Orlando Magic: 3 Players That Disappointed This Season
In many ways, the 2018-19 season was kind of a breakout year for the Magic. They had finished as the second worst team in the East when the previous season drew to a close, holding a miserable 25-57(win-loss) record next to their name.
Understandably so, nobody expected them to make any waves in the Eastern Confernce when their campaign kicked off in 2018. However, much to the shock of many and the delight of fans in Orlando, the Magic grinded out an impressive 42-40 record and finished 7th on the East standings.
"I feel like we learned how to win, and that was one of the things that had been lacking here – a culture, a know-how and a standard," said Aron Gordon when asked about the team's progress and finishing the regular season on a 22-9(win-loss) run.
Despite losing to the Raptors 4-1 in the first round, they had done enough to build upon for the coming year.
"I think we exceeded expectations (this past season), and that’s good, but it’s all about winning playoff series,’’ Gordon added. "It’s not the end – we’ll take a month off and then it’s right back to work."
Gordon averaged 16 points and 7.4 rebounds while Vucevic led the scoring with 20.8 points per game, good enough to bag him his first ever All-Star appearance. While the franchise found a couple of diamonds in the rough, there are some yet to break out of their shells and play to their fullest potential.
Let's take a look at the three most disappointing performers from Orlando's magnificent outing this past regular season.
#1 Evan Fournier
In his fifth straight year with the Magic franchise, the French shooting forward- for the first time - averaged fewer points per game than his previous year. He averaged 15.1 points per game which is fairly decent in today's NBA. But there was one glaring anomaly that surfaced as the season progressed and eventually came to a warp.
On a team devoid of quality shooting, Fournier failed miserably in his role of knocking down 3-pointers at a consistent pace and spacing the floor. His primary remit of shooting the ball was as ordinary as it could've been.
Evan shot a career-low 34% from beyond the arc on almost six 3-point attempts per game and also recorded his lowest conversion from the field in five years.
Safe to say, he feel woefully short of the long-range shooting expecations his team had from him.