JULY 14TH, 8:38pm: The Knicks will not match Toronto's offer sheet, officially making Fields a member of the Raptors, reports Al Iannazzone of Newsday (via Twitter).
JULY 11TH, 4:31pm: Fields officially signed Toronto's offer sheet today, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter). The Knicks will have three days to decide whether to match it, and figure to take their time, as we heard earlier today.
JULY 3RD, 1:09pm: The third year in Fields' offer sheet with Toronto is worth roughly $8.5MM, tweets Marc Berman of the New York Post. Added to a first-year salary of $5MM and a second-year salary of $5.225MM, that would put the total value of the agreement at a little over $18.7MM. Berman adds that the Knicks are unlikely to match the offer.
12:17pm: The Raptors have agreed to terms on an offer sheet with Knicks restricted free agent Landry Fields, reports ESPN.com's Marc Stein (Twitter link). The agreement is for three years, according to Stein. When Fields officially signs the offer sheet after the July moratorium ends, the Knicks will have three days to match it.
The precise value of the offer is unknown, according to Stein, but he says it's expected to have a spike in the third year similar to Omer Asik's agreement with the Rockets and could approach $20MM (Twitter links). The Knicks have Fields' Early Bird rights and can match any offer for the restricted free agent, but the Gilbert Arenas provision allows for a significant third-year raise.
The Raptors' agreement with Fields not only puts them in the driver's seat to land the young wing, but also poses a serious roadblock for the Knicks' pursuit of Steve Nash. The Suns were said to be interested in Fields in a sign-and-trade deal for Nash, so New York may not have the pieces to make a trade work anymore.
As Zach Lowe of SI.com tweets, the Raptors may be forced to amnesty Jose Calderon if they hope to sign both Fields and Nash.
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Love it! He brings a similar skill set to Sonny Weems (to whom the Raps made a qualifiying offer to, and would presumably be allowed to walk if this deal gets done), but is a few years younger, and, best of all, it throws a wrench in the Knicks Nash plans! Raps are getting serious
Really I am a Knick fan here, Landry completely lost the ability to shoot the ball. Really bad contract.
I am scared that the Knicks may offer Shumpert in a sign and trade though.
Yea… I see that now, looking at his free throw percentage and 3P%, especially in the second half… awful… even compared to Weems average shooting stats
I haven’t seen him play much, I was just going by a quick glance at the PPG/RPG/APG
Oh well, He’ll just be coming off the bench for the Raps, at least for the upcoming year, and I can only hope he gets some of his shooting ability back. (if the raps in fact do get him)
what a bust…..
Fields is just a pawn. This is all about Nash
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