The New York Knicks have a big decision regarding the veteran Evan Fournier’s future with the New York Knicks. Fournier in his second season with the Knicks has fallen out of head coach Tom Thibodeau’s rotation and has not played since November 13. Although Fournier has not been injured the Knicks do not want him to play. Thus the question arises as to why don’t they trade him.
Evan signed a four-year $ 73 million deal with New York at the beginning of the 2021-22 season. Thus Fournier is in the contract through the 2023-24 season. Besides this, he also has a $ 19 million team option for the final year of his deal. Thus trading Fournier is not at all easy as very few teams have the ability to take on a contract of that size. Remembering that Fourier is now thirty years old and has not played for nearly a month.
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According to ESPN’s Brain Windhorst- “The Knicks are not interested in shedding salary going forward. They’ll do business, but I think there’s been a concept that they might, like, attach a pick to get off of Evan Fournier or something like that. But to my understanding that’s not true. I think they would trade Evan Fournier—I mean he’s not playing for them right now, of course, they would trade him. But I don’t think they feel any sort of desperation to clear cap space.”
Thus many teams would want New York to forfeit for taking on this bad contract.
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Nikola Vucevic who is now with the Chicago Bulls came out in support of Fournier speaking to the New York Daily News about Fournier’s benching-
“One thing about him, he’s a huge competitor. He plays to win. He gives it all up. For sure it’s difficult for him to not be out there and not be able to play. Especially when he’s into his best years right now and he’s coming off a good season as well,”
“It sucks for him not to play. But one thing I respect about him is he’s staying a pro throughout it all. Very supportive of his teammates. You never hear him say anything bad or negative to the press about anything, anyone. You got to respect that. That’s hard for a guy who is on the top of his game and very well-respected around the league. To just be out of the rotation is very difficult to deal with,” Vucevic added
For instance, both players are presently facing trade rumors these days. Many reports have stated Fournier to be traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
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