FanPost

The Case for Mr. Stoudemire

You're all wrong.

Stop mumbling and bumbling, the time is nearly upon us so let's face it. We certainly don't have opponents to worry about right now, and there are much worse problems a team can have. Amare Stoudemire will be back soon, and everyone in the world it seems has an opinion--the same opinion. That he should come off the bench and be a super 6th man. Not a bad idea, considering how well the Knicks and Carmelo in particular have been playing without him, and how badly he has fit with Melo in the past. But it's not the BEST idea. Amare should start, and here are many reasons why:

• Amare Stoudemire is not old, and he is not out of shape. People sometimes have short memories when they haven't seen a guy play in a while, especially when your last memory is a terrible lock out shortened injury riddled season in which he had no effect in the playoffs. Understood. But it was also only two years ago where he had 9 straight 30 point games and we went 8-1 (shoulda been 9-0 fuck you boston), and we won't even need anything like that now.

• "He can't coexist with Melo or Chandler..." Amare's presence alone will take pressure off Carmelo Anthony, you simply cannot deny that. He is a very willing passer, sometimes even being guilty of not being aggressive enough. Chandler will still be the one running the pick and roll, and Amare can be a devastating option off that and a clean up man. The point is to have him and Melo taking pressure off each other.

• "The lineup is just perfect the way it is..." People love to say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well you can always make improvements, and you have to think long and hard about saying adding Amare Stoudemire to your basketball team is not an improvement. We have a ball movement offense and he will not change that, he will benefit from it. And face it, when Melo does not play we don't have an obvious consistent go-to option on offense to draw double teams and keep the spacing. The bench will still be ridiculous without Amare, with Kidd, Shumpert, JR, Novak, Sheed, Brewer...

• Amare and Melo have NEVER been on the court together with Felton or Kidd, let alone both. They haven't even had much time together on a stable team with a direction. They both have had extended injuries at different times, and Linsanity took a good month of a shortened season. The Amare you are judging was on a completely different team than the one we have right now.

• "But Carmelo plays better at the PF position..." I'm sorry but you can label a guy whatever you want to, but if his post ups are rarely on the low block, and he brings the ball up a lot, and often is the ball handler on pick and rolls, and shoots 3's--then how much of a PF is he really? Plus the refs have been allowing to him to nearly die this season without a foul call, and we want to alleviate that as much as possible. Amare can post on the LOW block if needed, as well as the high post. His new post moves seem to involve sticking the ball way out in front of him as he spins, which could mean devastation for slower opponents, or maybe tons of turnovers. I like Amare's chances against most post defenders with single coverage.

• "He doesn't rebound..." Here seems like an obvious spot Amare can come right in and help with. He can rebound, he just needs to make it a focus of his, and this situation might make that happen. A lot of people complain Chandler isn't blocking as many shots, well bring Amare back to help clean up and Chandler can go for more shots.

My point is, Amare is not the old man has been overpaid Eddy Curry that he is being made out to be. He is in amazing shape, he is unselfish despite his reputation, and he does have an outside jumpshot if you ever watched him play. Starters: Felton, Brewer (I'm sorry he sucks, naa wait I take that back), Melo, Stoudemire, Chandler. Bench: Kidd, Shumpert, JR, Novak, Wallace, Prigioni. Come on now...