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Although the season has been effectively over for some time, there are still games left, and as part of the Knicks’ efforts to make sure they have five players on the court at all times, the team has signed Westchester guard Billy Garrett Jr. for the rest of the year.
The team made the signing official a little before 4 pm on Tuesday, although the Knicks beat reporters, led by ESPN’s Ian Begley, revealed the news a few hours earlier. Technically, the contract is a 10-day deal, which brings us to the end of the season.
The Knicks have signed Westchester’s Billy Garrett to a deal for the rest of the season, league sources told ESPN.
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) April 2, 2019
The Knicks are signing Billy Garrett to a contract for the rest of the season, a source confirms. @IanBegley first on it. Garrett, 24, undrafted from DePaul, averaged 16.5 ppg at Westchester this year. Joins John Jenkins and Kadeem Allen (2-way) in making the jump from G League.
— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) April 2, 2019
With injury-decimated backcourt, Knicks finally have signed Billy Garrett Jr. to finish season. He's been a Westchester staple. They've always had that one roster spot left even after Jenkins and Ellenson signed.
— Marc Berman (@NYPost_Berman) April 2, 2019
In signing the 24-year-old, the Knicks finally pick up another Jr. to replace Tim Hardaway Jr., who now lives to infuriate, and sometimes endear himself to, fans of the Dallas Mavericks. Perhaps more importantly, in Garrett the Knicks are bringing aboard a 6’6”, 210-pound guard who played in 48 games for the W-Knicks this season, 32 of which he started. In 30 minutes per game, Garrett posted averages of 16.5 points (47 percent from the field, 32 percent from three, 86 percent from the free throw line), 3.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds.
Garrett getting called up to the Knicks comes shortly after the W-Knicks were knocked out of the playoffs in the second round, having lost to the Lakeland Magic, 104-91. Despite being eliminated from the G-League playoffs, the 2018-19 campaign can be considered a soaring success for Garrett, who made history this year by becoming the W-Knicks all-time leading scorer.
Credit to P&T’s very own ArdenFranklyn, who described Garrett as the “next, legitimate call up from the NBA’s G-League” in the intro to an interview he did with the now-Knick last month. You’ll find out lots of cool stuff by reading the entire interview, including that Garrett really loves his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, and that he’s a huge fan of Derrick Rose, who in case you forgot was once a Knick and will always be a Knick, even though he literally went MIA during the lone season he played in New York.
Garrett went to school at DePaul, where he had an acclaimed basketball playing stint for the Blue Demons. His college accomplishments include being named the 2014 Big East Rookie of the Year and scoring in double figures 64 times. He’s 34th on DePaul’s all-time scoring list (1,154 points), 4th in school history in free throw percentage (.826), and has the 15th most assists ever for a Blue Demon (325). He went undrafted in 2017 after his senior season, so maybe he’s the next Allonzo Trier.
Garrett’s father, Billy Garrett, works at DePaul, and is listed as the director of basketball operations. Just like the Hardaways, the Garretts are a father-son basketball duo.
Garrett wore number 3 this year for the W-Knicks, although it remains to be seen whether he’ll join John Starks, Stephon Marbury, Tracy McGrady, Hardaway Jr. and 16 others (per basketball reference) who have donned a Knicks jersey with that number in the NBA.
At this point, you might be saying to yourself, “um, are you going to post any highlights so we can see this guy in action? What the hell is taking so long?!”
You really oughta take a deep breath, quit yapping, view the following clips of Garrett, and have a great day: