Post Reply

If you were logged in you would gain 3 XP for posting a reply.

Please respect our terms of use when participating in Nibbits.

Preview
Comment
We will show a masked version of your IP address as well as your name.

You are replying to:

  • 2006: Morris Peterson starts the first six games of the season at small forward, was yanked for Fred Jones and eventually Jorge Garbajosa would take over the position. 2007: Free agent signee Jason Kapono starts the first six games of the season at small forward then loses his spot to training camp invitee, Jamario Moon. 2008: Moon starts the first eight games of the season, and a smattering thereafter, before being traded with Jermaine ONeal for Shawn Marion, who finished the season at the position. 2009: Free agent signee Hedo Turkoglu starts the season at small forward, is universally loathed by fans, is traded in the offseason to Phoenix. 2010: Free agent signee Linas Kleiza starts the first eight games of the season at small forward, was replaced thereafter by the minimum-salaried Sonny Weems. 2011: Free agent signee Rasual Butler (inexplicably) starts the first fourteen games of the season at small forward before losing his spot to James Johnson. 2012: Free agent signee Landry Fields has started the first five games of the season at small forward... Notice a trend here? Ever since Bryan Colangelo took over the Toronto Raptors in 2006, he has been befuddled by the starting small forward position on his team. He has spent lavishly on free agents in an attempt to plug that leaky hole in his starting lineup, but year-after-year his plans have backfired and it looks like the Landry Fields experiment is quickly becoming another failed attempt to solve the problem simply by throwing tons of money at it. Through five games, Fields is averaging 2.4 ppg on 20 per cent shooting and is currently batting 0 per cent from behind the arc. In Wednesdays contest against the Mavericks, his confidence looked completely shot, as did his coachs confidence in him. Fields played just 19 minutes in the game, his fewest this season despite a steady downward trend in playing time since the season kicked off. In games earlier this season, his defence was allowing him to stay on the court but after letting both Kevin Durant and O.J. Mayo go off against him, not even his defence looks likely to save him from an eventual demotion to the teams second unit. Part of the problem has been the fact that Fields offensive strengths - running the court and making smart off-ball cuts - have been neutered considerably by Torontos isolation and pick-and-roll heavy offence. It also doesnt help his cause that the starters he plays with arent particularly heads-up when it comes to making quick passes to weak-side cutters. A bigger problem, though, is that Fields just hasnt executed like the team needed him to through their first five games. Hes missed easy two-point jumpers, hes botched lay-ups and the .393 he shot from three in his rookie year looks to be a very distant memory. He looks totally out of place right now and the team looks stymied as to how to snap him out of his funk. Working in Fields favour, at least for now, is the fact that there is no starting-calibre small forward waiting in the wings. The team could slide Alan Anderson into his place, but he would represent just another starter with offensive tunnel vision that doesnt have the size to match-up against opposing starters at that position. For now the team is better served hoping Fields can find himself - and quickly - by trying to run a couple of plays early that play to his strengths in the hopes that he can catch a rhythm that can carry him back onto a productive path. If the club cannot revive him then perhaps Anderson does get elevated as a placeholder while Colangelo hits the phones and works desperately to get a capable replacement player into that spot. No one expected Fields to turn his role with the Raptors into an All-Star appearance, but he was supposed to be savvy enough to hold down the fort until the club could get a more significant upgrade at small forward lined up - be it this year or next year or the year after that. Instead, he represents the least productive member of the teams regular rotation and is a serious drain on their early-game performance. Raptors fans have seen this movie before. They know the script and they know that a half-decent replacement usually manifests at some point, but that replacement usually only looks half-decent when set against the low standard set by the man hes replacing. I really thought Fields had a shot to bring a coalescing presence to the Raptors this season, so Im not trying to act like I saw this as inevitable, but history has a way of repeating itself and Fields seems to just be the latest in Torontos annual small forward disappointment-a-thon. Hes got lots and lots of time to turn it around, but after six years of this its hard to pretend that anyone is really holding out hope that he will. Cheap San Antonio Spurs Jerseys .ca mixed martial arts rankings. For a breakdown of the UFC champions click here. Heavyweight 1) Junior Dos Santos2) Cain Velasquez3) Alistair Overeem4) Fabricio Werdum5) Daniel Cormier Didnt Make The Cut: Shane Carwin, Frank Mir, Josh Barnett Light Heavyweight 1) Jon Jones2) Dan Henderson3) Lyoto Machida4) Rashad Evans5) Mauricio (Shogun) Rua Didnt Make The Cut: Alexander Gustafsson, Phil Davis, Gegard Mousasi Middleweight 1) Anderson Silva2) Vitor Belfort3) Chael Sonnen4) Michael Bisping5) Chris Weidman Didnt Make The Cut: Alan Belcher, Tim Boetsch, Brian Stann Welterweight 1) Georges St. Cheap Jerseys . Instead, in the wake of a humiliating 8-1 defeat in Honduras, they find themselves forced to do yet another post-mortem on the mens soccer program. In the past, Canadian soccer has been used to one step forward, two steps back. http://cambridgediversity.org/cheapjerseysfromchina.html . Theyre still right there in the playoff race, despite months of substandard play. Cabrera became the first player in Tigers history to reach 30 home runs in five straight seasons and Scherzer threw seven scoreless innings for Detroit in a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. Cheap Jerseys from China .Y. -- Canadian-owned Ill Have Another will go for the Triple Crown from post No. Cheap Jerseys China . "I dont think its the time for armchair coaching," Hall-of-Famer and current player agent Bobby Orr told Beverly Thomson on Canada AM Thursday.ST. LOUIS -- Rams defensive end Robert Quinn is facing a drunken-driving charge after being pulled over in a St. Louis suburb last week. Florissant police Capt. Tim Lowery says Quinn was involved in a one-car accident on an exit ramp along Interstate 270 at 5:38 a.m. on July 10. Lowery says Quinn was intoxicated and arrested without incident. He posted bond that day and was released.dddddddddddd Quinn is also charged with failure to exercise a high degree of care, and with having no insurance. The Rams say the team and the league are aware of the case and take it seriously. Quinn was the Rams first-round draft pick in 2011, the 14th overall selection out of North Carolina. He was third on the team with five sacks in 2011. ' ' '

    Lieutenant
    avatar

Support Nibbits by linking to us: