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Amare had his first on the court workout Tuesday. It's been a long time. Even longer than anticipated for the maximized recovery. I hear people (trainers) are a little hesitant about Amare and I've posted this a few times. They advice wait and see caution.

Amare won't be cleared to play for a couple of weeks yet. Even that decision is still up in the air from what I hear.

I'm a little skeptical because I hear whispers from inside. My heart says he will be back but I think Amare will never be the same again. Resolving this I think he will be a significant player but "half the man he used to be".

So what have you heard? It seems to me that he will be just as good based on his comments

"Suns forward Amaré Stoudemire returns from eye surgery to the court." Take 2.

Stoudemire went through his first on-court individual workout Tuesday since undergoing a minor operation six weeks ago to remove more fluid from his right eye. He initially had eye surgery in February to repair a detached retina.

Stoudemire was limited Tuesday to shooting and conditioning, Suns head athletic trainer Aaron Nelson said. Stoudemire could begin playing pickup games in two weeks, Suns General Manager Steve Kerr said after learning that the All-Star had an "excellent" check-up Monday with eye surgeon Dr. Pravin Dugel.

Stoudemire was cleared to begin working out again three weeks ago and has done so each weekday morning with Nelson. That followed a 10-day stretch in which he had to lay face down for all but two hours of each day.

"He's extremely motivated to have a good year and preparing well for it," Kerr said.

I think he can, I remember people saying the same thing about when he had microfracture.

MaryvalesFinest wrote:I think he can, I remember people saying the same thing about when he had microfracture.

He wasn't the same after micro-fracture knee surgery, granted he was 1st team all NBA in 07' but after the 04-05' playoffs people were saying he'd end up with 2 or 3 MVP's... Plus those first few years his explosiveness was off the charts

He will be Amar'e Amar'e again. There's no doubt.

i hate on him all the time, but this guy's extremely resilient and he'll make a full recovery. the guy has an incredible work ethic (albeit sometimes he focuses on the wrong things)

From the eye injury? Probably. From the brain damage on defense? Probably not.

no one on the suns focuses on defense, cant really just point the finger at him. i have loved the run n gun style over the years, but its time to focus on a traditional offense and focus on defense FIRST. i think once nash retires the run n gun style will go with him, and hopefully then we can become a real team.

Inconspicuous wrote:no one on the suns focuses on defense, cant really just point the finger at him. i have loved the run n gun style over the years, but its time to focus on a traditional offense and focus on defense FIRST. i think once nash retires the run n gun style will go with him, and hopefully then we can become a real team.

Well we had the guys to play defense, we just traded them away. The defense was great with KT, Diaw, Marion, Bell, and even Nash at that time because he had the guys to back him up when he cheated. James Jones did a good job on defense as well. The main problem that people seem to overlook, was Mike did not want to foul, so we did not have guys doling out the hard fouls that would make guys think twice about driving.

Couple that with the extra amount of touches because of the pace, and we appear poor on the defensive end. The pace of the game also worked against us with guys who liked that pace, and got in rhythm shooting like that, hence the reason many guys went off shooting against us. You give a professional a few easy looks at a shot, and then it doesn't matter how close you are on defense, the guy keeps nailing the shots. Heck, you give a guy at the gym a few open shots, and they will start nailing everything.

I guess my main problem with Amare is his lack of effort on the defensive side and boxing out. It is not like he is old, and can't move laterally. It is not because he isn't as athletic as other strong defenders. So we can all stop coddling the child, and make him live up to his word. He wants to be known as a "Ron Artest on defense", then he has to step up his game. Again, his words, not mine.

When we first got Shaq, you instantly saw an increased effort by Nash to go over the screens instead of under them. He had more faith in Shaq keeping guys from driving. Then guys figured out that Shaq didn't leave the paint, and they had an open 15 ft shot. But you could see a difference, when the guard knows that his big has his back. Amare has the money, he needs to hire a good coach to help him to be in the right spots on that side of the floor, if he is not getting it from our current staff. And it really doesn't take much to box out correctly. I can box out guys twice my size, it just comes down to teaching yourself position, and to stop turning your head to the basket when the shot goes up. The first thing to do, is find the nearest guy and put a body on them. The other thing that sucks about his defense, is he lets guys get in great position. If you watch any defensive freethrow, Amare gets shoved way under the basket, and has no position to rebound. Amare is also the one who said," You can't work on defense unless there is a scrimmage or game." Which just goes to show how little the kid knows about the game.

Inconspicuous wrote:no one on the suns focuses on defense, cant really just point the finger at him. i have loved the run n gun style over the years, but its time to focus on a traditional offense and focus on defense FIRST. i think once nash retires the run n gun style will go with him, and hopefully then we can become a real team.

Is this Terry Porter?

Is this Terry Porter?

I believe this team can be a decent defensive team, not great, but decent. We have the physical ability to do it and with the proper coaching can have the mental ability to do it. Before everybody goes off about last year and the whole porter defense thing, one thing you have to remember is that he changed EVERYTHING, defense style obviously, but he also completely changed the offense as well and took everybody completely out of sync. Anyone who has played a team sport competatively will agree that it is hard enough to learn a new style on defense or offense, but to have both changed at the same time and have it be new to EVERYBODY on the team is near impossible to do and still be a competative team. Porter was an idiot, plain and simple. He himself said when he was hired that the offense did not need to be changed but they had to really focus on a new defensive style. When they got to camp he unloaded his big surprise to everybody. That after everybody worked all summer on their games to suit the running, ball sharing offense they were used to, that all went to waste and they now had to learn a whole new offense and defense of which nobody but porter new how run. (and I'm not convinced even he knew).

Now that they have returned to an offense they know like the back of their hand, I really believe that they will focus on defense, team defense, and they will be a decent defensive team

EDIT: back on topic.......yes he will, and will have a huge year on both sides of the court....

DirtyDez wrote:

MaryvalesFinest wrote:I think he can, I remember people saying the same thing about when he had microfracture.

He wasn't the same after micro-fracture knee surgery, granted he was 1st team all NBA in 07' but after the 04-05' playoffs people were saying he'd end up with 2 or 3 MVP's... Plus those first few years his explosiveness was off the charts

Yeah...I'm more than a little worried.

Yes.

the eye injury is more complicated than the knee. the eye injury could get worse depending on how it reacts to changes in BP. they are playing ball after all.

Haven't read thru the thread so excuse me if someone has already brought this up. I read an article that said if he hadn't taken off his protective eye-wear that he wouldnt have needed the follow-up surgery.

I remember someone on here had a similar surgery so any insight would be appreciated.

If that's the case, seriously what a twit he is! Both for his personal well-being and for pretty much derailing our season.