Knicks C Enes Kanter has been out of the regular rotation for head coach David Fizdale, who is focused on developing youngsters Mitchell Robinson and Luke Kornet instead. But, when Kornet suffered a sprained ankle and bone bruise, it was expected Kanter would see more time on the court against the Rockets on Wednesday night.
That wasn't the case, though, as Kanter never took off his warmup and received a DNP for the game. As one would expect, Kanter responded with frustration.
"They told me this morning that I'm starting,'' Kanter said, according to the New York Post's Marc Berman. "Now I come to the game and I didn't even play. I'm trying to be a good teammate, but I want to play basketball. If you're going to play me here, play me. If not, just get me out of here."
Fizdale was approached Thursday with Kanter's quotes, and his story wasn't the same as the one the Turkish center told.
According to NorthJersey.com's Chris Iseman, Fizdale did tell Kanter he was going to start on Wednesday morning, but there was nothing set in stone. When he ultimately decided to make a change, he said "Keith Smart's my messenger when I have to make a change."
This isn't the first time Kanter has shown his displeasure with his playing time, so if this continues to persist, will it begin to distract the team? Fizdale doesn't think so.
"What are we going to do? Lose more games?" he told Newsday's Steve Popper. "I shouldn't make light of it. Sometimes you've got to laugh."
The Knicks have already explored the potential of trading Kanter, but they have until the Feb. 7 trade deadline to do so. New York reportedly had preliminary conversations with Bulls and Kings to see if they would be interested in Kanter.
In the last five games, Kanter played a total 19 minutes and all of them came against the Thunder on Monday.