With roughly $30 million to spend in free agency, the New Orleans Pelicans have the financial firepower to bid on the league’s best young wing players. Their first target should be the slippery shooter, Evan Fournier.
Sometime in the next month, I will log onto NBAStore.com to purchase an Eric Gordon Mardi Gras jersey on clearance for somewhere around $50. When it arrives, I will lay it neatly on my kitchen table and stretch a bright new piece of duct tape over the stitched letters on the back. On that piece of tape, I will write “FOURNIER”. This will become my most treasured when, shortly after the clock strikes midnight on July 1st, the New Orleans Pelicans reach an agreement on a near-max contract with shooting guard Evan Fournier.
Some will call me a soothsayer, others a wizard. Bah to all of that; I am merely an appreciateur of basketball’s finer things. A white napkin folded across my TV tray, NBA League Pass upon my screen, I will wipe four-plus years of pervious on-ball defense and offense-only faineancy from the cleft of my chin, and settle down with a more nuanced approach to the art of a beautiful game.
Evan Fournier is what you think basketball is going to be when your father only lets you stay up for the Playoffs as a child. He is sound basketball incarnate- only the best decisions and the cleanest shots. Simply put, if the Pelicans sign Evan Fournier, they will win more basketball games.
Any coach, even one like Alvin Gentry, whose vaunted system is renowned as impenetrable and challenging, can mold a fine player like Fournier into their system. While complacent Pelicans fans were watching Gordon power-walk his way through transition opportunities and belch up two-point shots, Fournier was busy earning himself a payday in Orlando. At his best, Fournier kicks the ball around the arc crisply and tap dances his way through the lane when given space.
Even when nothing else is working, Fournier survives on a steady diet of three-pointers. They come from everywhere, all the time. He makes many of them, including this one to win an overtime game.
Sun Sports play-by-play man David Steele has taken to crafting literature out of Fournier’s Forays (the name of my new folk band*) into the paint almost instantaneously. This often means trying to poeticize a shot attempt. While that may sound monotonous, fear not- it birthed this moniker: “Manu Move”. Fournier’s sneaky length and quick feet give him an extra edge inch in the paint more often than not, where he can finish opponents off with the Dribble Move Formerly Known as a “Euro Step”.
As a Pelican, Fournier will move us into the new era of NBA basketball; one in which “rising up” refers to an above-the-break three rather than a Shaq-tastic throwdown. On a team fighting to play faster, Fournier’s capabilities as a dual threat are more valuable than on most teams. If you’re looking for a reason why Fournier might choose New Orleans over other cities, that might be it.
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He’s also not the answer to any title contender’s prayers. For all of Fournier’s exquisite talents, he’s not quite a perfect player. You’d like him to be able to move down a position at times (drool with me to a Reke-Holiday-Fournier-Cunningham-AD lineup), but he’s a small player, even for the two; trusting him in post-up situations or switches on defense could be a mess. Past this year, maybe you’d like him to replace some of Holiday’s minutes at the point if he departs next offseason. However, Fournier’s vision and athleticism (or lack thereof) leave him ill-equipped to handle major minutes as a primary ball-handler.
Perhaps, if he’s being honest about his abilities, the idea that his basic skillset fits like a round peg into the round hole of Gentry’s system would draw him toward the Pelicans. Alas, players so young (Fournier is only 23) are rarely honest about their abilities, and they’re generally right in thinking about long-term improvement over their statistical and physical makeup for next year.
If some smart, successful team comes knocking in July, it will be hard for the Pelicans and their inability to outbid anyone in a free agency market saturated with free money to win over an eager young guy like Fournier. He’s already been on two young losing teams in Orlando and Denver; it’s unlikely he wants to extend that streak any further.
Next: Wing and a Prayer: Evan Turner
For the Pelicans, the challenge becomes convincing Fournier or any young player that they are the missing piece. Any tortured Pelicans fan (Dell Demps included; he’s basically a glorified fan at this point), fedora-wearing and white napkin-tucking or not, would be silly to ignore the potential of Frenchman Evan Fournier on this team. Of the players available this summer, he’s one of the only ones for whom the crown of Missing Piece is not too large.