Golden State Warriors: Amare Stou-Disaster

For all Golden State Warriors fans that went to bed dreaming of Stephen Curry running from baseline to baseline draining three pointers with the greatest of ease, you are in for a rude awakening you’re not ready for.

According to reports from the Arizona Republic, Curry along with Andris Biedrins will be shipped to the Phoenix Suns for Amare Stoudemire, continuing the trend of power shifting trades in the NBA. The Warriors already made a trade to the Atlanta Hawks to rid themselves of Jamal Crawford’s 2-year, $20 million contract in exchange for Speedy Claxton and Acie Law.

Trading Crawford to make room for Curry made sense. Curry was literally Crawford-lite, 2 inches shorter and 15 pounds lighter, but he can score and make plays for his teammates just like Crawford could. Trading away Curry to get Stoudemire however is confusing.

Sure, Stoudemire is an All-Star Power Forward that has stretches where he looks down right unstoppable scoring from the post and 15-20 ft out while playing solid help D, swatting shots with his freakish athleticism. And sure, the Warriors are surrounding him with a three point shooting team that should spread the floor to make things easier for him down low. So on paper, it would seem like a good fit. This would be the case…if the Warriors were running anything but a Don Nelson Offense.

Don Nelson’s offense has been, and always will be, all about transition offense and perimeter shooting. Regain possession on defense, run in transition and try to get an easy layup down court. If the transition defense closes that up, launch a perimeter shot because that is whats available. Get the most possessions that you can as quickly as you can, so you have the most opportunity to score. What will happen is that Don Nelson will run that 3 point shooting small line-up he’s grown accustomed to running at Golden State with Stoudemire at center. So you’ll the same trigger happy offense with the first guy to touch the rock hoisting up a shot. Since Stoudemire is not one to gain position in the low post immediately (unless in transition), he will touch the ball less and therefore have less opportunity to score while the three point shooters on the team continue to have a field day with an offense that curtails to their skill set.

Have the Warriors already forgotten what happened last season when Stoudemire was not receiving the touches he thought he deserved? He threw a fit and became a locker room distraction as the Suns failed to the reach the playoffs in 5 seasons. It would be wrong to say he’s the next Stephen Marbury, but he’s a few bad games away from dividing the team that lacks veteran leadership.

Not to say Stoudemire will be ineffective. He will still get his monster dunks, a few blocks, maybe throw in a couple of threes if he’s feeling it, but he won’t be the same Amare that everyone thought was going to be the next dominating Power Forward in the league.

Some will say, “Don Nelson will change the offense to fit him into the scheme better.” Maybe, but if he does, what are those perimeter players going to do? You can not become terrific post passers overnight (ask the Orlando Magic), and when you try and take away the shoot-first mentality away from a shoot-first player, they will rebel, especially young players, like the ones the Warriors have in spades.

Somewhere, Steve Nash is probably shaking his in disappointment. At some point during the season, his old running mate Stoudemire and the Warriors will be doing the same thing if they trade Curry for Stoudemire.