mrKnickShot wrote:

OasisBU wrote:You gotta love Amare - the guy is a warrior and I support him 110% - but the first half of the season was alarming. If he can pull this off (and we all want him to) then the Knicks will be tough to beat.

I love Amare but "Warriors" play defense.

some warriors have better lateral movement and athleticism than others.

i admire amar'e's effort, but not playing basketball didn't cause him to be two steps slower. getting older and injuring his back did that.

I hope so. GO Knicks

Lets see Amare heed his words and what he does tomorrow vs Cleveland Cavaliers

Last time I seen it CAVs got no PF whom is equal to NY or stud PFs

Last time I seen it Knicks perhaps have beaten CAVs 1-2 times in the last 3-4 yrs and some of this is the post Lebron era

We'll see if a PF can take advantage of a CAVs skilled but bad team whom has embarrassed the Knickerbockers nearly every time
CAVs vs Knicks occurs

We'll see tomorrow nite
its a good gage game for Amare to BACK UP HIS WORDS & BOASTs

No excuses!

Hopefully he will go Beast-Mode in the 2nd half.

He grew a inch and proclaimed himself a beast at the begining of the year. He bragged that he gained 20lbs of muscle....

Just shut up and play.

Knicks need him to rebound and defend. If he can do that the Knicks will be hard to beat. He's not doing that. Knicks don't need him scoring 30 pts a game. They need him to dominate the game from his position. Its not all about scoring

EnySpree wrote:How many times are we going to hear what Amare is gonna do or what he did?

He grew a inch and proclaimed himself a beast at the begining of the year. He bragged that he gained 20lbs of muscle....

Just shut up and play.

Knicks need him to rebound and defend. If he can do that the Knicks will be hard to beat. He's not doing that. Knicks don't need him scoring 30 pts a game. They need him to dominate the game from his position. Its not all about scoring

he probably never considered the effect of the 20lb's. The guy is human and a Knick who, led us back to respectability. Give him a bit of time. If anything this could be a blessing because many of us were worried about the beating such a schedule would be on his knees. The lack of playing time from all the fouls and other issues could lead him into a big second half.

He has to either shed the weight or adapt to it to be successful.

TripleThreat wrote:IMHO, I think STAT would be better off leading the 2nd unit for the Knicks.

He's not a good defender, he's not a legitimate Stretch 4 with an elite long range jumper/3 point shot and he has IMHO a subpar post game. Novak offers you the same limited defense, but at least he can shoot the three ball. Jeffries can offer you the same poor shooting, but with defense and some semblance of the "enforcer" element needed to protect Lin.

I think the Knicks would be better off with Jeffries in the starting lineup with a liberal mix of Novak. No, Jeffries can't really score but he can play tough defense and give Chandler a little more room to operate. Also he can give Chandler a little relief on defense. I think Jefferies doing the little things that STAT doesn't will really help. When you put Chandler, Melo and STAT together, you're asking Chandler to defend three positions at once.

On the 2nd unit, STAT can be the focal point of the offense and have some defenders like Shumpert play with him to hide some of his defensive weaknesses. Giving STAT 20-25 minutes will save his knees, and let him focus on giving 20 hard minutes rather than seeing him jog around for 38. I think the problem is waiting for Harrelson to return, so someone can back up Chandler besides Jeffries.

Lin is not really a run and shoot type of pointguard. He's not really set up to run and gun like the D'Antoni Suns. I think Baron Davis, if he can get healthy, can run that type of offense with STAT. At some point, the Knicks have to look past the contract. That team can hide one mediocre defender( Anthony ), I don't think it can hide two ( Anthony, STAT) in the starting lineup.

Stoudamire is the classic case of a MLB fourth outfielder taking too many starts and diluting the short but fierce burn quality that got him on the team in the first place. He should have spent some of his off seasons really developing the non athletic aspects of his game.

I think on the things MDA has always managed with Amare is his ego. Don't think Amare's ego could take coming off the bench this year. Time will tell.