One aspect of Amar'e Stoudemire's game that should improve without Steve Nash.

. 95th best in the league to be sure.

its funny that people just write off Amar’e as “he’ll stink without Nash”, of course without backing it up.

I agree on the offensive end..we just don’t know. Felton is not Nash, but he’s not a slouch. I don’t think Amare will be affected..cuz if Duhon and Lee can be as good as they were last year, why can’t Felton and Amare be better?

Defensively is where they just write Amare and the Knicks off tho, and that shit is pretty annoying. Like you say, Felton is an excellent defender. The 3 guys we got from Golden State, all are good or have the potential (AR) to be good defenders.

In light of this new shit…I’m well past half mast right now.

he put more effort into defense than anyone on the team short of Dudly. He is a better defensive player than offensive

Thank you. Everything u said is true. however, you didnt have to write this long post to prove that. I think amare will be a good leader, but what i wanna know is how is amare and gallo gonna feed off of each other? How can amare make Gallo better?

if D’Antoni continues to be non-traditional and defend opposing point guards with Anthony Randolph while playing Turiaf and Stoudemire up front, if only for a few minutes. The probability of getting a block of the chase-down or rotation variety would be through the roof.

I listed to Steve Kerr’s podcast with Bill Simmons last week, and he said he fully expects Amar’e to be a big producer for the next 1-2 years. I’m not as concerned with the amount of his yearly salary, as the term of the contract. We are locked in a longer-term contract with a player that is injury prone.

Now, if he stays healthy and we surround him with CP3 and Melo…I expect his numbers to change drastically. It might be a quieter first season.

good perspective.
another one of the many exciting things we look f/w to this year.
i certainly feel that amar’e is committed to defending; that also helps.
let’s hope his leadership on both ends is contagious.
plus, we appear to have at leat 5 solid 2/3 defenders.
felton, douglas, azubuike, chandler, and fields.
will that be enough in the rotation.
and i’m telling you.
i saw a little bit of landry fields in the dennis johnson hof highlights.
heady, quiet, efficient, fundamentally sound, versatile.
anyone else feel the same vibe?

Sometimes a move is what it takes for a player to transition into his ultimate role. There are many reasons why Amare will be better for the Knicks than he was in Phoenix. Here are three big ones -

1. Nash was definitely a defensive anchor that weighed down not just Amare, but the whole Suns team. For everything that Nash did well on the offensive side of the ball, his porous defense may very well be the reason that he never reached the NBA finals. Amare learned to adjust to Nash’s lack of speed on defense, because in his early years foul trouble was the norm while trying to rotate on help. Between not playing college ball, playing out of position, and covering for Nash it was always an uphill battle in Phoenix for Amare.

2. Critics say that Amare won’t score as much without Nash spoon feeding him easy baskets. The exact opposite argument can be made, though. Nash does make players better, but Nash likes to spread the ball around. This means that players like Channing Frye get a chance to succeed by taking shot attempts away from players like Amare Stoudemire in a Steve Nash system. While many role players like Tim Thomas have excelled in the Nash system, star players seem to be held back. Here are examples A and B.

A. Dirk Nowitzki 2003-04 with Nash
21.8 ppg 17 shots/game 5.5 fta/game 46.2% field goals
Dirk Nowitzki 2004-05 without Nash
26.1 ppg 18.5 shots/game 9.1 fta/game 45.9% field goals

B. Joe Johnson 2004-05 with Nash
17.1 ppg 14.4 shots/game 2.2 fta/game 46.1% field goals
Joe Johnson 2005-06 without Nash
20.2 ppg 17.0 shots/game 4.0 fta/game 45.3% field goals

So both of the two best players that have ever separated from Nash had better offensive numbers after leaving him. Johnson and Nowitzki increased in scoring, field goal attempts, free throw attempts, with only a very minor drop in field goal percentage. Nowitzki also won an MVP without Nash, and Joe Johnson has had multiple All-Star appearances. If Amare follows the path of these two, it would make sense that Amare will probably average at least 26 point per game next year. I have a feeling he will get more than 15.4 shots per game (his average last year) with the Knicks. *Note that Shawn Marion did not experience the same success post-Nash, but the Matrix couldn’t create his own offense.

3. This will finally be Amare’s team. As long as he was in Phoenix and Nash was still breathing, it was always going to be Nash’s team. Most of the fans in Phoenix still felt that Nash was the best player on the Suns last year even after Amare was widely considered one of the top 5 players in the league for the second half of the season. Nash was the golden child and Amare took teh brunt of the blame when the team didn’t achieve up to people’s expectations. Now Amare can finally prove his critics wrong and put an end to the bs that he was a product of Steve Nash. Look for Amare to be a monster this year and be the leader of the resurgent Knicks once reinforcements such as Carmelo arrive. Amare has great character and work ethic. The fact that a player could come from his background and mature, stay out of trouble, and overcome the obstacles he has is a testament to the type of person he is.

As a Phoenix Suns fan I am sorely disappointed to lose such an exceptional player and person. Nash was asked last year who the best player he ever played with was. His answer, with no hesitation, was Amare Stoudemire.

That was all basically right, but one little thing to fix/know:

Dragic is actually a very good on-ball defender, who also fights through screens. He is 6’4", big for a PG, and longer than that as well. The only real criticism of his defense is that he’s sometimes overly aggressive and picks up fouls for running into the screener, or forgetting that he can’t handcheck in the NBA like he does in Europe.