Evan Fournier On Knicks: There's No Way They're Gonna Keep Me

[RealGM Wiretap]

Evan Fournier has enjoyed his time with the New York Knicks. Fournier is also realistic that his time in New York is likely coming to an end.

“You know I’m not gonna be back,” Fournier said. “There’s no way they’re gonna keep me. I would be very surprised if they do. So, we’ll see. It’s obviously not in my hands though.”

The veteran wing was dropped from the Knicks rotation early in the season. Fournier appeared in a career-low 27 games last season with seven starts. Despite the lack of action, Fournier was regularly lauded for his attitude and staying ready when his number was called. The 11-year veteran knows New York is invested in young players and that his $18.9 million salary is a reason he could be traded.

“I mean, wouldn’t you guys be surprised [if I came back?],” Fournier added. “Eleven years in, big contract, they’re obviously trying to develop the young guys. I didn’t play this year, so why would you bring me back?”

Via Stefan Bondy/New York Daily News

[imDatknicksTape]

Leon Rose is not that gr8 as media claimed him 2 be

[elmdawgg69]

Nobody wants him. They’ll likely have him rot on the bench all season again and just let him expire to free up the cap space.

[spree2kawhi]

He probably should’ve played in the playoffs.

[MegaK]

Yo I forgot he was on the roster bro! He coulda rain the 3 bro! Thibs!!! Bro!!!

[Pickled Prunes]

He probably should’ve played in the playoffs.

Somebody had to make a shot. That was hard to watch.

[NoStatsGuy]

this guy was a 15-20 pgg scorer on 35% career average from 3. Its beyond me how he ends up in thibs doghouse, when we legit have 0 shooting on the wing. i get his defense is pretty bad. but putting him in the doghouse with just 27 games is a massive dud from thibs

[Scalabrine]

this guy was a 15-20 pgg scorer on 35% career average from 3. Its beyond me how he ends up in thibs doghouse, when we legit have 0 shooting on the wing. i get his defense is pretty bad. but putting him in the doghouse with just 27 games is a massive dud from thibs

Some of you are just so delusional. He continually got burned on defense and if his shot wasn't falling he was absolutely useless.

Knicks were 36-22 after putting Fournier in the "dog house" and they were 11-13 in the games he was starting/in the rotation. Sure it wasn't all his fault, but we literally took off and started playing like a top level team the game he left the rotation and we never looked back.

Are you thinking that Fournier would have been the difference in the Heat series? Would you have rathered we play him over Grimes or Josh Hart? It's just such a strange (and imo nonsensicle) take...

[NoStatsGuy]

this guy was a 15-20 pgg scorer on 35% career average from 3. Its beyond me how he ends up in thibs doghouse, when we legit have 0 shooting on the wing. i get his defense is pretty bad. but putting him in the doghouse with just 27 games is a massive dud from thibs

Some of you are just so delusional. He continually got burned on defense and if his shot wasn't falling he was absolutely useless.

Knicks were 36-22 after putting Fournier in the "dog house" and they were 11-13 in the games he was starting/in the rotation. Sure it wasn't all his fault, but we literally took off and started playing like a top level team the game he left the rotation and we never looked back.

Are you thinking that Fournier would have been the difference in the Heat series? Would you have rathered we play him over Grimes or Josh Hart? It's just such a strange (and imo nonsensicle) take...

no reason to attack people over a different opinion. have you ever played basketball? i highly doubt it.

but ill give you that same energy...

putting fournier in the doghouse for the whole season was a blatant mistake. but you guys are all on thibs for tryna giving brunson a couple minutes rest and all that. when you are the same guys on thibs ass when he played him 48 minutes. you have no clue what you are talking about. unfortunately the knicks board is full of people that think they know basketball from a couple pick up games, they played.

you just gotta look at duncan robinson, i guess hes a defensive phenom how many minutes he played. just stop acting like you know **** about the game, its emberassing.

btw i never said, play fournier every night 30+ minutes cuz i know you will try to make it look like that. i know how you guys operate

[Scalabrine]

this guy was a 15-20 pgg scorer on 35% career average from 3. Its beyond me how he ends up in thibs doghouse, when we legit have 0 shooting on the wing. i get his defense is pretty bad. but putting him in the doghouse with just 27 games is a massive dud from thibs

Some of you are just so delusional. He continually got burned on defense and if his shot wasn't falling he was absolutely useless.

