

Fultz4thewin
Posted

He's an good solid option B and or C.

 

yeah, it's really big flaw.

 

Fournier can get buckets but he has trouble as a primary option and we could be in trouble late in games trying to run the offense through him because he doesn't create for others. Need Payton to be capable this year.

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Magicman28    295

Magicman28
Posted

yeah, it's really big flaw.

 

Fournier can get buckets but he has trouble as a primary option and we could be in trouble late in games trying to run the offense through him because he doesn't create for others. Need Payton to be capable this year.

 

Could use Mario as well. He just has to keep working on his game and reintroduce himself to that confidence he had when we drafted him.

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The Neighborhood Bully    266

The Neighborhood Bully
Posted
3. What is the Magic's primary cause for concern?

 

Thorpe: On the court we have to wonder how they will score. Ibaka must be a consistent 3-point threat both in accuracy and volume. I'm not convinced that will work out well. Hiring Vogel checked one big box for me. What identit ys this franchise going for? Vogel will help them play with elite-level toughness and a strong defensive plan. But the roster isn't a great fit for that -- yet.

 

Pelton: Whether Elfrid Payton can take the next step in his development. While Payton made a little progress on offense last season, he was worse overall than he was as a rookie. Scott Skiles clearly didn't believe that Payton was Orlando's point guard of the future. I'm more optimistic given how late players tend to develop at the position.

 

Engelmann: Spacing. By dealing Channing Frye (last season) and Oladipo, the Magic lost two of their best three 3-point shooters. Ibaka takes 3s, but made only 32.6 percent of them last season, and Gordon made 29.6 percent. Payton and Biyombo aren't shooters at all. You get the picture.

 

Doolittle: I think the Magic can absorb the wayward shooting of Payton or Gordon; I'm not sure they can absorb that from both. It's a lot more problematic for Payton as a point guard and I see no signs that he's going to improve to the point that he can be a starting lead guard in the NBA, which means the Magic have a potentially big hole at the most important position intoday's league.

 

Ford: Same problem -- that they are racing toward mediocrity, and that the impatience with rebuilding has led the Magic to pull the trigger on the process prematurely. I don't think the Magic are a playoff team this year, but they made moves like they were. That will likely cost them in one of the better drafts in recent memory.

http://www.espn.com/...-ibaka-more-nba

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