Ian Begley, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Should Knicks keep Travis Wear?

Travis Wear may not end up on the Knicks’ regular season roster. But it sounds as if he has a future with the organization.

Knicks head coach Derek Fisher has been impressed with Wear's play in the preseason.

“He works hard every single day. He has some natural talents and some natural gifts that you can’t coach,” Fisher said on Sunday. “He's extremely athletic. And he has a feel for the game of basketball and he's helped us in the minutes that he has gotten out on the floor.”

The Knicks signed Wear to a training camp contract that contained a partial guarantee. He has had a solid preseason, scoring 3.25 points and pulling down 2.25 rebounds in 10 minutes per game.

“He has definitely proven in a short segment that he has some potential,” Fisher said. “So we're excited by it.”

Wear will likely get caught up in a numbers game at the end of the preseason, though. The Knicks have 15 players under guaranteed contracts. They’d have to release one of those players to create a roster spot for Wear.

That means that they'd have to be willing to eat money to keep Wear. While this doesn't make much fiscal sense, it's a move that's being considered elsewhere in the NBA.

In Dallas, the Mavericks may keep veteran Charlie Villanueva on the regular-season roster. Villanueva has a non-guaranteed deal. To keep him, the Mavs would have to cut a player that has already been guaranteed money.

Would the Knicks be willing to do the same?

That’s unclear at this point. The most likely candidate to be cut to make room for Wear would seem to be Travis Outlaw.

Outlaw is on the books for $3 million this season.

For what it’s worth, it doesn’t seem as if Wear is overly worried about his future. “I’m just trying to work every day and just do the best I can and not worry about all that stuff and just play,” he said on Sunday.

One of the biggest adjustments to NBA life for Wear has been spending time apart from his twin brother, David. The Wear brothers were top-notch recruits out of Mater Dei HS in California. They spent a year at North Carolina before transferring to UCLA.

“Honestly, I don’t think that we've ever spent more than a few days apart, maybe 20 days,” Wear said.

David spent training camp and part of the preseason with Sacramento but was released on Sunday.

If Travis Wear meets the same fate with the Knicks, he can possibly end up with the Knicks’ D League team in Westchester. At that point, Wear would be free to sign with any NBA team.

Fisher hinted that that's the direction the Knicks were leaning when he said this of Wear on Sunday: "In terms of where he might fit into our roster, we'll continue to evaluate that and we have a lot of veteran guys that are already on our roster and you know it might be tough for him to break through that."

So if Wear ends up in Westchester, his comfort level in the triangle offense would make him a valuable piece for the D League club – and a player who may have a future in the organization.

Question: What do you think about what you've seen from Wear thus far? Should the Knicks keep him on the regular season roster?



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