Boston Celtics: Why Evan Fournier move doesn’t help team
By Sam Minton
The Boston Celtics didn’t make the splash that fans were expecting, but they did make some moves on Thursday. The biggest one being the acquisition of Evan Fournier.
Boston was unable to make the major move of acquiring Aaron Gordon or John Collins. Gordon ended up heading to Denver while John Collins stayed with the Hawks.
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The package that Orlando got was massive and likely hard to beat by Boston. The C’s would have been forced to give up Marcus Smart and it appears that they were unwilling to part with the guard.
But Boston did part ways with Jeff Teague and a pair of second-round picks. In return, they got Fournier from the Magic.
To his credit, Fournier is having a great season. He is averaging a career-high 19.7 points along with 3.7 assists.
But is this move enough? Will Boston be able to compete for a championship?
Why Evan Fournier move doesn’t help the Boston Celtics.
At the end of the day, this move doesn’t put the Celtics over the top. It’s not a game changing move that brings Boston to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Fournier will definitley add some great shooting ability to Boston’s rotation. He can be a starter but would be better suited to playing off the bench. This would make the Celtics a much deeper team.
But Fournier also is not the best defender. At the end of the game can you rely on him to not make mistakes?
When you really look at it, Fournier is just a great depth addition. He will have a similar role to Smart where he can excel in spurts coming off the bench, but likely can’t start when Boston is completely healthy.
That’s what makes this trade deadline so disappointing. Boston is basically the same team that they were a week ago. They are still missing a player like Collins or Nikola Vucevic who can truly make an impact.
It’s still very hard to see this team winning an NBA championship. Honestly at this point, if they make the Eastern Conference Finals it would be a shock.
So at the end of the day, Fournier doesn’t get the job done. He is simply another cog in the Celtics machine. C’s fans didn’t get the transformational player that they were hoping for. They just got another player.
Danny Ainge was once again afraid to make a big move at the deadline and now you just hope that he doesn’t waste the prime of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s career. Fournier isn’t the player that those guys need. They simply deserve better.