Knicks were 36-22 after putting Fournier in the "dog house" and they were 11-13 in the games he was starting/in the rotation. Sure it wasn't all his fault, but we literally took off and started playing like a top level team the game he left the rotation and we never looked back.

Are you thinking that Fournier would have been the difference in the Heat series? Would you have rathered we play him over Grimes or Josh Hart? It's just such a strange (and imo nonsensicle) take...

no reason to attack people over a different opinion. have you ever played basketball? i highly doubt it.

but ill give you that same energy...

putting fournier in the doghouse for the whole season was a blatant mistake. but you guys are all on thibs for tryna giving brunson a couple minutes rest and all that. when you are the same guys on thibs ass when he played him 48 minutes. you have no clue what you are talking about. unfortunately the knicks board is full of people that think they know basketball from a couple pick up games, they played.

you just gotta look at duncan robinson, i guess hes a defensive phenom how many minutes he played. just stop acting like you know **** about the game, its emberassing.

btw i never said, play fournier every night 30+ minutes cuz i know you will try to make it look like that. i know how you guys operate

easy bud. I didn't say any of that.

I've been playing basketball for 30 years. I played on teams from 3rd grade through high school and went to basketball camps for multiple weeks every single summer where all we would do was learn the game of basketball. I used to be an assistant coach for a D2 college team. I used to be a film and stats guy for another college team. I've been a head coach for high school and middle school teams. I used to ref twice a week for middle school through college.Whats your resume look like?

If you think that not playing Evan Fournier was the reason we lost this Heat series then you are delusional. All season long, we were unequivocally a better basketball team with Evan Fournier on the bench. That doesn't mean that I think he's trash. I think he can still be a good and useful player in the NBA, and some team will have a use for him. The Knicks were better with Brunson, Grimes, RJ, Hart, Quickley all getting those minutes. Taking minutes away from them so we could play Fournier wasn't smart, and Thibs didn't do that, which was smart.

I'm down to have a conversation with someone who has a different opinion, but you gotta relax. We're on the same team!

Which of those guys did you want to take minutes from? How many minutes do you think Fournier should have played? What was the reason you think we all the sudden turned into an elite basketball team the game we pulled him from the rotation?

[cheese318]

Some of you are just so delusional. He continually got burned on defense and if his shot wasn't falling he was absolutely useless.

Knicks were 36-22 after putting Fournier in the "dog house" and they were 11-13 in the games he was starting/in the rotation. Sure it wasn't all his fault, but we literally took off and started playing like a top level team the game he left the rotation and we never looked back.

Are you thinking that Fournier would have been the difference in the Heat series? Would you have rathered we play him over Grimes or Josh Hart? It's just such a strange (and imo nonsensicle) take...

no reason to attack people over a different opinion. have you ever played basketball? i highly doubt it.

but ill give you that same energy...

putting fournier in the doghouse for the whole season was a blatant mistake. but you guys are all on thibs for tryna giving brunson a couple minutes rest and all that. when you are the same guys on thibs ass when he played him 48 minutes. you have no clue what you are talking about. unfortunately the knicks board is full of people that think they know basketball from a couple pick up games, they played.

you just gotta look at duncan robinson, i guess hes a defensive phenom how many minutes he played. just stop acting like you know **** about the game, its emberassing.

btw i never said, play fournier every night 30+ minutes cuz i know you will try to make it look like that. i know how you guys operate

easy bud. I didn't say any of that.

I've been playing basketball for 30 years. I played on teams from 3rd grade through high school and went to basketball camps for multiple weeks every single summer where all we would do was learn the game of basketball. I used to be an assistant coach for a D2 college team. I used to be a film and stats guy for another college team. I've been a head coach for high school and middle school teams. I used to ref twice a week for middle school through college.Whats your resume look like?

If you think that not playing Evan Fournier was the reason we lost this Heat series then you are delusional. All season long, we were unequivocally a better basketball team with Evan Fournier on the bench. That doesn't mean that I think he's trash. I think he can still be a good and useful player in the NBA, and some team will have a use for him. The Knicks were better with Brunson, Grimes, RJ, Hart, Quickley all getting those minutes. Taking minutes away from them so we could play Fournier wasn't smart, and Thibs didn't do that, which was smart.

