Amar'e Stoudemire, the Power Forward? Get Back to Center and Dominate

Let Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol to be a lesson to Amar'e Stoudemire:

Play center. Win. And dominate.

In 2005-06, Dwight Howard was considered somewhat of a tweener.  He felt he was naturally a power forward, but many people thought he was too mechanical and big to play the positon.

But he wouldn’t play center, or at least wouldn’t start at the position.

Cue Patrick Ewing and Stan Van Gundy, who sat him down for a three-hour conversation, and convinced him that being a center wasn’t “uncool” as Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan (two of his idols) had made this next crop of great big men believe.

They told him he should want to be a center—and want to be the best center in the world. One of their examples used? Amar'e Stoudemire.

Yes, that Amar'e Stoudemire, the All-Star and All-NBA PF for the suns. So why on earth would he be used as the example?

For starters: Because he's done it in the past, and done it well. "Tonight it was the old me versus the young me," Shaquille O'neal said after a duel with Amare in the 04-05 season that pitted the east-best Miami Heat against the West-best Phoenix suns. It was a well played oldschool battle of the bigmen: the best center in the game against the best young center in the game, it was a duel, and Amare's boyhood idol mr Diesel himself scored 34 points, 11 boards and 2 blocks in 38 minutes to Amare's 34 points, 7 boards and 3 blocks in 40 minutes in a 125-115 Phoenix victory.

As a rookie, Stoudemire started at center in the playoffs against the Spurs.  He was a freaking force, dominating inside on the twin towers of Robinson (whom he matched up with) and Duncan (the help defender).

But that wasn’t the real case, because in Year Two Amar'e started at PF and improved into a very good player. It was Year Three they were really pointing at.

Amar'e Stoudemire that year averaged 26 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game, with a 57-percent field-goal average. He was hailed as the future and blueprint of the 21st century center. The prototype, if you will. The same thing Dwight Howard is being called today.

"What speed!  What power!  What athleticism!  At that size?  In the Dunk Contest?"

These were all things said about Amar'e at center before they were said about Dwight. Remember, Amar'e Stoudemire was first team All-NBA at center in 2007, and was an All-Star center in 2005, Dwight didn’t go first team All-NBA at center til 2008 and wasn’t an All Star there til 2007.

Amar'e was the center for the run-n-gun Suns in 2005, and was a dominant beast with two SFs next to him—much like what Howard has next to him now. And a lot of their game was due to Amar'e being a monster inside and the three-point shot killing teams from outside.

They just didn’t play defense, and were quickly wiped out of the playoffs by the defense-first Spurs. Young Amar'e dominated inside to the tune of 38 points and 11 rebounds per game for the series before it was all over though.

The next year Amar'e was injured. The Suns went completely fun-n-gun and three-point happy and really had no chance of winning it all, although they did overachieve and run their way to the Western Conference Finals in very surprising fashion, beating very unimpressive Laker and Clipper teams along the way.

2007 is the prototype of why Amar'e should play center. Amar'e Stoudemire in the second half of the 2007 season was a monster. The Suns played defense that year—they were the 11th ranked defense in the league—and that was due to pace.  They won 63 games and rolled through the first round of the playoffs.

Amar'e finally committed to rebounding, averaged over 10 boards and over two blocks a game, and was named first team All-NBA as a center in his first year back from microfracture surgery.

The next round, the Suns were a team on a mission, winning Games Two and Four against the Spurs in what many people called the championship series of 2007. Everyone knows what happened next with the suspensions—and a lot of people (myself included) think it cost the Suns the series and the championship, which is a shame.

Amar'e would’ve been the starting center for the world champs, a top-10 defense, first team All-NBA center, 20/10/2 a game on 60-percent shooting—all at 25 years old, and in his first year back from microfracture surgery.

There never would have been a Shaq trade.  D’Antoni wouldn't have left.  They would’ve retooled on the fly around Amar'e, who would’ve been hailed as the prototype center fort the next decade—just like we’re hearing about Dwight Howard right now.

The Suns were more uptempo in 2007 than this year's Magic, and were a top-10 defense rather than No. 1 defense. Amar'e wasn’t DPOY or even all-defense, but he was pretty darn good and committed that year to defense—as did the whole Suns team. Amar'e keyed their inside force and legitimacy as a championship contender at center with Diaw and Marion next to him as the forwards.

When Amar'e looks at what Dwight Howard (the only big man in NBA that can trump Amare’s athleticism, power, speed, jumpability and explosiveness—Amare is quicker, more agile, and more polished offensively) and what Pau Gasol (starting center for last year's Lakers that he is easily bigger and more powerful/athletic than) have done the last two years as conference championship teams starting centers, he should realize what Dwight realized a few years ago: That he should want to be a center—and want to be the bets center this league has to offer.

He should want to dominate the middle on both ends of the court, and want to be a mismatch to any center or big man that tries to guard him. He used to do it for the Suns every night in 2007, and it would be a real shame to see him play out the rest of his career as a no-defense-playing and high-scoring-novelty-act at power forward instead of a dominant two-way center that he has the talent and potential to be.