Amare has the hear of a lion, hes pretty quick on his feet, and his mid range jumpshot is money. Hes a great pnr player and with Ray Ray playing the way he is, I think we will see a far more productive Amare. I'm not convinced Amare needs to come off of the bench, and I'm not convinced we can beat the heat in a 7 game series without Amare.

My thinking is, we NEED Amare, he needs to come back, he needs to start, along with Iman, and when they do, we will be the best team in the east. Amare is going to make us better. Stop thinking about the offensive foul Amare who had to create his own shot because we didn't have a pg. We have one now, its going to be a special year folks.

If he rebounds and defends he will be fine. If he comes back trying to score 20 a game while turning over the ball then we are in trouble.

I believe Amare has been watching the games where Chandler(non offensive force) getting 18 pts 17 rebs and he's saying I could do the same thing when Chandler comes out of the game and Amare goes to Center or when Wallace comes in and plays on the perimeter at center.

misterearl wrote:The only people convinced that Amar'e is a problem are the beat writers on deadline, eager to manufacture some rain clouds for our parade.

This team is built on defense. If Amar'e struggles Mike Woodson will let him know what to correct. Think of it this way... if J freakin' R Smith can get with the program, Amar'e freakin Stoudemire can get with the program.

Woody don't play that.

You Suck. You Sit.

Not the only people. Even during last nights game, Shaquille couldn't say anything nice about the Knicks without saying that Amare MIGHT comeback and make things worse. People are bugging. He'll either work with Melo, or when Melo sits, or will not play. Mike will figure it out.

Now the cast is off.

We are going to tear through the league.

Amare starts and dominates. He'll be 20/7

And yet, all still isn't well at Madison Square Garden. These are still the Knicks.

(The Answer Man despises this writer already)

The biggest looming problem with Stoudemire's return may be his ability to play with Chandler, who is having a career year offensively—and who, like Stoudemire, thrives on the screen and roll.

When playing with Chandler last season, Stoudemire shot just 44% and scored 16.7 points per 48 minutes—down considerably from the 56% and 23.7 points he averaged without Chandler on the court.

"We've generated some offense out of the pick and roll, but once Amar'e is back, I'm sure we'll set a decent amount of screens to try and get him open jump shots in the high post," said Chandler, a defensive star who is averaging a career-high 12.4 points per game this season. "He'll continue to be a big part of what we do."

But the Knicks' fan base is rather wary about that, and with good reason.

Knick supporters vividly recall last season, when Anthony returned from an injury in the midst of "Linsanity," the short-lived, euphoric run in which then-Knicks guard Jeremy Lin became an overnight sensation. In the end, Lin's style of play never meshed with Anthony's, and the contrasting attributes had a part in D'Antoni's midseason resignation and Lin's free-agency exodus over the summer.

"It's proven that we can beat the defending champs by 20 without Amar'e Stoudemire," said Marc Colandrea, a 37-year-old union electrician who wore a Stoudemire jersey at the Knicks-Nets game in Brooklyn Tuesday. "Now, I'm not sure how the team uses him."

- Chris Herring, Wall Street Journal

The gnashing of teeth over the past is staggering.

knicks1248 wrote:

DurzoBlint wrote:Amare has ALWAYS been a team first type of guy. Just look at the way he accepted Melo taking all his shot and never said a thing or made any waves. Dude is all about the team.

Exactly. I could assure you that no one on this planet thought amare look hurt in that preseason game, he was dunking hitting his mid range shot, look pretty damn normal to me.

I'm not at all for Amare coming off the bench, did we think Melo would play the way he's playing now, did we think felton (although he look pretty darn good in that summer league interview in vegas) would be playing this way in july when we got him.

Amare is going to be fine, the guy works so hard for anybody to question his abilty to adapt, he's never ever been selfish, and by now you have got to have some kind of faith in the coach and his staff that they will be able to manage the transition smoothly and make it work..

These guys where training together for a month before amare got hurt or training camp even started..

BIG UPS for finding that quoe
Kidd will Make Amare look like an Allstar again. The Stat-Felton connection will be in full effect as well. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys put on a pic-n-roll clinic when he returns.

I at first was thinking he should come off the bench but, at the same time, I can't see Kurt Thomas starting over him. Kurt's defense has been decent and thank God his jumper was falling (for once) last game but, I don't expect that kind of production out of him on a regular basis.

Stoudamire on the floor will (like Melo) make the game easier for the other guys because, defenders won't want to sag of Amare. That will help Novak and co a lot.

Also interested in seeing him run with Cope.

What I expect is Amare to start but, not play huge minutes with the starting lineup. He'll probably go to the bench at around the 7minute mark of the 1st and then come back in with the bench guys at the start of the 2nd quarter. That would give us some extra punch with the 2nd unit which lacks a go to guy. JR Smith is the closest thing to a go to guy on that 2nd unit and he's way too inconsistent.