I'm down to have a conversation with someone who has a different opinion, but you gotta relax. We're on the same team!

Which of those guys did you want to take minutes from? How many minutes do you think Fournier should have played? What was the reason you think we all the sudden turned into an elite basketball team the game we pulled him from the rotation?

I understand your take and don’t disagree as our defense became top flight and went on a great run with the core we implemented with major improvement. However when we lost Quickley there were minutes and points that were missing. Josh Hart & Grimes do things well but I think giving Fournier like 5-10 minutes and make an adjustment for quickley could have brought a shooter on the court. McBride is a great defender but awful offense. I am not saying it would of have worked but trying it out and it added a little offense for some extra minutes to give Brunson or Grimes a break on the bench instead of going 48 minutes. Regardless we were down 2 with the ball and just didn’t take the shot I wish Brunson gave it to Hart for the open 3.

[Scalabrine]

no reason to attack people over a different opinion. have you ever played basketball? i highly doubt it.

but ill give you that same energy...

putting fournier in the doghouse for the whole season was a blatant mistake. but you guys are all on thibs for tryna giving brunson a couple minutes rest and all that. when you are the same guys on thibs ass when he played him 48 minutes. you have no clue what you are talking about. unfortunately the knicks board is full of people that think they know basketball from a couple pick up games, they played.

you just gotta look at duncan robinson, i guess hes a defensive phenom how many minutes he played. just stop acting like you know **** about the game, its emberassing.

btw i never said, play fournier every night 30+ minutes cuz i know you will try to make it look like that. i know how you guys operate

easy bud. I didn't say any of that.

I've been playing basketball for 30 years. I played on teams from 3rd grade through high school and went to basketball camps for multiple weeks every single summer where all we would do was learn the game of basketball. I used to be an assistant coach for a D2 college team. I used to be a film and stats guy for another college team. I've been a head coach for high school and middle school teams. I used to ref twice a week for middle school through college.Whats your resume look like?

If you think that not playing Evan Fournier was the reason we lost this Heat series then you are delusional. All season long, we were unequivocally a better basketball team with Evan Fournier on the bench. That doesn't mean that I think he's trash. I think he can still be a good and useful player in the NBA, and some team will have a use for him. The Knicks were better with Brunson, Grimes, RJ, Hart, Quickley all getting those minutes. Taking minutes away from them so we could play Fournier wasn't smart, and Thibs didn't do that, which was smart.

I'm down to have a conversation with someone who has a different opinion, but you gotta relax. We're on the same team!

Which of those guys did you want to take minutes from? How many minutes do you think Fournier should have played? What was the reason you think we all the sudden turned into an elite basketball team the game we pulled him from the rotation?

I understand your take and don’t disagree as our defense became top flight and went on a great run with the core we implemented with major improvement. However when we lost Quickley there were minutes and points that were missing. Josh Hart & Grimes do things well but I think giving Fournier like 5-10 minutes and make an adjustment for quickley could have brought a shooter on the court. McBride is a great defender but awful offense. I am not saying it would of have worked but trying it out and it added a little offense for some extra minutes to give Brunson or Grimes a break on the bench instead of going 48 minutes. Regardless we were down 2 with the ball and just didn’t take the shot I wish Brunson gave it to Hart for the open 3.

When Fournier fell out of the rotation is was our offense that exploded more than our defense actually and while youre right that minutes did open up when IQ went down, it was really the minutes that Brunson was resting that needed to be replaced the most. In my opinion, it was McBrides ability to bring the ball up the floor and escape the pressure the Heat were giving on offense that was necessary to help us get the ball up the court and into our offense. I don't think Fournier would have done that.

[DimesandKnicks]

this guy was a 15-20 pgg scorer on 35% career average from 3. Its beyond me how he ends up in thibs doghouse, when we legit have 0 shooting on the wing. i get his defense is pretty bad. but putting him in the doghouse with just 27 games is a massive dud from thibs

The season turned around when they bench Rose and Fournier for McBride and Grimes.

[spree2kawhi]

He probably should’ve played in the playoffs.

