Mike D’Antoni planning to start Landry Fields for the Rest of the Season
After making a surprising decision on who will be their starting shooting guard, New York Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni said that starting Landry Fields is not an experiment, and the rookie guard could
start for the rest of the season.
"All year,'' D'Antoni said when asked how long he'll use Fields as the team's starting shooting guard. "I'd be surprised if he can't do it.''
The 22-year old guard had a solid NBA debut as he finished the game with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the field against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday 27 October. The former Stanford standout also
added four rebounds and was 3-for-6 from beyond-the arc, and he was quite content with his performance.
"It was good just to get out there and get in the flow," said Fields, who was the Knicks' 39th overall pick in this year's draft. "I didn’t want to make too much out of it, my first real game. But I was happy
with it."
D’Antoni was also impressed with how Fields handled the pressure in his NBA debut, and said that the gritty guard is consistently improving from the day he started working with him.
"The best part of his game is all the little stuff," D’Antoni said. "He'll do what the game plan is. It's the consistency of all the details of the game that makes him unique. Normally you look at inconsistency
as a rookie but I don't see that. He didn't look nervous whatsoever.''
His superb performance in their pre-season games, where he was one of the Knicks’s consistent gunner from the three-point line, bumped out Wilson Chandler out of the starting five, but Chandler accepted his
new role and displayed flashes of brilliance in their season-opener.
The 23-year old forward provided a huge lift from the bench as he scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds, making himself an early favorite for this year’s sixth man of the year award.
Fields will have another acid test in their next game, where he’ll be matched up against the sweet-shooting guard, Ray Allen, when the Knicks face the Boston Celtics on Friday 29 October.
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