Orlando Magic want Jamal Crawford, Eric Gordon, keep Evan Fournier

The Orlando Magic are aggressively pursuing shooting guards in NBA free agency, wanting Jamal Crawford, Eric Gordon, but still wanting to keep Evan Fournier.

According to the Associated Press and Sheridan Hoops’ Michael Scotto, the Orlando Magic “still plan to keep Evan Fournier” even after aggressively pursuing both the Los Angeles Clippers’ sixth man Jamal Crawford and the New Orleans Pelicans’ often-injured go-to scorer at shooting guard Eric Gordon in 2016 NBA free agency.

It seems that the Magic are in dire need to upgrade their starting two-guard position after sending Victor Oladipo to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Serge Ibaka deal on draft night. Keep in mind that the Magic also lost a solid shooting big man in Ersan Ilyasova in the Ibaka deal with the Thunder.

It’s interesting that Orlando still wants to keep Fournier as presumably as a sixth man coming off the bench. Then again, Crawford has been the best sixth man in the NBA for much of the last decade and it might be time for Gordon to assume that role after largely failing with the Pelicans the last few years as an often-injured starter.

The thought would be that either Fournier or second-year player Mario Hezonja might be getting more playing time now that Oladipo is on the Thunder. However, bringing in either Crawford or Gordon into the fold might take away some much-needed playing time for Hezonja or allow Fournier the opportunity to be a bigger part of the Magic’s offense under new head coach Frank Vogel.

The news of Orlando going hard after both Crawford and Gordon is especially interesting, as Vogel is a defensive-minded head coach. Crawford and Gordon are both highly skilled offensive players, but aren’t elite defensive players by any means. Either way, the Magic want to get better at two-guard.

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