Eighteen months after playing his way into lottery-pick money as an undrafted NBA rookie, Allonzo Trier is looking for work again.
The New York Knicks waived the former Arizona standout Friday after picking up Theo Pinson from Brooklyn off waivers, ending a two-year relationship that began when Trier signed a two-way contract after going unselected in the 2018 NBA draft.
Trier scored 15 points for the Knicks on opening night and kept playing so well as a rookie that he never spent a minute in the G League.
As he reached 45 days in the NBA, the maximum allowed under two-way deals, Trier was averaging 11.3 points and hitting 39.1% of his 3-pointers.
That prompted the Knicks to hand Trier a new $6.9 million deal for two seasons, the most ever given to a player coming off a two-way contract. It also essentially turned Trier into a lottery pick, since his new $3.4 million salary in 2018-19 equaled that allotted the No. 11 draft pick.
New York Knicks guard Allonzo Trier (14) shoots against the Charlotte Hornets in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. Charlotte won 107-101. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
“I felt like I was that good and I went out there and played like it,” Trier told the Star in January 2019, after a game at Golden State. “It couldn’t have worked out better. I never wavered. Kept true to myself and the game.”
Despite a midseason hamstring injury, Trier finished 2018-19 with an average of 10.9 points over 64 games but his playing time and production dropped off considerably this season.
He played in just 24 of 66 games despite having no significant injury issues, and appeared in just 13 of the 44 games after Mike Miller took over as interim coach for the fired David Fizdale.
Ever-confident and focused on the court, Trier faced plenty of adversity at Arizona before arriving in the NBA.
He missed a month of his freshman season in 2015-16 with a broken wrist, was suspended for half of the 2016-17 season because of a positive PED test and was forced to sit out another two games in 2018-19 when the same PED, Ostarine, reappeared. He was reinstated when a subsequent test was clean.
Trier finished his three-year UA career as the program’s all-time 27th top scorer despite playing in just 78 games. His career scoring average of 16.8 points is tied for the seventh-highest among Arizona’s top 30 alltime scorers.
Thursday, the Knicks waived former UA guard Kadeem Allen.
