mildred wrote:TKF wrote:I am not throwing in the towel.. get a win tomorrow and we can go from there... amare knees looked fine game 1.. he hurt his back for christ sakes... the second half of the season amare was worn down.. it happens. His knees are fine..
This will be my last comment on Amare.
Why did Amare wear down in the 2nd half ? It's not like he's a rookie that is not used to an NBA season. He's played MD minutes for many years while MD was coaching the Suns. He's an athletic specimen and a gym rat that keeps his body in tip top, A1 condition. He's probably in better shape than anyone in the NBA.
Why did he wear down ? It's not like he played against other teams bigs all the time and defended them 100% of the time. In fact the comments regarding his matador defense were heard often on this forum. Why didn't KG, Zbo, Josh Smith, Gasol etc wear down in similar fashion ? These are the questions I ask myself. I love Amare as a leader. I love the way he loves NY. The way he beats his chest, but a leader must lead on the court as well to be a complete leader and I didn't see this aspect in Amare's game in the 2nd half of the season. If you want your team to defend then you must defend.
My beef with Amare is not his performance last nite and I understand he pulled a muscle in his back and is not healthy right now. My beef with Amare has nothing to do with last nites game. My beef with Amare is what he did for NY in the second half of the season. Maybe it was a 40 game slump ..... could be ? I'm concerned though and it's one of the reasons why I see a glass half empty right now.
the reason why amar'e wore down is two-fold: first, you mention that he is an athletic specimen. i disagree-- he is weak in his legs and his rear end for an alleged big man. he is also not his listed height, he's closer to 6'9". he is an undersized power forward-- really a small forward-- and his entire game demonstrates this, from the inability to box out effectively on defense to his lack of a low-post game, preferring to work on his outside midrange jump shot than post moves. he did not have to work so hard with nash feeding him perfect passes on his rolls to the hoop. he has more of a small forward's game, but his ability to finish at the rim due in major part to steve nash's incredible in point passing, gives most people the illusion of his being a power forward.
this leads to the second point: he had to work much harder to get his points and was less efficient in doing so. part of that dynamic was his consistently driving to the hoop against two or three defenders, absorbing physical punishment and expending much more energy than he has ever had to before. if he had worked more assiduously on his passing game he would have been able to make his teammates better and conserved his body for the post-season and the second half for that matter.
posters who insist that amar'e had to put the team on his back are missing the point about amar'e. he didn't have to put the team on his back by taking on the scoring load-- it would have been far more effective if he had worked on getting others involved and making others better to whatever degree he is capable. he is far from striking the right balance and may never be able to. if he wants to help his team succeed next year he must absolutely work on his passing game to whatever degree that is possible to improve at this late stage of his straight from high school career.
in spite of his inability to defend adequately and create genuine chemistry, i am very happy that he is a knick. after all, we acquired him for cash and did not really give up any human capital to do so. that is exactly how players of his ilk should be acquired.
