1. Evan Fournier
We have touched on Evan Fournier several times here at Lake Show Life. In fact, we named Fournier as the ideal MLE signing in our dream Los Angeles Lakers offseason article. He would be fantastic for the purple and gold as he would bring exactly what the team needs: solid defense and elite three-point shooting.
The term three and D gets thrown around a bit too much and I am certainly guilty of it myself. Some guys either are not three and D at all but get that label or are more than a three and D guy but get lumped into that group because it is such a popular thing to say.
Fournier is a three and D guy. Sure, he absolutely can do more than play defense and just shoot threes on the wing, but in his essence, especially if he was on the Lakers, he would be a three and D guy. He would play great defense in Vogel’s schemes and would be a lights out catch-and-shoot weapon off-ball.
Fournier shot 41.3% from beyond the arc last season and shot even better once he was traded to the Boston Celtics. In 16 games with the Celtics, Fournier shot 46.3% from beyond the arc and went on to shoot 43.3% in the playoffs.
There definitely is a path where Fournier gets paid more than the MLE and gets taken away from a team like the Lakers. The hope is that he wants to contend over anything else and is willing to take that small pay cut to go with a contender rather than take a contract from a bad team and play meaningless basketball.