Former Arizona guard Allonzo Trier has signed a two-way contract with the Knicks, and will be in New York City next week, a source close to Trier told SNY.tv.

The 6-foot-5 Trier is a scoring wing who averaged 18.1 points, 3.2 assists and 3.0 rebounds last season for the Wildcats, where he played alongside eventual No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton and New York wing Rawle Alkins. Both Trier and Alkins went undrafted Thursday night.

"Allonzo is a gifted scorer at all three levels who understands the importance and urgency of working diligently on his craft daily," Arizona assistant Mark Phelps told SNY.tv. "He is an absolute professional when it comes to every aspect of the game and has an excellent broad knowledge of NBA players and teams and a genuine admiration and respect for the NBA in general.

"He will bring the Knicks' organization an infectious passion and a relentless pursuit of self-improvement. His ability to focus on excellence on the court without off-court distractions will serve him and the organization well as both he and the team chase success."

Under the terms of a two-way, Trier can earn between $75,000 and $275,000 next season depending on how many days he spends in the NBA.

He will likely play summer league ball along with Knicks draft picks Kevin Knox and Mitchell Robinson, who were introduced Friday. The Knicks considered taking Trier at No. 36, but took Robinson instead, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

On Feb. 22, Trier was ruled ineligible by the NCAA after testing positive for a banned substance. He was then ruled eligible March 1.

Last year, the Knicks had Vanderbilt's Luke Kornet and North Carolina's Isaiah Hicks on two-way contracts, with both players practicing with the team and ultimately seeing game action.

Both Allan Houston, the GM of the Westchester Knicks, and Craig Robinson, the Knicks director of player development who also happens to be Barack Obama's brother-in-law, are big fans of the two-way contracts which began last season.

"I think the two-way program is a great idea," Robinson said a year ago. "And one of the main reasons, it gives us a chance to keep some talent that we've been losing to Europe and other places here in the United States. It gives 60 more guys an opportunity to play in the NBA. I would've loved to have that when I was playing. And then finally you're getting two more Knick players better that could end up winning some games for you at the Garden."

Houston pointed out that before the two-way the Westchester Knicks had previously lost players like Langston Hughes and Chasson Randle to other NBA teams. But now with the two-way, those players can only be called up to the Knicks.

"I think this is a very sound transition towards one-to-one," Houston said. "You develop and have players like Langston and Chasson Randle. We've had players that have come through our system that we fully intended to have on the Knicks roster but there's only so many roster spots.

"Then you go through this process and they feel comfortable, they develop and the system didn't allow for them to remain with us. So what we found is during the draft process last year we kept in mind that this could be a potential asset for us an organization."

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