Amare finally addresses lack of explosion / poor play

[Marty McFly]

It means who cares what you were doing what you were 12. Amare was dunking when he was 12 and winning MVP at major basketball tourneys when he was 14. In the NBA by 19 and an Olympian and multiple time All-Star by 29. I'd say he knew where his strength lay, and at 240, it wasn't in the post.

His game has never needed post play before. As he gets older, maybe.

says the guy who goes out of his way to talk about how limited dwight is. please.

Says the guy who doesn't know Dwight is limited

yawn. pissing contest over.

[SelbyCobra]

Webber made his living passing out of the post so I think he was fine with it. He also had very quick moves around the basket that allowed him to get his shots off in the paint (including his patented one handed "jumper" with those gigantic mitts he had for hands from about 5-8 out). He DID take a lot of jumpers but more so because his offensive game was well rounded for a big.

And it was all topped off with him having a pretty damn high BBall IQ (on the offensive end) as his career wore on.

[RutgersBJJ]

That move he pulled in the Miami game where he drove baseline and dunked it in Bosh's face looked like something we would have saw last season. Hopefully he sheds some of his upper body mass he put on this season and gets back to being slim and explosive.

[kane]

its nice for him to finally admit something has been wrong now the proof will be the second half of the season, if he starts to look like last years stat then we know he was right if not.... we will just need to "stay tuned" heh

[K_ick_God]

I believe Amar'e will return.

I think it's 70% lack of rhythm and 15% Tyson/Melo and 15% decline. So we'll see 70% Amar'e return. Estimates of course

And Lin should cure about half of the Tyson/Melo problem. Then we see near 80% Amar'e.

[KnicksScholar24]

Stoudemire's athleticism looked fine all season. It just wasn't consistent. He certainly showed flashed on his explosiveness, speed, and agility, but tended to go for a lot more layups and flipshots than he did when he was younger.

I just want to see him put in the effort in practice in order to get his jumper back, and try to go for more dunks in the game than layups. He needs that intimidation factor again. He's getting blocked because everyone knows he'll go for a layup rather than dunk it. Hopefully the recent rest can rejuvenate his energy level and give him time to heal a bit.

If Amar'e, Carmelo, and Baron come out the second half of this season balLin', expect the Knicks to win a lot of games and become a top 3 team in the Eastern Conference (even if they aren't top 3 record-wise).

[R-DAWG]

Look at the end of the day, this guy is getting paid almost 20M a season, he KNOWS his body has an expiration date...he gives an excuse but that doesn't help the Knicks. Now if this guy said, "Recovering from back injuries, the lock out, and adding weight...I am forfeiting 10M of my contract as compensation..." NO. He won't say that.

EMPTY WORDS. TRADE this guy. It's not going to get better.

And I say again, THANKS Donnie. I'd rather the Knicks NOT sign that contract and suck rather than take a guy who is NEVER going to be the same again.

next time post the correct pic
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RcvdiR6PxTA/T ... crying.JPG

[R-DAWG]

Look at the end of the day, this guy is getting paid almost 20M a season, he KNOWS his body has an expiration date...he gives an excuse but that doesn't help the Knicks. Now if this guy said, "Recovering from back injuries, the lock out, and adding weight...I am forfeiting 10M of my contract as compensation..." NO. He won't say that.

EMPTY WORDS. TRADE this guy. It's not going to get better.

And I say again, THANKS Donnie. I'd rather the Knicks NOT sign that contract and suck rather than take a guy who is NEVER going to be the same again.

next time post the correct pic
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RcvdiR6PxTA/T ... crying.JPG

[moocow007]

Im sure Amare will return to form a little bit, but the guy just looks real stiff to me now. You can see his back isnt healed yet because he just moves around and bends over like hes got a stick up his butt. Theres no fluidity to his movements anymore and hes not getting up on his dunks. Thats what Im worried about the most with him. Im not expecting him to return to All Star status at this point. Ill just be happy if he can contribute positively and his offense outweighs his defense.

Yeah I think it's more back than the dreaded knees. Based on how he's been moving it appears to be back related and not knee related. The fact that he's shown a few glimpses of his old springs tells me that the knees are fine. But the fact that he rarely seems to try tells me that something is bothering him when he does.

As a guy who's had back problems from carrying around 15-20lbs worth of extra weight (and who used to be very active) that weight does take its load on you.

I used to be a pretty competitive softball player but once my back went I couldnt swing the bat or run to field balls. Went from a guy who could hit long distance lasers with just a flick of the wrists (like a young Manny Ramirez) to a guy who was basically trying his best to hit semi hard grounders hoping for a gap (like the old Manny Ramirez). And instead of pretty much roamng the OF I ended up being a 1B. Every move hurt and eventually it gets in your head so that even if the back isn't as bad your entire core just gets out of whack. And it took a long time to get back into rythm.

[knicksosmoove]

off the top of my head I can remember the dunk against golden state, the dunk against big baby, and the dunk against bosh where he displayed that lightening first step and quickness.

[god shammgod]

I believe Amar'e will return.

I think it's 70% lack of rhythm and 15% Tyson/Melo and 15% decline. So we'll see 70% Amar'e return. Estimates of course

And Lin should cure about half of the Tyson/Melo problem. Then we see near 80% Amar'e.

if he could do nothing else but regain his jumper i'd be happy. when the defense can't leave him open, it will be easier for him to drive by them no matter what weight he's at.

[truth serum]

This was obvious to anyone who chose to be objective about STAT

All four of us.

[Stannis]

"At the end of the day, it is what it is, you just do what you gotta do."

[Deeeez Knicks]

Amare has been better in Feb. 17ppg, 8 boards, 48.3%fg.

The amount of days off really seems to be effecting Amare too.

