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I don't know if Mike wants to rock the boat, but we really need Shump's defense in the starting lineup. Fields is struggling badly and he’s hurting the offensive flow. I think it may be time to put Shump in the starting lineup.

He has enough players to experiment with at the two spot. I don't see why not. Their contribution on any given night scoring wise can be about the same, with Shumpert always giving a consistent defensive effort though against quick guards.

I think he's getting close to doing it. Fields only played 15 mins and he hardly played in the second half because of his performance. I think Shumpert closing out games recently is another telling sign.

Fields is just out of his depth in big games. He's just too slow and nervous. Shump and JR from here on out.

Mike jokes about the 2nd team beating the first team in practice as if it's funny. ****'s not funny motherfuggah. Switch that **** up.

i think this is a good idea.

I am a fan of Fields, but he is a SF in this league and not a 2G. Fields should get his minutes as backup SF

Fields' defense wasn't the problem this game. In fact, I thought he did a pretty good job guarding Allen and chasing him around all over the place. Shump's defense is no doubt an upgrade, but Fields played nicely on that end of the court today. We need more activity on offense and Shump showed us what he can really do today -- played brilliantly. He's been playing w/much more confidence, strength, and athleticism since he came back from the injury; love the fact he's attacking more.

As for who starts...I'm down for a change. No reason not to try. However, it's not who starts the game...it's who ends it. As long as either Shump/JR get the minutes down the stretch of the game, then I'm fine.

j4remi wrote:I think he's getting close to doing it. Fields only played 15 mins and he hardly played in the second half because of his performance. I think Shumpert closing out games recently is another telling sign.

I love Fields, but he's a liability on defense and he's erratic on offense. Shumpert brings so many things we need at SG, that it simply has to happen. Shumpert has to start. Fields should come in with the second team.

He doesn't fit with Melo period

The only reason he became serviceable this year with Melo in the game was because Melo sucked

Shumpert should have been named starter the day we drafted him. Lol

Seriously though, Shumpert should have started games ago. We need his energy & defense because our line-up will feed off of him.
No need for Shump & JR to come off the bench.
Start Shump & have Fields come off the bench with Baron, JR, Novak, & Jefferies. Baron will help Fields get some quality looks off the bench.

Paco wrote:Fields' defense wasn't the problem this game. In fact, I thought he did a pretty good job guarding Allen and chasing him around all over the place. Shump's defense is no doubt an upgrade, but Fields played nicely on that end of the court today. We need more activity on offense and Shump showed us what he can really do today -- played brilliantly. He's been playing w/much more confidence, strength, and athleticism since he came back from the injury; love the fact he's attacking more.

As for who starts...I'm down for a change. No reason not to try. However, it's not who starts the game...it's who ends it. As long as either Shump/JR get the minutes down the stretch of the game, then I'm fine.

I disagree that it doesn't matter who starts the game. We can debate whether Fields is to primarily blame, but it does matter who starts the game. We cannot--I repeat CANNOT--continue to have to dig ourselves out of the holes we put ourselves in every single game with these awful beginning of first/third quarter performances.

Shumpert provides stability to the team. I'm impressed by JR's defense too. Better then i expected. They must have forced him to play some defense in China.

starting line-up needs to change. way too much evidence at this point that they're not a good unit. we win games because of other units, not because of the starting line-up. I agree that moving fields would probably be the first move to try to make. second might be moving amar'e.

Shump & JR are our only 2 shooting guards on the team. Don't know why D'antoni fails to realize that. Don't care if Fields is a funny personality, just take his starting spot away & bring him off the bench. Not like we're asking him to give him the Toney Douglas treatment.
Lin/Davis
Shumpert/JR
Melo/Fields
Is it really that hard to recognize?

Knicks_Fan2 wrote:

Paco wrote:Fields' defense wasn't the problem this game. In fact, I thought he did a pretty good job guarding Allen and chasing him around all over the place. Shump's defense is no doubt an upgrade, but Fields played nicely on that end of the court today. We need more activity on offense and Shump showed us what he can really do today -- played brilliantly. He's been playing w/much more confidence, strength, and athleticism since he came back from the injury; love the fact he's attacking more.

As for who starts...I'm down for a change. No reason not to try. However, it's not who starts the game...it's who ends it. As long as either Shump/JR get the minutes down the stretch of the game, then I'm fine.

I disagree that it doesn't matter who starts the game. We can debate whether Fields is to primarily blame, but it does matter who starts the game. We cannot--I repeat CANNOT--continue to have to dig ourselves out of the holes we put ourselves in every single game with these awful beginning of first/third quarter performances.

I didn't mean for my post to come off as me believing that I don't care who starts the game -- just that it's more important that the right players close the game. I agree that we need to find a lineup that allows us to not have to dig out from large deficits. I'm curious to see what happens in these next few games.

There's no 5-man unit statistics on 82games for Lin, Shump, Melo, Amar'e, and Tyson.

I would start him ahead of Fields yes.

As said, Fields can back up the SF position which is his natural position.

The main thing with starting Shumpert is that when he is in the game, regardless of whether Fields defended pretty well tonight, our intensity goes up on the defensive end and obviously he brings a lot more on the offensive end.

We need to start games strongly, not just finish them strongly so we need to put him in there because it should mean we start with a good intensity.

Paco wrote:I didn't mean for my post to come off as me believing that I don't care who starts the game -- just that it's more important that the right players close the game. I agree that we need to find a lineup that allows us to not have to dig out from large deficits. I'm curious to see what happens in these next few games.

There's no 5-man unit statistics on 82games for Lin, Shump, Melo, Amar'e, and Tyson.

We can't go on this way. Starting lineup has to be the best lineup available and it's not working with Fields. He's claerly the weakest link.

Landry Fields is not a SG and shouldn't be relied upon as such. He would be great backing melo up.

IDK if shump or jr should start though.

zr34 wrote:

Paco wrote:I didn't mean for my post to come off as me believing that I don't care who starts the game -- just that it's more important that the right players close the game. I agree that we need to find a lineup that allows us to not have to dig out from large deficits. I'm curious to see what happens in these next few games.

There's no 5-man unit statistics on 82games for Lin, Shump, Melo, Amar'e, and Tyson.

We can't go on this way. Starting lineup has to be the best lineup available and it's not working with Fields. He's claerly the weakest link.

Dude, read what I said lol. "I agree that we need to find a lineup that allows us to not have to dig out from large deficits." I am in favor of a change.

Signature NYK wrote:Landry Fields is not a SG and shouldn't be relied upon as such. He would be great backing melo up.

IDK if shump or jr should start though.

shump. I like JR with the second unit because more shots are available to him in that case

Doesnt really matter who starts.Shump should get more minutes then him though which he did. 30 to 15