Options of remaining in the NBA fading for Evan Fournier

Evan Fournier has found himself in a dead end since the end of the Paris Games. For the French guard, who will turn 32 next month, the Olympics was not a turning point in his sporting career, as it turned out to be for Guerschon Yabusele.

France’s excellent performance in the men’s tournament, in which they pushed the United States to the limit, has revalued some of the members of that squad, including the shooting guard. Despite the public disputes with his coach, later settled, and the controversial profile that accompanies him, he is one of the high profile free agents in the summer transfer market.

Right now, Fournier is without a team and his continuity in the NBA is up in the air for the first time since his arrival in 2012. The fact that he has not received significant offers from the North American league is what is making him rethink the short-term future. At 31 years old, and after 12 between the Nuggets, Magic, Celtics, Knicks and, most recently, the Pistons, the return to Europe is beginning to look like a serious possibility.

The Euroleague is calling Fournier. As the journalist Mihalis Stefanou, from EuroHoops, noted, clubs from France, Italy and Spain have shown interest in him knowing that the doors of the NBA are finally closing on him. At the recent Games, he averaged 9.8 points and played a crucial role in games against Japan and Canada.

Where next for Fournier?

Evan Fournier has enjoyed a lengthy career in America but he will need to lower his expectations if he moves back to Europe. An anarchic shooting guard, with good dribbling skills, ability to shoot from different positions although perhaps a little inconsistent - he was a product of the prolific Nanterre youth academy, like his national team colleague Victor Wembanyama. He finds himself at a crossroads: continue waiting for a call from another team in the NBA or launch himself into the pan-European league.

This veteran bleu has made a lot of money in the NBA. Up to this point, when he has been released by the Pistons, he has accumulated $145.3 million gross. However his pretensions will need to change. Detroit, relying on a groundbreaking coaching change (Bickerstaff for Williams), wants to give absolute priority to its youngsters, with whom it has planned the medium-term future in this competition with tanking as a tool.

Fournier did not obtain a renewal nor has he been favored by the summer market in other teams. Now the Euroleague is in the spotlight. There is a team that has been following him for some time for obvious reasons: in 2022 the same player pointed to Olympiacos as the club he would like to go to if he returns from the United States; The problem for them is that they have put all their eggs in one basket, with Sasha Vezenkov, whom they recruited from the Toronto Raptors, and they have run out of sufficient financial resources to offer a big contract.

Alessandro Maggi (Sportando) highlights another team, one that has a gap to fill before the start of the next season: Real Madrid. The departure of fellow Frenchman Guerschon Yabusele, who has bet everything on succeeding with the 76ers despite still having a contract with the Whites, has opened up a vacancy in the squad that Chus Mateo will manage. Although the position to be reinforced is that of ‘4’, power forward, market opportunities like that of Fournier rarely come along. The Spanish club, has gathered information on Evan’s situation to assess his signing.

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According to other sources, Madrid have also asked about Cedi Osman. A 29-year-old, 2.01-metre forward, the Turk is unemployed after being discarded by the San Antonio Spurs last July. He has spent seven years in the NBA, six with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the last one with the Texans.

They are not the only players who have been linked with Madrid in recent days following the departure of Yabusele for the NBA. As soon as the Frenchman’s departure was announced, Davis Bertans was mentioned: the Latvian power forward (31 years old and 2.08 metres tall) is without a team after being released by the Charlotte Hornets, a franchise he joined from the Oklahoma City Thunder in February, and is seriously considering a return to Europe. In fact, in recent days his name has been linked to a Partizan team where he played between 2012 and 2014.

The Baltic forward is practically a specialist because he is a more flat player in almost everything else, an exceptional shooter, and his adaptation would not be a problem: he already played in the Endesa League, with Baskonia, for three seasons, from 2014 to 2016. From Vitoria he flew to the NBA where he has been for the last eight years between the San Antonio Spurs, Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks and the aforementioned Thunder and Hornets.