Why Amar'e Stoudemire Can Work, Just Not for Knicks Anymore

On Wednesday, the New York Knicks came within an hair's breadth of beating an elite team, the Indiana Pacers, without the service of Amar'e Stoudemire.

On Saturday, they got a quality performance from Stoudemire against a far inferior team, the Washington Wizards. And not only did they lose again, but the game wasn't nearly as close.

The Wizards are by no means an elite team, but they do have the Knicks' kryptonite: speedy, athletic guards. And Washington made good use of those guards—particularly John Wall, who lit up the porous Knicks defense for 31 points in the Wizards' 98-89 win.

The Knicks are too bad a basketball team right now to beat any opponent if they aren't running on all cylinders. And, according to coach Mike Woodson's postgame press conference, they were running on approximately one cylinder:

Yes, he is referring to Amar'e Stoudemire, the former superstar who has been reduced to a part-time player and full-time salary-cap albatross for the Knicks. Stoudemire showed glimpses of his old self Saturday night, scoring 12 points in 21 minutes on 5-for-5 shooting from the field, with no turnovers. 

He even managed to get out on the break for a dunk, like the Stoudemire of the "Seven Seconds or Less" days.

Sadly, that old-school Stoudemire performance did nothing to help the Knicks. New York was outscored by seven points while Stoudemire was on the court, and the Wizards were able to take control of the game when Woodson rolled out the abominable Stoudemire/Andrea Bargnani frontcourt. 

That is the sad irony of tonight's game is that, while Stoudemire showed he can still play in the NBA, he also showed yet again that he is a terrible fit for these Knicks.

The Amar'e Paradox

The New York Knicks had a good year in 2012-13. Amar'e Stoudemire had a good year in 2012-13. Since Stoudemire played all of his 2012-13 minutes for the New York Knicks, it would stand to reason that he must have helped the Knicks while he was on the court.

Surprisingly enough, that isn't necessarily true. 

Make no mistake, Stoudemire put up great numbers last season—numbers on par with his awesome 2010-11 season.

	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	FTA	ORB	DRB	PTS	PER
2010-11	2870	9.3	18.6	.502	7.5	2.5	5.5	24.7	22.7
2011-12	1543	7.4	15.3	.483	5.7	2.5	6.1	19.2	17.7
2012-13	682	8.1	14.1	.577	6.9	3.2	4.5	21.8	22.1

But the Knicks' record with Stoudemire playing (16-13, .552 win percentage) was not as good as it was when he was injured (38-15, .717 win percentage). Also, the Knicks seemed to play better with other reserve forwards on the court.

Knicks
Opponent
	Amar'e Stoudemire	Steve Novak	Chris Copeland	Kenyon Martin
O-Rtg, on	110.7	112.2	111.3	112.1
O-Rtg, off	111.4	110.6	111.3	111.2
O-Rtg, on	108.5	106.5	107.0	104.2
O-Rtg, off	106.5	107.0	106.8	107.1
Net Rtg.	-2.7	+2.1	-0.3	+3.8

How could an effective Stoudemire hurt the Knicks? It comes down to compatibility. Quite simply, Stoudemire doesn't add to their strengths, and he exacerbates their weaknesses.

Over the past two seasons, the Knicks have been at their best when they are shooting a lot of threes, but Amar'e often acts as a black hole in the post, constantly sucking the ball in and rarely kicking it back out to the shooters.

Defensively, the Knicks have been so bad on the perimeter that they have difficulty functioning without a defensive-minded big like Kenyon Martin or Tyson Chandler to protect the rim. Even when Stoudemire was at his peak, defense was never his strong suit.

Amar'e and the Knicks: Content, But Not Compatible

On November 22, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post shocked the basketball world when he published the first comprehensive interview with Knicks owner James Dolan in years. 

In the interview, Dolan said he would not take a mulligan on Stoudemire's $100 million contract, and that he still hopes for Stoudemire to return to form:

"

You cannot ask for a guy to be more dedicated, more disciplined, than Amar’e. He does his rehab, he does his workouts, he does everything, he’s on it every day, and that’s worth a lot, too. If there’s justice in this world, his knee will heal up to the point where he can play more minutes and make the contribution he wants to make.

"

Wall Street Journal writer Chris Herring noted that when asked about Dolan's comments after Saturday's game, Stoudemire reiterated his desire to stay in New York:

While it's touching that these two think this relationship might still work, it's time to be realistic. 

Amar'e Stoudemire can still contribute to an NBA team, but he has a very specialized skill set, and he can only benefit certain teams. A team that has a strong defensive corps, but lacks a little scoring punch off the bench, would be an ideal fit.

But the New York Knicks are not that team...in fact, they are probably the exact opposite of that team. They could use a reserve big who can protect the rim and who doesn't use a high percentage of his team's possessions...and that's the exact opposite of Stoudemire.

Unfortunately, Stoudemire's massive contract will probably keep both parties locked into this unhealthy relationship for the foreseeable future. It's not good for the Knicks. It's not good for Amar'e. It's not good for anybody.