OK, Raptors, Landry Fields Is All Yours — Now What?

When the Toronto Raptors announced they had given a three-year, $19-million offer sheet to New York Knicks swingman Landry Fields, there was a lot of consternation in Raptors Nation.

Much of the speculation at the time centered on the idea that Raps general manager Bryan Colangelo made the offer to paint the Knicks into a corner and elbow them out of the pursuit of guard Steve Nash. We all know how that turned out: Nash asked the Phoenix Suns to sign him, then trade him to the L.A. Lakers. Now Landry Fields is the newest member of the Toronto Raptors, and it appears that the club was left holding the bag.

After all, they offered what is still seen as way too much money for Fields, a player whose significant stats all declined in his second year in the league: from 9.7 points per game to 8.8; 5.1 rebounds to 4.2; 50 percent floor shooting to 46; 40 percent from three-point range to 26. It’s a far cry from 2010, when his impact was so widely felt that he blocked out Paul George from the All-Rookie Team. Even rabid Knicks fan Spike Lee started wearing Fields’ No. 6 jersey to games.

Now the Raptors have to think that last season was a “sophomore slump” for Fields and nothing more, and that the best is yet to come. It might still be: some Fields supporters attributed the dropoff in his second-year numbers to the presence of Carmelo Anthony. When Melo, Iman Shumpert and Amar’e Stoudemire went down with injuries, Fields filled in well during their absence.

It’s more than production, though. The Raptors need a player like Fields to help make the others perform more efficiently. His rebounding and passing are the elements Toronto isn’t really getting from others in their lineup. Both head coach Dwane Casey and power forward Ed Davis think Fields is a good fit for their team.

So Casey can just insert Fields into the two-hole in the backcourt with new acquisition Kyle Lowry, or in the small-forward spot and everything will be fine, right? If only things were that easy. They still need a low-post guy who offers an improvement over Aaron Gray or Jamaal Magloire. They need Andrea Bargnani to be healthy again. They need to figure out where both Fields and DeMar DeRozan fit into the scheme.

The guard positions on the Raps have thinned out considerably since Kyle Lowry arrived. Jerryd Bayless recently signed a multi-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies; Gary Forbes left in the Lowry deal; and there’s probably one more trade up Colangelo’s sleeve because now Jose Calderon wants out. Looks like the GM has some more work ahead.