GREENBURGH, N.Y. — A year ago, Allonzo Trier entered his first NBA training camp with the Knicks in an uncertain position.
The former Arizona star was on a two-way contract, and it wasn’t clear how much time he would spend with New York and how much with its NBA G League franchise, the Westchester Knicks.
He ended up never playing in the G League because of his impressive play with the Knicks. But now that Trier has a guaranteed contract for this season, he faces another challenge. The team is loaded at shooting guard and on the wing, and Trier will face stiff competition for playing time.
One ESPN.com depth chart, for example, lists, Trier as the fourth option at shooting guard behind rookie R.J. Barrett out of Duke and free-agent signees Reggie Bullock, who is injured, and Wayne Ellington.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Trier said recently of the position battles expected to take place leading up to the Oct. 23 season opener at San Antonio. “It’s going to push us all to get better, continue to push each other and that’s just going to make us a better basketball team.”
In the Knicks first preseason game, Trier went scoreless in eight minutes in a win at Washington. Friday, he scored 14 points in 17 minutes and had five turnovers in a home loss to the Wizards.
“When I threw him in there, he gave us a real lift,” Knicks coach David Fizdale said after the game.
After going undrafted out of Arizona, the 6-foot-5-inch Trier signed a two-way contract in July 2018. He inked a guaranteed contract in December, and the club exercised his second-year option in June. Trier, 23, is due to make $3.5 million this season.
He scored a career-high 31 points on Jan. 23 against Houston, and played 64 games before being shut down in March with a calf injury.
Now he says he’s 100 percent healthy and ready to contribute to a Knicks team that is not projected to be a playoff outfit.
“Yeah, I feel great,” he said. “I’m really excited going into the season.”
Allonzo Trier, center, knows his coach wants him to shoot more from the outside. “Coach has that confidence in me and I really dedicate my time to my craft,” he said.
The Knicks and their fans had high hopes of landing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in free agency, but both spurned the Knicks for the rival Brooklyn Nets. Last week Durant said in a radio interview that “the cool thing right now is not the Knicks,” pointing out that New York hasn’t won anything recently so young kids have no recollection of them succeeding.
Trier is close friends with Durant, but said he wasn’t upset by his decision
“How am I going to be disappointed in a decision he makes?” he said. “That has nothing to do with my position on this team or what’s going on here.”
He added: “I’m his friend, first and foremost. I respect whatever decision he made. He wanted to go play basketball there; good for him.”
Trier owns nine career 20-plus scoring games and the 31-point game. He shot 39 percent from beyond the arc last season but attempted just 2.1 treys per game. Fizdale wants to see him shoot more 3-pointers while expanding his game in other areas.
“I want to see him getting his three-ball off more and not depending on playing off the dribble so much,” Fizdale said. “Being willing to move the ball when the play calls for it and becoming a better rebounder from the guard position. Those are things we’ve talked about a lot.”
Knicks point guard Dennis Smith Jr., a former NC State star, believes Trier will make a jump this season.
“He’s going to make a big improvement,” Smith Jr. said. “He can still score the ball with the best of them. I’m looking forward to him bringing that in this year. His scoring ability and he can pick it up on the defensive end.”
Trier says a year in the league has taught him how the NBA game is played and he’s more prepared for this season.
“I definitely felt the game slow down,” he said. “Even for the one Summer League game I did play I just felt like the game was a lot easier. The way the game was played, spacing, just reads, all got easier for me. That’s something that I’ll continue to get better at in my career. I’m only going into year two. But I felt I made strides in those areas.”
He knows that Fizdale wants him to shoot the 3 more, and he’s planning on doing so.
“Coach has that confidence in me and I really dedicate my time to my craft so I think I shoot it well,” he said.
Still, how much playing time Trier will see remains to be seen. He faces stiff competition at the two-guard spot, with Barrett, the No. 3 overall pick, and several seasoned vets in the mix.
“Like I said before, we’re two- and three-deep at almost every position now and guys are going to have to really fight to get those minutes,” Fizdale said.
For now, Trier and his teammates are all saying the right things, but the battle for playing time could have negative repercussions for the team if some guys feel they should be playing when they’re not.
“I would say 12 guys on their roster will say ‘I should play 25 minutes,’ ” NBA analyst Kenny Smith told the New York Post. “Six of those guys are not going to play 25 minutes and they’re going to look at it as, well, why not? There aren’t many guys on that team who don’t feel they should play 25 minutes.”
Trier and the Knicks visit Phoenix on Jan. 3 and host the Suns at Madison Square Garden Jan. 16.
Trier also keeps tabs on his old team and says he hopes UA has a big season this year with a recruiting class ranked among the best in the nation.
“Hopefully,” he says, “they have a really great year.”
