By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist
After more than a decade spent walking the NBA floor, Evan Fournier left the American championship during the offseason. Now back in Europe, the French international is very honest about the evolution of the big league.
With more than 15 points per game in the Euroleague, we can say thatEvan Fournier acclimatized well to his new surroundings. Joining Greece and Olympiakos after the Olympic Games in Paris, the star of the French team is having fun like crazy in his new colors and proving to everyone that in the last months he spent on the side of NBA not representative of his true floor level.
First waived by the Knicks for a year and a half, the guard was transferred to the Pistons at the trade deadline but his role was also inconsistent in Michigan, while the franchise apparently launched a tanking operation. And since almost no one decided to make him an offer during the summer, the Habs preferred to return to the Old Continent.
Evan Fournier regrets the evolution of the NBA
In total, “More Champagne” would spend 12 seasons and more than 700 games on the big league floor, with more than 9,000 points on the clock. Above all, he witnessed one of the biggest revolutions experienced in the NBA in the democratization of the three-point shot of Stephen Curry’s Warriors. When Basketball News Asked if it hurt the American championship, Fournier was very honest:
No, I don’t think so. For me, one of the big problems is that the teams no longer have an identity. When I was selected in the draft (in 2012), it was clear that there was a difference between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference is slower, while the Western Conference is faster.
But even within each conference, teams have their own specific styles. We played against Indiana, and they have a style of play. Then we played against Chicago, and they were different. In the West, there’s Phoenix, who plays really fast, then there’s the Lakers who have two big players on the interior. Teams have their own identity.
But as the years go by, I feel like the teams are starting to play more evenly. They have the same game options, the same standards. Outside of some teams – Miami, for example, trying to do things differently – everyone is starting to look the same every night.
The Warriors’ model at the start of their dynasty has changed the landscape of the NBA so much, that many franchises want to emulate them because the three-point shot has become dominant. A development that Evan Fournier regrets a little…