The New York Knicks will let Allonzo Trier’s contract situation play into the season, before making a decision on what to do with his two-way deal.
Allonzo Trier rose from undrafted rookie to star of the New York Knicks’ training camp and preseason over the past three weeks. Signed to a two-way deal, he averaged 14.2 points on 47.8 percent shooting in five games and was arguably the team’s best player.
That created a dilemma for the regular season roster, as New York could have turned the two-way deal into a guaranteed deal to make Trier part of the 15-man roster. Instead, they simply won’t do anything, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post.
After Friday’s preseason finale versus the Brooklyn Nets, head coach David Fizdale said the Knicks are in the process of working to “stretch” out Trier’s allotted 45 days on the main roster.
"“We have 45 days of him working with us to figure out what’s the next move,’’ Fizdale said before the game. “We are in the process of working with that and finding the best way to stretch that out. Obviously the kid has shown he’s an NBA basketball player. It’s a matter of us doing it in a way that’s best for the team. He’s showing he just has a knack for putting the ball in the hole and showed he’s a competitor defensively.”"
As Berman noted, New York can wait until December to cut a guaranteed contract when Trier’s 45 days expire. That leaves another roster competition in the balance; one that could result in someone on an expiring deal leaving the team.
Though, Trier may struggle in his NBA audition and require a stay in the G League for the rest of 2018-19. It’s the adjustment against team’s first units, rather than players from the end of the bench, that could make or break his first experience.
However, given Trier’s success, there seems to be less of an adaptation period than expected, unlike Kevin Knox and Mitchell Robinson.
The Arizona product’s placement on the roster also means the Knicks will carry 16 players. It’s a unique situation since the first year of two-way deals saw players under these deals sporadically receive call-ups. This happened with injuries or on back-to-back nights.
Instead, New York has an extra player, unless they don’t carry 15 guaranteed deals. They must decide on this by Monday’s roster deadline at 5:00 p.m. ET.
NBA teams must cut down the maximum of up to 15 players on standard contract and up to 2 players on Two-Way contract by Monday at 5:00 PM EST. As of right now there are at least 72 transactions to be made to get teams down to the regular season maximums.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 12, 2018
Maybe the Knicks surprise and remove a guaranteed contract from the roster, but with Trier still on a two-way deal, that’s unlikely. Eventual candidates for this include Emmanuel Mudiay, Ron Baker, Noah Vonleh (once the Knicks guarantee his money) and Luke Kornet.
For now, it’s an opportunity for Trier to showcase his spot on the NBA roster and continue to hear praise from Fizdale. So far, so good, but will it last once everything counts? It starts with Wednesday’s opener against the Atlanta Hawks.