I wonder if Evan Fournier is okay with the fact that his prime years are being squandered on the Magic. As a decent (and still relatively young) shooting guard, I’m sure he thinks about going to another situation where he would see more team success, but I’m sure he also realizes that your talents as a player can’t really be “squandered” unless you’re exceptionally good and the rest of your teammates are exceptionally bad. In the case of the Magic, he’s been anywhere from the best player on the team to the third best player on the team since he got to Orlando, but it’s not like he would magically (heh) become a 20 PPG scorer if he had a complementary cast of players surrounding him.
From my limited understanding of contracts (basically, more money = harder to trade), Evan Fournier is going to be a Magician for at least the next two seasons. His contract is simply too big, and his production is so small in comparison. There’s no way for the Magic to get out from underneath it until he’s expiring. For Fournier, that means he’s doomed to continue chasing the eighth seed as a player who is just barely good enough to pretend to be a first option.
If that sounds too depressing for Fournier, well, the last year on his contract is a player option, so he can leave those seventeen million smackeroos on the table to go play for a team that’s not stuck in complete, all-encompassing mediocrity. Also maybe a team that employs a really good hair-restoration staff.