Yesterday, Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni made waves when he announced Landry Fields, the Knicks's second-round pick from Stanford, will start at shooting guard in tonight's season opener. From Howard Beck of the New York Times:
“He doesn’t make mistakes, he plays with a high energy and gives a lot of the intangibles that we look for,” D’Antoni said of Fields. “He’s also a guy that will allow the ball to go to Amar’e [Stoudemire] a lot to start with.”
The Knicks opened the preseason with Wilson Chandler as the starting shooting guard. He played well, but his best position is power forward. The Knicks also need more bench scoring, and Chandler – who averaged 15.3 points last season – is an ideal sixth man, with his ability to play three positions.
In seven preseason appearances for New York, Fields averaged 8.6 points in 19.1 minutes. Though he rarely shot the ball, he converted his chances at an impressive 54.8 percent rate from the field, including 42.9 percent from three-point range.
Landry will team with Raymond Felton in the backcourt. Danilo Gallinari, Stoudemire, and Timofey Mozgov round out the starting unit, with Gallinari the only player from that group who played on last year's Knicks squad.