Return of a Savior Presents Only Problems
By HOWARD BECKSometime soon, perhaps next week, perhaps even in Phoenix, the city of his greatest basketball exploits, Amar’e Stoudemire will tuck in that familiar No. 1 jersey, adjust his goggles and take a leap into the great unknown.
For the first time in his career, Stoudemire is a man without a clear mission.
Where does a 30-year-old former All-Star with suspect knees, an albatross contract and a redundant skill set fit on a talent-rich, title-contending team? Does he fit at all? Can a prideful star who calls himself Stat find happiness as a role player? A bench player? A drifting satellite in Carmelo Anthony’s orbit? Is Stoudemire still essential to the Knicks’ cause?
These questions once might have sounded insane.
Two years ago, Stoudemire practically saved the franchise with his signature and a four-word proclamation: “The Knicks are back.” Even 12 months ago, he was considered a vital, if unwieldy, co-star with Anthony.
But the landscape has changed radically at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks have transformed, seemingly overnight, into the Eastern Conference’s dominant team, rolling to a 19-6 record.
They are thriving with Anthony as their undisputed centerpiece, with Tyson Chandler dunking and defending, with Jason Kidd orchestrating, with Steve Novak shooting and with J. R. Smith just being J. R. Smith.
They are talented, deep and cohesive, every role well defined.
It is hard to see where an offense-minded, past-his-prime power forward fits into this gloriously reimagined Knicks universe, but these are the issues that Coach Mike Woodson must confront as Stoudemire nears his return from knee surgery.
Woodson has demurred on the topic. Stoudemire has given boilerplate “whatever it takes to win” responses, as he must.
Yet the Knicks have already moved on in so many ways, both on and off the court.
This past summer, the Knicks offered Stoudemire to nearly every team in the league — “available for free,” as one rival executive put it. But they found no takers because of his diminished production, his health and his contract, which has three years and $65 million remaining (counting this season) and which is uninsured against a career-ending knee injury.
In February, the Knicks wanted to send Stoudemire to Toronto in a deal for Andrea Bargnani, a person briefed on the discussion said. But the proposal was vetoed by James L. Dolan, the Garden chairman, before it ever reached the Raptors (who would not have made the deal anyway, team officials there said).
Before that, the Knicks tried to package Stoudemire and Chandler in a bid to land Dwight Howard.
The implication is clear: for all his scoring prowess and star power, Stoudemire is no longer viewed as a critical piece. The reasons are obvious, too.
The Knicks have been inept with Anthony and Stoudemire in the lineup, going 30-36 over parts of two seasons and 1-7 in the playoffs. Advanced metrics show the Knicks are demonstrably worse — both offensively and defensively — when the two share the court.
Optimists contend that with Kidd and Raymond Felton running the offense, the Anthony-Stoudemire experiment could be saved. The repeated attempts to dump Stoudemire suggest that team officials do not share that confidence.
The Knicks have a functional issue here. Several, in fact.
Anthony is now the face of the franchise and the No. 1 option on the floor. He is playing brilliantly at power forward — Stoudemire’s position — using his quickness to beat bigger defenders. If Stoudemire starts, it will push Anthony to small forward, blunt some of his effectiveness and create the same awkward logjam the Knicks had before, with two stars competing for touches.
In his prime, Stoudemire was the N.B.A.’s most lethal finisher in the pick-and-roll. But that role has been usurped, too, by Chandler, who is taller and longer, with a bigger bounce and healthier knees.
The obvious solution is to have Stoudemire anchor the second unit, running the pick-and-roll with Pablo Prigioni, while Novak, Smith and Rasheed Wallace spread the floor with their 3-point shooting.
But playing as a reserve means fewer minutes and a diminished profile. For all his public diplomacy, it seems doubtful Stoudemire would be content. On Thursday, he told reporters he was ready to “return back to dominance,” which hardly sounds like the words of a player ready to cede the spotlight.
Ask those who have worked with Stoudemire, and they eventually invoke the same word: prideful. Not selfish or egocentric, but simply prideful — a man who views himself in grand terms and spends every minute trying to live up to the image. At age 30, even after multiple knee operations and back problems, Stoudemire still views himself as an elite player.
Reintegrating Stoudemire — whether as a starter or a reserve — might be the greatest challenge the Knicks face this season. (His famously poor defense is also problematic.)
It is a cruel crossroads for Stoudemire, one he never could have foreseen. He surely deserves a better fate.
Stoudemire was the one who planted his flag in New York in the summer of 2010, after every other star had rejected the Knicks. (He was in fact their sixth choice, after LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Rudy Gay and Joe Johnson, a person involved in the discussion said.) His arrival made the franchise respectable again, paving the way for Anthony, Chandler and Kidd.
So now the Knicks are back, just as Stoudemire promised two years and five months ago. But these are no longer Stoudemire’s Knicks.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/sports/basketball/stoudemire-savior-of-knicks-now-presents-only-problems.html
Glad Knicks management is trying to dump Amare.
