bballsparkin wrote:I've always felt that Bosh is better than Amare. But the further the Suns go this year the more valuable he becomes no doubt. Amare is good with or without Nash. He has excellent hands. Nash throws crazy ass passes that are unexpected and Stoudemire catches them no problem with the finish. Basically, when Amare applies himself on both ends of the court, he is almost as good as he thinks he is. Which is pretty dang good.
Teams thinking they can grab Amare no problem as a backup plan may have missed the boat imo.
edit: meant to say with regards to Bosh and Amare. Amare has had some remarkable runs on winning teams. So until Bosh does the same you can't really compare them.
I like Amare a lot too. He simply is the best finishing big man in the league. His faceup game isn't quite as good as Bosh's, but is nearly so. There are few things as scary on the face of the earth as a Nash+Amare PnR, with Amare rolling to the hoop. The thing is though....can other PGs create the same PnR? Wade I am pretty sure cannot. LeBron probably can. Paul and Williams can.
This is why I'm a bit suspicious of what will happen when Amare leaves. If you go on basketball-reference.com and check the TS% of players before and after Nash arrives on the Suns (Marion, Amare), or after they arrived on the Suns (JRich), you'll notice a big jump (or fall, in the case of Marion.) That is my big fear with Amare...will he still be as efficient and productive w/o a Nash-level PG? I think what someone needs to do is to see how productive and efficient he has been with him on the floor when Nash is on the bench..there is a good amount of play-by-play data available over the past 4 or 5 years, so this is something someone could easily take a look at. If he can maintain his productivity w/o a Nash-level PG, then grabbing him is less risky, from a bball perspective.
Regarding grabbing Amare as a backup...My point isn't so much that Amare is available as a "backup plan"....the point is that Amare also
helps to set the market price for a CB S/T. If Amare is S/Ted to the Heat for a TPE and single future first, then one can't expect the value of CBs S/T rights to be dramatically different.
Hell, for all we know, he might not be a backup. If the Suns get to the Finals this year, who is to say Amare won't knock Bosh out of the 3rd spot for coveted max FAs? CB after all has never even been out of the first round...
Like I said, my own personal belief is that CB is strictly a better player than Amare...a better scorer (when taking pace and the Nash-effect into account), rebounder, defender, and passer. But the market value of the two players might very different from their value as players.
