Evan Fournier feels he’s reached the end of the trail with the New York Knicks.
The former Celtics guard spent under half a season in Boston before signing a four-year, $78 million deal with the Knicks just two years ago. Fournier was one of several offseason additions at the time, expected to uplift the Knicks to deep postseason contention after years of swinging and missing on the open market and in the draft lottery. But that never happened.
Instead, Fournier is confident that New York will deal him elsewhere this upcoming offseason, opening up less than 48 hours after the Knicks were eliminated by the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“My season has been over for a very long time, actually,” Fournier said, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “This is officially 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.”
Similar to Fournier’s brief stint with the Celtics, he never really found his footing in New York. Both tenures followed the 30-year-old’s seven-year run with the Orlando Magic, where Fournier had an established role. Offensively, Fournier was one of Orlando’s most consistent players, supplying strong perimeter shooting while scoring off the ball. But that never translated when Fournier was tasked to replicate that for the Knicks.
Fournier flirted with a career-lows, averaging 6.1 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 17 minutes through 27 games played this past season. The 12-year veteran also attempted just 6.1 field goals per game, shooting a career-worst 33.7%.
“There’s no way they’re going to keep me,” Fournier said. “I would be very surprised if they did.”
