SALT LAKE CITY — The team bus had left the university grounds an hour before for the trek back to their downtown Salt Lake City hotel Friday.
Suddenly emerging from the University of Utah’s women’s basketball practice gym were Damyean Dotson and Trey Burke, alongside emerging assistant coach Kaleb Canales, finishing up their hour of overtime work.
In Milwaukee on Thursday, Burke did not play and Dotson shot a pitiful 1-of-9. Both are returning from injuries and haven’t found their prior form.
And so they preferred to put in the extra work on their wayward shots. Before Saturday’s morning shootaround at Vivint Smart Home Arena ahead of the Knicks-Jazz contest, Dotson and Burke again arrived an hour earlier than their teammates.
“You got to find a way to get that rhythm back,’’ Dotson said Saturday morning. “Sometimes you get complacent on the road. You go back to the hotel after practice and come back when shootaround starts. I talked to Trey. We shouldn’t get complacent when we have bad shooting nights.”
Amid the massive losing, coach David Fizdale, whose club owns the league’s second-worst at 9-27, can at least point to this brand of player commitment.
“It’s the nature of our team,’’ Fizdale said. “It makes me happy to see the kind of guys we have.’’
After shootaround, Dotson, the Knicks second-round pick in 2017, sat in a chair on the arena sidelines with a hefty ice pack on his right shoulder. His shooting dip, he doesn’t believe, is related to shoulder discomfort. The shoulder bruise cost him three games after he got hit on a drive by Cleveland’s Jaron Blossomgame.
In his first game back from the shoulder injury, Dotson looked in sync, going 6-of-11 in Philadelphia nine days ago. But since then, he’s been invisible — shooting 3-of-15 the past three contests.
“I just got to stay on top of it,’’ Dotson said of his shoulder. “Ice it, keep it warm and get a rhythm.”
Even if he is a Phil Jackson/Clarence Gaines Jr. draft pick, sources have indicated strong interest in keeping Dotson for the Knicks’ future — a rising 3-and-D type. The club has until July 15th to enact the final non-guaranteed year of his contract. There’s been interest in him from other teams, including the Pistons and the Nets.
In his sitdown with Knicks writers eight days ago, president Steve Mills, unsolicited, talked about Dotson and Frank Ntilikina sharing the same work ethic and both competing against each other in 1-on-1’s after practices. Ntilikina, the Knicks lottery pick in 2017, told Mills he relates most on the team to Dotson because of their undying attention to their craft.
If the Knicks believe in Dotson and undrafted rookie Allonzo Trier as their future at shooting guard, it could give the franchise more confidence in shipping Tim Hardaway Jr.’s long-term contract this summer if they need to open a maximum $38 million slot for Kevin Durant.
“It’s all worth [it] — it’s our job and part of the plan,’’ Dotson said. “Just got rhythm shots up, all shots you get in a game to find that rhythm.’’Burke’s struggles are more severe and his future with the club is unclear as the former Jazz lottery pick has an expiring contract.
Since returning from a knee sprain, Burke is shooting 4-of-23 in three games and has not played in three others. The Knicks have desperately missed his offensive contributions. Since injuring his knee against Milwaukee on Dec. 1, the Knicks are 1-11.
Fizdale was told new starting center Luke Kornet is planning to shove a bunch of envelopes into his office in response to the coach’s recent wisecrack. Fizdale had said Kornet “couldn’t jump over an envelope.’’
“That’s about right,’’ Fizdale said. “We joke all the time. What I like about him is he’s a guy who is always even. He can laugh at himself and crack his own little jokes.’’ The undrafted Kornet gets a big task in the Jazz’s shot-blocking machine Rudy Gobert on Saturday.
“Very interesting matchup and real good for Luke to go against a guy like this,’’ Fizdale said. “An established center who you got to keep off the rim and a guy you got to keep up with in pace.’��