Professional athletes care about whether they’re starting at their respective positions more than they let on sometimes. When someone gets benched, the cliché “I’ll do whatever the team needs me to,” rings hollow and redundant.
So when the Knicks decided that Amare Stoudemire would come off of the bench before STAT even returned from his knee surgery, there were skeptics who refused to believe a man who was averaging 25 points a game just two years ago would accept a demotion to the bench in the midst of the Knicks’ most successful season in years.
I saw no reason to be skeptical for one reason: Amare is tired. He’s been physically beaten into a shell of his former athletic superstar self. He’s tired of not winning games that matter; he hasn’t been out of the first round in three years and has never made an NBA Finals appearance.
I'm sure we all thought (knew?) that Amare’s ego took a hit when he found out that he was going to be coming back to the Knicks in a sixth man role. He’s the reason Carmelo Anthony became even more adamant about leaving the Nuggets to come to Madison Square Garden. He’s the reason Tyson Chandler wanted to round out one of the most talented frontlines in the NBA even after winning a title in Dallas. Amare started the movement that was a new era in Knicks basketball.
[caption id="attachment_431" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Though a shell of himself, Amare is a still a key piece that Carmelo needs at his side to win."]
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But now, that isn’t the case anymore. Carmelo is the undisputed best player on the team now, Chandler anchors the defense and the team has proven to play better when Carmelo is playing at Amare’s normal position, power forward.
Because STAT isn’t a stupid guy, he accepts this role and has flourished in it. He’s played 19 games and scored in double-digits 15 times, he’s shooting 57% from the field, and he’s playing 20 minutes game while preserving his body to play a key role down the stretch of the season as the playoffs near.
When the season started, the sentiment was that Rasheed Wallace was going to play the role that Amare is flourishing in, that was clearly smoke blown by optimists with ideal hopes and dreams. The Knicks need Amare, and they need him to come off of the bench.
[caption id="attachment_432" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Amare Stoudemire has been a force off of the bench for the Knicks, averaging 13.8 points and 4.7 free attempts per game."]
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Not just because he adds a scoring punch at the 4-spot that not many, if any, other teams in the NBA can match off of the bench, but because this is probably Amare’s last shot at sustaining his body to be a key cog on a team worth watching.
His athleticism is clearly eroding, but some of it still there. His scoring touch driving to the basket is still there, as is his mid-range jumper that continues to improve. At nearly $60 million dollars on an uninsured for the next two and a half years, the Knicks and Amare have no choice but to make it work and this very well may be the best way.
As cliché as it sounds, starting isn’t really much of the issue when you compare it to who finishes games. Amare will be finishing games come the postseason, because there’s no way you let that kind of talent sit idle when you need it most.
But this is what works for the Knicks, and this is what works for Amare’s body and probably his psyche.
It’s one thing to start a guy off of the bench when he’s very well a starting caliber power forward/center in the NBA, but it’s another, much worse thing to continue starting him when his body continues to fail him and he inevitably flames out at a young age.
If STAT is okay with coming off of the bench, there’s nothing else to see here but good Knicks basketball.
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