Knicks guard Trey Burke is crediting renewed religious faith not only for his improved play, but for the path that led him to New York, writes Ian Begley of ESPN. Burke, who scored 26 points for the second straight game Saturday, said he had an offer from the Thunder this summer, but opted for a G League contract with the Knicks’ Westchester affiliate.
“I bumped heads with my agent this summer because he didn’t understand [the decision to sign a G-League deal with the Knicks],” Burke recalled. “He pretty much called me and said, ‘OKC tomorrow for training camp. I’m going to call them back right now and say yeah, right?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘I want to go to New York. And I wanted to do that for the Lord. … I wanted to come to New York because I feel like this is a city where I can help a lot of people.”
His spiritual commitment also led Burke to make lifestyle changes that he says have helped him on the court. He got married over the summer, cut out frequent partying and has become more focused on basketball than ever before. He has a minimum-salary contract for next year with a $100K guarantee effective July 10 and a $400K guarantee on the first day of the season.
There’s more this morning out of New York:
- Troy Williams is doing his best to make the Knicks want to keep him on their roster, notes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Signed Wednesday to a 10-day contract, Williams had 14 points in 12 minutes Saturday. Williams said seven teams contacted his agent after he was waived by the Rockets last week, and the final choice came down to the Knicks or Trail Blazers.
- As Joakim Noah‘s leave of absence drags on, a former college teammate is coming to his defense, according to Zach Braziller of The New York Post. Celtics big man Al Horford hasn’t lost faith in Noah, who has played just seven games this season and hasn’t been with the team since an altercation with coach Jeff Hornacek at a January 24 practice. “I think Joakim can help any team,” Horford said. “I know he’s had a rough patch with injuries and things like that, but when he’s healthy, he’s as good as they come. And just his presence on a team, and what he brings defensively, he’s just about the right things.”
- Enes Kanter hasn’t decided whether to exercise his option on an $18.6MM salary for next season, but he repeated his desire to stay in New York after Saturday’s game, relays Al Iannazzone of Newsday. The seventh-year center is averaging 14.2 points and 10.7 rebounds in his first season with the Knicks. “I’m not saying I’m opting in or opting out,” Kanter said. “I’m going to focus on this season, finish this season. I don’t even have an agent yet. I’ll get an agent first and talk to him about [it]. My thing right now it would be selfish for me to just say I’ll do this, I’ll do that. I’m going to finish this season right, have fun with my teammates and start thinking about the contract stuff.”
Hope Kanter stays. Best center the Knicks have had in quite a few years.
He can’t defend, KP needs to play the 5 when he comes back and O’quinn as the backup. Kanter is a solid player but I hope he ops out
I think he’s making too much money and has grown accustomed to playing in NY to opt our
KP can’t play the 5. Hrs good at helping out and getting blocks, but he’s not a box or rebounder and gets pushed around by the thicker centers. If it’s small ball that the other team is playing, then he may have a chance.
Trey Burke is sounding like a ‘keeper’ ….
Trying to make the ‘near-irrelevant’ Knicks watchable again ….
As much as I did not think Trey Burke was an NBA player 5 minutes ago, I am now pulling for him to succeed and have a long NBA career.
I love the attitude, love the faith, love his commitment to a changed life from partying Etc to go to New York and seeing the opportunity to help people. Incredible transformation.
Nice job Trey !!
…an actual ‘root-able’ player !
Kanter has been the Knicks best player this year, by a margin. He’s not bad defensively at all. The notion that he is BS that comes from old scouting reports that go back to his final days in Utah as a very young frustrated inexperienced player. He’s not a guy that cover well away from the basket (few big men can), but he’s a physical presence in the lane and a dominate rebounder. Certainly he was HUGE upgrade defensively from Melo (maybe the worst defensive 4 in recent history). The Knicks are in the top 5 in the league in opponents FG % in the paint. If the KP-Melo combo (likely what would have been) performed like they did last year, the Knicks would be near the bottom.
This is the first I’ve heard that the Knicks were smart enough to sign Burke for next season. Otherwise he’d be UFA (and since the Knicks have no cap space or bird rights), he’d likely be gone.