newyorknewyork wrote:

TMS wrote:

newyorknewyork wrote:

TMS wrote:at least we know he's a hard worker... he's already hitting the gym with asst coaches & Wilson Chandler... meanwhile Eddy Curry's someplace scoffing down hamburgers in places unknown... Amare will likely be named co-captain with Ray Felton... we need those guys to step up & be the leaders this team has lacked for years.

I tell you he can really dominate the east this yr. There really isn't that much strong comp for him to go up against on a night to night basis. There are some solid/good player but not many that are close to his level.

The question is can he be so dominant, have an mvp type of season and put this team on his back to a quality playoff seed.

hopefully he can stay healthy... that's the only question anyone would have on him having a great year for us... whether he can put this team on his back w/o a HOF PG to play with remains to be seen tho.

True he doesn't have Nash to take that load of running the team allowing Stoud to just pile up stats without worrying about running the team. At the same time Raymond Felton isn't no slouch when it comes to those type of intangibles. Gallo, Randolph, Chandler, Azubuike, Douglas are no scrubs either.

i think we have some good pieces around Amare, but we're still nowhere near a championship contender... Felton is nowhere near the PG that Steve Nash is... we can't expect Amare to get as many easy looks at the basket playing w/him, especially in their first year together as pros... as for guys like Gallo & the rest, none of them are facilitators either, so they won't factor into whether Amare performs like the best PF in the East next season... if anything, them taking shots will lessen Amare's shot opportunities in turn... but i can see him putting up some serious numbers next year since the bulk of the offense will be run through him in the P&R... i think Bosh's #'s will go down by a lot playing alongside Lebron & Wade as well.

in regards to the team as a whole, i think we're definitely still another superstar scorer away from being a serious contender in the Eastern Conference.

smackeddog wrote:A lot of people have said that he's got a lot of wear and tear from all the games he's played over the years, but if you look at his history, he missed about 30 games in 2003-2004, a whole season when he had the micro fracture surgery 2005-2006, and then about 30 games with the eye injury in 2008-09, so he doesn't have as you might think.

smackeddog wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:
But it's precisely those injuries that have people concerned about the wear and tear! It's hard to make the argument that being out with a bad injury is better as far as wear and tear goes than playing and being healthy.

I'll admit, the knee does concern me, but I don't rate the eye injuries at all- both were freak accidents (I remember after the first one he said he was going to keep the goggles, changes his mind and then it happened again!), and he wears protective goggles now anyways to prevent them happening again (though I don't want to jinx it!)- the eyes shouldn't really be considered under the "wear and tear" heading. What I meant by that previous post is that people are making out he's a clapped out 50 year old- in terms of wear and tear, he doesn't have that much milage when you consider, yes he came in out of high school, but he's missed about 2 seasons worth of games- he's also 27 not 37 as some critics make out. I worry about any player who has micro fracture surgery, especially when you think of Allan Houston or Kenyon Martin, but that aside he's not the old timer some people say he is.

That's fair. I'll agree that aside from the knee there isn't anything to be concerned about.