Shields was smart

It was obvious that Steve Shields viewed the Canada trip purely as a learning experience. He was not there to win meaningless games. This team has the potential to be the best he has had since the 23-win team, and this was a great opportunity to get a jump on the season. Everyone who was healthy played a lot, which means the staff is way ahead on their assessment of where everyone fits in - a big plus. Now they can go home and fine-tune what they need to be working on. Shields was smart. He did not get side-tracked like so many of us know-nothing fans who were complaining that we did not win the first two games. Steve did not put his best team on the floor, but the team he puts on the floor come November will be better because of it.