Fields is a pretty big disappointment to me. $6 million+ for what? 4.8 points?
I think asking him to be much more than a rotation caliber player, below average starter in the future is a bit much. I don't think he'll ever get much better.
But that said, I don't think he's nearly as bad as he's been playing.
I think Fields can easily be a 25 mpg game guy backing up the 2 and 3
The problem is that he's been getting around 22 minutes per game in Toronto, and is averaging those 4.8 points. His defense has been spotty, and he's shooting 11% from three. The only thing he's doing well is rebounding.
Now, hopefully he bounces back to where he was as a rookie. However, there's a good chance that he got his contract, and will never produce like he did.
Agree to disagree on his defense I guess, I think it has been pretty solid. They have opted to start Fields the last two times they played the knicks and have him match up on Melo.
In those two games combined melo was
16-48 from the field, 33%
2-14 from 3, 14%
Season averages for melo are 44% from the field and 39% from 3.
His overall defense this year ranks somewhere around the 44th percentile, in terms of points allowed per possession. To me, that backs up my observations, and is "spotty".
Where'd you find the percentile numbers?
The rough percentile can be found by taking their rank, and dividing by 450 (which is the number of players who have logged at least 1 minute this year).
Incidentally, of those 450 players, Austin Rivers ranks... 450th in win shares, with -1.3. I'm not a huge fan of the win shares stat is basketball, but that can't be good.
Michael Beasley is tied for last.