BOSTON — This is no shooting-guard experiment.
Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni foresees second-round rookie sensation Landry Fields spending the entire season as the starting shooting guard, meaning Wilson Chandler could be stuck as sixth man during his contract year.
“All year,” D’Antoni said when asked at yesterday’s practice at Emerson College how long it will last.
“I’d be surprised if he can’t do it,” D’Antoni added.
Fields had a rock-solid NBA debut last night in Toronto, with 11 points, making 4 of 8 shots — 3 of 6 from 3-point distance. The gritty ex-Stanford player also had four rebounds.
Tonight, the 39th pick in the 2010 draft who wasn’t on some NBA boards matches up against illustrious shooting guard Ray Allen at the new Boston Garden.
“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 whatsover.”
Fields was a four-year player at Stanford and is 22. It’s stunning he has looked more polished than Danilo Gallinari all month.
In fact, Fields, who is wearing No. 6 not in honor of LeBron James, is playing so well he may play himself to Denver, which is exploring trading Carmelo Anthony.
After Fields’ superb Las Vegas summer league, playing for D’Antoni’s brother Dan, the Knicks head coach still didn’t see him cracking the rotation.
“In the summer, I thought no way, but he keeps getting better,” Mike D’Antoni said.
Why did so many teams have him as undraftable?
“He played 4, his shot isn’t the most fluid thing in the world and you’re thinking he didn’t play on a good team,” D’Antoni said. “He came on late and he’s not a typical athletic guy. He doesn’t look as athletic as he is. You put a label on a guy. We got lucky”
Fields’ emergence has allowed D’Antoni to bring Chandler, whose seeking a contract extension, off the bench. It’s a coaching decision that looks genius after one game.
Chandler popped off the pine Wednesday to score a team-high 22 points in a rabid performance. Of his bench role, Chandler said, “I don’t know, it could change, could stay the same.”
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MSG Network ratings for Knicks’ season-opening win in Toronto on Wednesday was up 166 percent over last season’s opening night.
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The decision on the final roster spot between Shawne Williams
and Patrick Ewing Jr
. might not have been as close as D’Antoni publicly stated.
Insiders said Williams impressed the coaching staff with his silky shooting so much, that some players even went up to D’Antoni to lobby for the Pacers’ former first-rounder, presumably Amar’e Stoudemire
.
Stoudemire’s agent is Happy Walters
, who also represents Williams.
D’Antoni has advised Ewing to gain experience in Europe.
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Asked about Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov
‘s quote that Stoudemire looked sad on his Brooklyn billboard like he wanted to play in that borough, Stoudamire snapped yesterday, “Not quite.”