When Knicks players learned of the team’s trade with Toronto on Saturday morning, Evan Fournier picked up the phone to see if he was involved, Newsday’s Steve Popper writes. Fournier has been stuck in limbo for about a year, seeing little playing time as he’s been kept out of coach Tom Thibodeau’s rotation, but he’s still valuable due to an expiring $18 million contract that could be useful for salary adjustment in an important deal.
Fournier explained to Popper that he wasn’t looking for a way out of New York, but when he heard about the deal with the Raptors he wanted to know if he was part of it.
“Well, the thing is, as I understand it, I think he was saying it was a trade package involving RJ,” Fournier said. “So obviously you see it and go, ‘Oh.’ You check your phone and stuff like that. I sleep well at night. I don’t check my phone to see if there’s a trade or anything. I just focus on the moment because that’s the business.