Somebody had to make a shot. That was hard to watch.

He isn’t even that bad. It’s such a stupid coach’s thing again. Miami would’ve used him like another Duncan or Strus and he sure would’ve ripped the Knicks‘ behinds open.

[spree2kawhi]

this guy was a 15-20 pgg scorer on 35% career average from 3. Its beyond me how he ends up in thibs doghouse, when we legit have 0 shooting on the wing. i get his defense is pretty bad. but putting him in the doghouse with just 27 games is a massive dud from thibs

The season turned around when they bench Rose and Fournier for McBride and Grimes.

Maybe, but that’s not the reason. Countless things happen at the same time.

[donaldtrump_00]

I'd take him over in Chicago but it doesn't mean he'll play much there either. If he's making 18.9 million next season then it's even harder to get him. Unless it's for derozan and we need more players like quickly and toppin added along plus a frp. Bulls most likely add ayo to the trade to make the knicks happy. But I'm sure 2 frp is better. I'm not hyped about that trade before someone says something. Just saying it's a start to get younger and more shooting for chi.

[donaldtrump_00]

He probably should’ve played in the playoffs.

Somebody had to make a shot. That was hard to watch.

He isn’t even that bad. It’s such a stupid coach’s thing again. Miami would’ve used him like another Duncan or Strus and he sure would’ve ripped the Knicks‘ behinds open.

Thibs always sticks to his game plan. He did the same thing for the Bulls. He's stubborn with his lineups. Rarely adjusts to the other team. Always puts someone in the dog house. Least he chose the young players because he used to only ride with the vets. He reversed his moto. He'll get you in the playoffs but that's all he's good for. A regular season coach. Miami most definitely would play Evan Fournier a few minutes with most there players injured. Bit if Tyler herro wasn't hurt Duncan Robinson wouldn't see the court. It's a mistake most coaches make. There should be no players with dnps for 20 games or more. It's poor knowledge for the game and leads to guaranteed minutes to players who aren't always ready

[cheese318]

easy bud. I didn't say any of that.

I've been playing basketball for 30 years. I played on teams from 3rd grade through high school and went to basketball camps for multiple weeks every single summer where all we would do was learn the game of basketball. I used to be an assistant coach for a D2 college team. I used to be a film and stats guy for another college team. I've been a head coach for high school and middle school teams. I used to ref twice a week for middle school through college.Whats your resume look like?

If you think that not playing Evan Fournier was the reason we lost this Heat series then you are delusional. All season long, we were unequivocally a better basketball team with Evan Fournier on the bench. That doesn't mean that I think he's trash. I think he can still be a good and useful player in the NBA, and some team will have a use for him. The Knicks were better with Brunson, Grimes, RJ, Hart, Quickley all getting those minutes. Taking minutes away from them so we could play Fournier wasn't smart, and Thibs didn't do that, which was smart.

I'm down to have a conversation with someone who has a different opinion, but you gotta relax. We're on the same team!

Which of those guys did you want to take minutes from? How many minutes do you think Fournier should have played? What was the reason you think we all the sudden turned into an elite basketball team the game we pulled him from the rotation?

I understand your take and don’t disagree as our defense became top flight and went on a great run with the core we implemented with major improvement. However when we lost Quickley there were minutes and points that were missing. Josh Hart & Grimes do things well but I think giving Fournier like 5-10 minutes and make an adjustment for quickley could have brought a shooter on the court. McBride is a great defender but awful offense. I am not saying it would of have worked but trying it out and it added a little offense for some extra minutes to give Brunson or Grimes a break on the bench instead of going 48 minutes. Regardless we were down 2 with the ball and just didn’t take the shot I wish Brunson gave it to Hart for the open 3.

When Fournier fell out of the rotation is was our offense that exploded more than our defense actually and while youre right that minutes did open up when IQ went down, it was really the minutes that Brunson was resting that needed to be replaced the most. In my opinion, it was McBrides ability to bring the ball up the floor and escape the pressure the Heat were giving on offense that was necessary to help us get the ball up the court and into our offense. I don't think Fournier would have done that.

Alright I agree they were getting us out of our offense ball denying Brunson even when he was on the court if we let him rest without McBridge it wouldn’t have worked with Fournier