Bulls Free Agency Target: Evan Fournier
The Chicago Bulls need options on the wing. It’s like beating a dead horse, but they do. A reliable cheaper option: Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier.
When the Orlando Magic traded Arron Afflalo for Evan Fournier in the summer of 2014, the common thinking across the league was that the Denver Nuggets were making a smart improvement, reacquiring one of the league’s better shooting guards on a team-friendly deal ($7.6 million is quite a bargain for a solid starting shooting guard).
Fournier (making $1.5 million on his rookie-scale salary) was seemingly not much of a commodity at the time, having just completed his second year in the NBA, playing limited minutes (19.8 per game) on a 36-46 team.
Two years later, both shooting guards are free agents and Fournier (a restricted free agent) stands to make way more coin than his elder this time.
Fournier would be a terrific fit for the Chicago Bulls. He’s a dynamite scorer whose defense has steadily improved during his Orlando tenure.
Adding Fournier would allow Jimmy Butler to slide back to his natural small forward position and the Bulls could rest assured that they would be getting good production at the other wing spot.
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Mr. Never Google (seriously, don’t Google his name) averaged 15.7 points a game last season, shooting 40 percent from three-point range and converting 48.8 percent of his shots on drives, according to stats compiled in the Orlando Sentinel.
The Magic, seemingly approaching compete-now mode (saying their roster is in “win-now mode” would be a bit of a stretch, though) after their polarizing trade for Serge Ibaka, has a real incentive to match any offer sheet tendered to Fournier. He’s not going to command a $22.1 million maximum annual take, so something in the $15-16 million range seems more reasonable.
So why not get a little unreasonable if you’re the Chicago Bulls? Fournier is in the second tier of attainable free agent wings, beneath the Batums, Barnes’s and Bazemores of the world.
At 23, Fournier could serve as a key cog in the Bulls’ supposed youth movement; and at 6’7”, he might be able to convincingly check a small forward or two every once in a while.
Fournier’s youth and upside make him a more intriguing option than the 30 year-old Afflalo and Courtney Lee, whose only real appeal to the Bulls over the Frenchman will be the fact that they both come cheaper. Afflalo and Lee’s numbers are comparable, although their usage was less robust:
Afflalo averaged 12.8 points this year for a losing Knicks team, shooting 44.3 percent from the field and 38.2 percent from three in 57 games (that he started). Afflalo is also a slower shell of his defensive self now.
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Lee averaged just 9.8 points this year for Charlotte and Memphis, shooting 45.4 percent from the field and 37.8 percentfrom three-point range.
To his credit, the often erratic Lee came up huge on both sides of the ball for Charlotte in a hotly contested seven-game first round playoff series against the Miami Heat.
Anyway, Fournier could be better than both them right now.
Let’s see what he looks like in the ol’ white and red.