0 days rest - 43.9% fg
1 days rest - 43.8% FG
2 days rest - 46% fg
3 days rest - 50% fg

Maybe we should look into giving him some random days off here and there. Sometimes it seems like he's conserving his energy. A lot of games he seems to be not as mobile/energetic as others. The condensed schedule is terrible for a player like Amare.

On another note thats probably all related, Amare hasn't been getting to the line nearly as much.

[TrueWarrior]

Im sure Amare will return to form a little bit, but the guy just looks real stiff to me now. You can see his back isnt healed yet because he just moves around and bends over like hes got a stick up his butt. Theres no fluidity to his movements anymore and hes not getting up on his dunks. Thats what Im worried about the most with him. Im not expecting him to return to All Star status at this point. Ill just be happy if he can contribute positively and his offense outweighs his defense.

Yeah I think it's more back than the dreaded knees. Based on how he's been moving it appears to be back related and not knee related. The fact that he's shown a few glimpses of his old springs tells me that the knees are fine. But the fact that he rarely seems to try tells me that something is bothering him when he does.

As a guy who's had back problems from carrying around 15-20lbs worth of extra weight (and who used to be very active) that weight does take its load on you.

I used to be a pretty competitive softball player but once my back went I couldnt swing the bat or run to field balls. Went from a guy who could hit long distance lasers with just a flick of the wrists (like a young Manny Ramirez) to a guy who was basically trying his best to hit semi hard grounders hoping for a gap (like the old Manny Ramirez). And instead of pretty much roamng the OF I ended up being a 1B. Every move hurt and eventually it gets in your head so that even if the back isn't as bad your entire core just gets out of whack. And it took a long time to get back into rythm.

I messed up my lower back deadlifting last year. I had to stop doing that and squats ever since because my back was killing me. It would hurt just when I bent over to pick things up. Its about 85% now but I still wont deadlift or squat for a while. Back problems are no joke and I can spot somebody with one a mile away. You can see Amare being very weary about bending over to pick up the ball out there. On top of it he just moves very robotically now. Lets hope he regains some of his past form but Im not going to assume anything with back problems. My brother has a bad case of it too. Sh*t doesnt mess around. Amare needs to drop the weight asap.

[knicksosmoove]

considering his knee "thing" i have no idea why he added on weight in the first place.

also, amar'e is the only player in the history of the nba who thinks it's a good idea to face-up on the low post. seriously, who does that. it's a lot easier to get space if you put your butt into your defender, amar'e . . .

if amar'e were to start posting up, 1, 2 possessions a game whenever he has a small forward guarding him in the low post, I would be so happy.

i learned how to post up by the time i was 12. to think that a professional basketball player, much less a frontcourt player doesn't or can't sounds ridiculous to me. i just don't understand it.

yep. like I said, in some ways you can tell amar'e is one of those guys who lucked into an NBA body. the game isn't in his blood the way it is with other guys. I mean, he is an athlete. He is very coordinated and has natural footwork and touch and stuff like that, but he has no post up instinct, no pet "moves" other than dunking, and he doesn't have great court vision. I don't think he played any serious basketball unless you count AAU until NBA.

[NoLayupRule]

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/knicksblog/knicks_stoudemire_says_stay_tuned_RMcyac6WD5mtclHMZ579RO

“Stay tuned,” Stoudemire said after practice Tuesday. “Stay tuned.”

“It’s the lockout, man,” Stoudemire said. “The lockout really, it was to my favor to the point I had time to heal [my back]. But I didn’t have time to play basketball. I didn’t do any basketball at all. I played one game, that was in Miami, that charity game. That was the only time I played full-court basketball. The whole offseason was no up and down for me until I got here and played for training camp.”

“It’s rhythm,” he said. “Whenever you’re away from the game for six months or so, that’s the longest I’ve ever been away from the game of basketball, as far as going up and down and playing. It was definitely a rhythm thing. Now I feel great.”

“Every second half of the year, I’ve got a tendency to turn it up. Because you know how important it is after the All-Star break. Getting that momentum going into the postseason is always very, very key. You want to be playing at your best going into the postseason. It’s going to be an incredible second half of the year for me.”

I love Amare and really hope he can get things together

can you imagine if we could actually start playing up to our talent level already?

Wow

[Deeeez Knicks]

Does D'Antoni deserve some blame for Amare not developing a post game?

Amare pretty much tailored his game to his system (pick n roll) and mastered it. Its more then just athletiscm and took hard work to do. There's really not much posting up here. Its mostly pick n rolls, jumpers and cutting.....what we all pretty much see

It might be unfair to blame Amare to master something that has no use in the system he's playing in

[cgmw]

I have no clue how the words "physical decline" make it into the topic title. I guess people see what they want to see. If I were writing the title, it would have been:

"Amar'e admits to inconsistent motivation"

Saying he always "turns it up" for the second half of the season is a problem for me. I mean, I totally respect the guy for how dominant he is when he's on. But him taking time off to spend passively in his own head (even though he's on the court at the time) is nothing new.

Everybody talking about his weight gain seems to be way off IMO. Amar'e just took months away from the basketball court, and somehow this led him to doing whatever the opposite of "turning it up" is for the first half of the season. As somebody who's pumped a lot of money into Jim Dolan's coffers, it's pretty frustrating to hear him basically admit that he "turned it down" for the first half.


EDIT: I see the new thread title now. Still, from my myopic point of view, motivation has been an issue.

[Hemispheres]

That's the thing, our role players have been playing beyond their talent level during our last dozen games, yet all season our superstars haven't even been playing like All-Stars.

I'm a huge Amar'e fan and I truly believe he works as hard as anyone in the locker room but he has got to find his mojo. He started the season looking awful and has slowly improved. But he's still miles behind where I know he can be and I fully expect him to be in the coming months.