The Amare Halo Effect

[dantian]

lilfishi22,

we differ on assessment of situations. I don't look at 100 mil for 5 years like you do, but look at which players to have for 67mil luxary salary level for the team. My contention was, giving 20 to Amare may be the surer route to go for building a contender. I'd say, a core of Amare/Wade, Amare/Pierce, or even Amare/MontaEllis with a couple more years, would be contenders in 1-2 years. They are not as flashy as Amare/Nash but would have a better chance in playoffs.

As to Wolves' KG, I'm quite sure that Amare would have carried that team equally well, without a ball/decision dominating Nash over him. In fact, for a true rebuilding, it makes no sense to have Nash here. His presence would suffocate the growth of any potential young franchise player on the Suns, as they don't have enough chances to make decisions and learn from failures then.

[lilfishi22]

If keeping Amare here for max money means Wade will sign here then I'm all for it. As I said before, I'm all about the Suns organization first and individual players second. If signing Amare brings in DWade, then that would be a good basketball move.

I highly doubt Amare would've carried the Wolves like KG did. KG literally did everything, he was one of the top rebounders and scorers in the league, all the while averaging a very high number of assists for a big man and playing DPOY defense. I'd take prime KG to start a new franchise over Amare any day of the week.

[rsavaj]

Prime Kevin Garnett was one of the greatest Power Forwards, nay, greatest PLAYERS, of all time. Amare is a beast, but he is not on that level yet and Minnesota would have been in bad shape if they had replaced KG with Amare.

[dantian]

Amare never had a chance either. Well, Marbury thought Amare was better rookie than KG and the rest is history. KG might be better, but my point was he also got a chance to learn the leader role through failures.

[rsavaj]

Amare never had a chance either. Well, Marbury thought Amare was better rookie than KG and the rest is history. KG might be better, but my point was he also got a chance to learn the leader role through failures.

Amare was a better rookie than KG was. At the time, he was the most successful preps to pro player ever. Of course, he was 20 years old, whereas Kobe and KG were 17 and 18 respectively.

[garrick]

It's really hard to know what would have happened if theoretically Amare had to carry a bad team like the Wolves, if he were the focal point of their offense I don't see how hard it would be to make it to the playoffs as the #7 or #8 seed back then.
If I recall it was when Spree and Cassell joined KG that they went on to the semi finals? They were usually first round exits for most of KG's tenure I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[JohnVancouver]

Jordan alone couldn't do much in terms of winning in the playoffs, KG and Kobe same thing.
I think a large part of the art of the GM is finding the supporting cast and making it work for your budget. Obviously, teams like LAL and NY can ignore the budget to some extent.

It was hard to watch KG on those Wolves teams - it looked like it was taking year soff his life. Now, of course, after most of us were happy to see him win a ring, he's just turned into a huge dick

[aIvin adams]

i'd be one of the happiest fans here if the suns resigned amare.

but i think that we often overlook how good the suns were in 05-06 before kurt thomas went down. thomas and diaw had good enough shots to give nash all the space he needed. and the defense was great.

that team without kurt thomas made it to the WCF and played well in the WCF despite injuries and fatigue. that team with kurt thomas was a championship contender, and IMO maybe the best team of the ssol era.

[JohnVancouver]

i'd be one of the happiest fans here if the suns resigned amare.

but i think that we often overlook how good the suns were in 05-06 before kurt thomas went down. thomas and diaw had good enough shots to give nash all the space he needed. and the defense was great.

that team without kurt thomas made it to the WCF and played well in the WCF despite injuries and fatigue. that team with kurt thomas was a championship contender, and IMO maybe the best team of the ssol era.

and the difference there was not a star but the right supporting player, KT. I think we'd have taken the heat with Kurt healthy and Raja too.
That was a perfect lineup and balance of star players and complementary players.
We won't see that again anytime soon

[asubennett]

That 05-06 team had a Boris Diaw who was playing out of his mind as well. Boris Diaw in those playoffs was arguably a All NBA second or third team players if he could of replicated that over the course of the entire season.

So essentially, he replaced Amare's production - Its a shame he could not muster up the desire to be that same player with Amare. That would have been a wicked front line.

At any rate - Keep Nash, Keep Amare (everything else on this team is expendable and I mean everything) - hustle players can be found anywhere. Outside shooters can be found anywhere. Nash and Amare's are rare cats that dont just fall out of trees.

[aIvin adams]

im not suggesting that if we traded amare we would be as good as 05 06. but, it ought to be a serious implication of amare's role on the success of this team that it was at its best when he was gone.

amare is a top five on-the-ball screener in the league. but he benefits by playing w the best PnR pg in the league. if we matched nash with someone who was top 10 or top 20 instead of top 5, i dont think we'd see much of a drop off.

[chriscringle95]

This is why the Suns get open three's all night long most games:

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/dunk-o-meter/yearly

Amare is an animal. And he still isn't even 100%. Maybe like 85% and rising.