Evan Fournier lost his spot on the New York Knicks rotation last season after just a few games. Heading into 2023-24, he's ready to regain that starting spot. In fact, he boldly declared that he'll give Tom Thibodeau no other option but to do so through his play.
Fournier played in just 27 games in 2022-23. He was a starter in the first seven games of the campaign before Thibodeau decided to bench him. From that, he lost his minutes and eventually his spot in the rotation. Fournier did play 20 more games overall coming off the bench, but it was made clear the Frenchman was not in Coach Thibs' plans moving forward.
As he enters the new season with the Knicks, however, Fournier is not giving up hope that he'll earn his minutes back. He remains confident about what he can do and bring to the table for New York, and he vowed to show exactly that and make an impact on the team.
“To be honest guys, I might be dreaming of stuff, but to me I can help the team. Like I'm a good player. I can f**king play. I bring stuff that this team doesn't have, too,” Fournier said on Saturday, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News.
“So, I have hope to play, to be honest. I have hope to play. Maybe I’m crazy, I don’t know. Maybe [head coach Tom Thibodeau] has already made up his mind and stuff, but my goal is to put him in a position where he has to think about playing me. And I'm gonna treat every practice and every opportunity I have like it's my last and we'll take it from there. But that's honestly how I attack it.”
Evan Fournier certainly has the right mentality here. Instead of taking offense and causing unnecessary drama because he lost his spot and rotation minutes, he went back to work to let his game do the talking.
Of course it's still up to Tom Thibodeau to decide how he'll utilize Fournier. The veteran swingman's efforts might end up in vain, sure, but at least he tried.
What's Tom Thibodeau's plan for Evan Fournier?
For what it's worth, Thibodeau has refused to share what he plans to do with Fournier moving forward. When asked about the decision to bench the 30-year-old wing in the previous season, Coach Thibs emphasized he did it since things weren't initially working. And with New York eventually making it to the postseason and all the way to the second round, it was clear that what they did worked.
“I didn't come into (last) season thinking we were going to do the things that we did. We did it because we didn't have success one way. So, we adjusted and then the next group that went in, it's hard to argue with (a) 37-22 (record) with a plus-5 net rating. So, it is what it is,” Thibodeau explained recently, via Stefan Bondy of the New York Post
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