Now that I have thought about it a little bit longer, I think Smith should come in off the bench. I really like the chemistry between Lin and Fields, they seem to be really good friends. Plus Fields is a good defender and spot up shooter which fits better with Melo and Lin because he doesn't need the ball in his hands.
Then you can have Smith come in as 6th man when Melo needs a rest to pick up the scoring for the second unit .
I agree. Smith the sixth man makes a lot more sense. The starting lineup needs Fields's glue-guy abilities more than Smith's streaky scoring. Also gives the Knicks more consistency.
Better question, perhaps, is what role does Shumpert play? How about Toney Douglas? One or both of them has to get buried a bit. Bill Walker probably sees his playing time mostly disappear, too.
This is exactly it, and y'all beat me to it haha.
Lin and Fields have excellent chemistry, and with so much firepower on that team they need a guy like Fields to start as he's extremely unselfish and gives effort on defense, on the glass, and in transition. After all, you need at least one guy who's willing to move the ball, right?
To answer your question a bit, Pos, it looks like Douglas is already getting phased out. He racked up like 4 DNP-CD's in a row earlier this week and then got 6 minutes of burn in their blowout win over SAC. It looks like they make of lost that kid, which is too bad, because he's still young and still has upside. Might be an intruiging trade chip??