Getty Jrue Holiday, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Grayson Allen of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Though perhaps New York Knicks fans may be eager to see the likes of Evan Fournier be shipped out of the Big Apple for them to rid themselves of his remaining three years left under contract, some across the league seem to view him as a much more valuable commodity than the majority of the franchise’s faithful followers do.
At least, it seems one specific NBA superstar does, as Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo recently sang the French native’s praise on a November 14 episode of Serge Ibaka’s YouTube show “How hungry are you?”
During the episode, Ibaka asked Antetokounmpo, a Greece native, to “put together” a starting lineup for both United States-born players and those who have come over to the association internationally.
While his selections for the U.S. team were seemingly uncontroversial — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Bam Adebayo –, when it came to the international lineup the two-time league MVP and NBA Champion arguably shocked all viewers, including Knicks fans, when he took Evan Fournier as the hypothetical starting shooting guard.
Along with his decision to include the Knicks wing, Antetokounmpo went on to fill out the starting five with the likes of himself, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and Joel Embiid, and would praise the proposed unit by saying that “it’s crazy” how much talent the lineup consists of.
Fournier Having a Down Season With Knicks
Though the veteran swingman may have established himself as one of the most trusty offensive role players in the association throughout his 11-year career, 2022-23 is certainly not proving to be one of his finer showings.
After inking a four-year, $73 million deal with the Knicks during the summer of 2021, many expected the, then, career 14.3 points per game, 38.1% 3-point shooting wing to help improve the team’s offensive game plan and give them a much-needed steady scoring presence to have filling out the starting lineup alongside centerpieces Julius Randle and RJ Barrett
Fast-forward a little over a year later, however, and we find Fournier relegated to a mere low-usage reserve role just 13 games into season two under contract whilst posting underwhelming averages of just 6.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists on a lackluster 34.4% shooting from the floor and 33.3% shooting from distance.
Still owed a potential total of $55.8 million through 2025, it is the belief of many that the best course of action moving forward for both parties could be to have them simply part ways via trade at some point in the near future, and, should the 30-year-old be placed on the block, one NBA executive believes there could be several teams found inquiring about his services.
Knicks Could Have Many Trade Partners
During a recent discussion with Heavy Sports’ NBA Insider Sean Deveney, an NBA executive shed light on the trade market that could be out there for Evan Fournier if the Knicks were to be interested in shopping him.
While the structure of his current deal may make a trade a bit difficult to execute, nonetheless there are still several teams that could benefit from the wing’s specific skill set, and the executive went on to list a few potential suitors.
“There are a lot of teams struggling to shoot so far, Minnesota comes to mind,” the executive told Deveney. “He would be a good fit there but it is hard for them to put the right contracts together to make that work.
“The Lakers, obviously, but they have nothing really to give back to the Knicks that would help them. Toronto would be a good fit but that’s hard to find a deal there.”
Despite his lowly season output thus far, Evan Fournier is still a player who could provide tremendous complementary talent to any number of championship-aspiring organizations, especially those who could use some extra perimeter players.
Coming into this year’s campaign, the veteran found himself boasting averages of 16.3 points on 39.7% shooting from distance since 2020 and, during his first season as a member of the New York Knicks, broke the franchise record for most 3-pointers made by a player in a single season with 241.