'No Way!': Evan Fournier Blunt About Return to Knicks
The ongoing NBA Playoffs have assured the sports world that there's no such thing as a certainty. Evan Fournier, however, isn't so sure.
The end of the New York Knicks' 2022-23 season, as Fournier saw it, was also the end of his metropolitan career. He minced no words following the 96-92 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, outright acknowledging that his Knicks career might've ended long before the postseason's opening tip.
“There’s no way they’re going to keep me. I would be very surprised if they did," Fournier said, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post. "My season has been over for a very long time, actually. This officially is the end, but my season was over a long time ago. It took me a good month to understand that."
"At first, I was like, just be patient in seeing how the team developed. Obviously, there are gonna be changes and I’m gonna get traded.”
Even the briefest look at the Knicks' statistical ledgers could've hinted that Fournier didn't have much of a future in New York, even if he's indeed signed on for the 2023-24 season thanks to a four-year deal signed with Boston in August 2021.
The French-born sharpshooter, who set a New York single-season record for most successful three-pointers last year, was the Knicks' starting shooting guard on opening night in October but lasted only seven games in that role before giving way to the since-traded Cam Reddish and later Quentin Grimes.
From that point forward, Fournier briefly lingered in the Knicks rotation but then became a de facto 12th man, buried on the bench from that point forward. Some believed he was destined to be dealt at the trade deadline but he remained on the roster.
After appearing in each of the first 13 games this season, averaging only 6.9 points and shooting 33 percent from the field, Fournier appeared in only 14 games from there on what. His most notable showing came in a Feb. 5 win over Philadelphia, when he put in 17 points in an effort he compared to a "one-night stand."
Some theorized he and the likewise-exiled Derrick Rose could work their way into the rotation in the latter stages of the playoff trip after some injuries to the Knicks' regulars (primarily sixth man Immanuel Quickley). Fournier felt like he could "for sure," especially considering his prowess from deep and his postseason experience with Denver, Orlando, and Boston.
But he never thought such an opportunity was coming.
“You know, when it’s the playoffs it’s even harder because you want to help and you see the crowd," he said. "But I knew it wasn’t going to happen. So I was just trying to stay positive with the guys, try to help, talk to the younger players that don’t have the experience.”
Dealing Fournier won't be an easy endeavor: he's due over $18.8 million next season and has a $19 million club option for the 2024-25 season.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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