New York Knicks: Will Amar’e Stoudemire Ever Regain All-Star Form?

It’s amazing how far a rising NBA superstar can fall in just a few short years. We’ve seen it many times before. Whether it was because of injury (Grant Hill, Anfernee Hardaway), a lack of playoff success (Chris Webber, Vince Carter) or a combination of the two (Tracy McGrady), we’ve seen a number of promising players fall short of truly becoming prominent presences in a star-driven league. True, guys like Grant Hill and maybe even Tracy McGrady have a shot of making the Hall of Fame one day simply because of the impact they had in their limited primes, but one of the best examples of a rising superstar dropping off the face of the earth in recent memory has to be Amar’e Stoudemire.

Amar’e Stoudemire is nowhere near the player he once was. (Flickr.com photo by Bryan Horowitz)

Stoudemire came into the league in 2002 as one of the few draft picks the Phoenix Suns actually got right in the last 15 years. He won the 2003 Rookie of the Year Award and was a six-time NBA All-Star during his time in Phoenix. In 2007, he was selected to the All-NBA First Team while averaging 20.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. He’s made the All-NBA Second Team four times in his career. Except for his rookie season and 2005-06, when he only played three games because of cartilage damage in his knees, Stoudemire averaged at least 20 points, eight rebounds and one block per game every season he wore a Suns jersey. But in his three seasons in New York? Only once. So at this point in his career, it’s fair to ask: What the hell has happened to Amar’e Stoudemire?

STAT’s rapid decline in production can be attributed to a number of factors. First, there’s the obvious injury bug that seems to strike with the force of a slap to a fire extinguisher (the first of many jokes about STAT’s legendary battle with the fire extinguisher glass case). Stoudemire has only played 154 regular-season games out of a total 230 in his last three seasons in New York. Whether it’s been ailing knees, detached retinas, bulging disks or that ever-threatening presence of fire extinguishers, he hasn’t exactly been blessed with a clean bill of health during his time in the league. We probably should have seen this coming based on the knee problems that limited to three games in just his fourth season, but the blistering 26 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks he put up in his first year with Steve Nash understandably blinded us.

And speaking of the Suns’ two-time MVP, the second biggest reason Stoudemire hasn’t been the same since leaving Phoenix is what I like to call the Steve Nash Effect. It’s really not very complicated: There are certain big men in the league who can only perform with a terrific passing point guard getting them wide open looks at the rim. Stoudemire is the ultimate example of this. In his five full seasons with the Nash-Stat pick-and-roll lighting up defenses, Stoudemire averaged 23.2 points per game, compared to 18.2 in five seasons without him. Again, injuries have been the most prevalent factor in his rapidly declining numbers in New York, but even when he did play, it was entirely obvious that Stoudemire’s offensive game was lacking without a true point guard feeding him in the paint. He doesn’t have any good post moves on the block, he’s not a great interior scorer and he can’t create his own shot even if he’s capable of draining open perimeter looks. Even in STAT’s first year with the Knicks, he had Chauncey Billups and coach Mike D’Antoni making sure he got easy looks. Simply put, we’ve come to realize over the past few years that Stoudemire is only effective in a pick-and-roll game.

Another huge part of Stoudemire’s downward spiral over the last few seasons has to be attributed to Carmelo Anthony. In his first season in New York, Stoudemire was the team’s best offensive weapon. His athleticism, his fearless posterizations and his ability to convert out of the pick-and-roll made him a constant offensive threat and the Knicks’ go-to guy. Once Melo came into the picture, that completely changed. For the first time in his career, Amar’e had to learn how to play second fiddle to a more gifted offensive force. Suffice it to say he didn’t adjust very well. Since that time, he’s been relegated to coming off the bench when he’s actually healthy enough to play. When your evident skills and athleticism don’t outweigh your inability to adjust to a more dominant player’s presence on the point, to the point that you’re actually hurting the team, you are not an All-Star caliber player anymore.

As a Suns fan, I can tell you that some of my best memories over the last decade involve a Steve Nash pick-and-roll that so often led to an Amar’e Stoudemire dunk. But that underachieving team is a pretty good indicator of Stoudemire’s career as a whole: A lot of flash, undeniable talent and a promising future that ultimately amounted to nothing lasting. Part of that I blame on Ron Artest, part of that I blame on the Suns giving away so many great draft picks and part of that I blame on Amar’e Stoudemire. Why? Because as electrifying as it may have been to watch Nash set him up time and time again for a vicious slam on the offensive end, those undisciplined Suns teams’ biggest flaw–a complete lack of defense when it mattered–was personified by STAT. After years of getting nowhere in the postseason, Stoudemire’s defensive flaws became more and more apparent to any basketball fans who weren’t still dazzled by the ever-effective pick and roll.

This defensive angle is important because now that Stoudemire’s athleticism is starting to take a hit with these lingering and consistent injuries, he needs to reinvent himself with good fundamental basketball. He won’t find the spotlight if he can’t defend AND can’t put up prime-time numbers anymore. His rebounding numbers have declined every year since his last season in Phoenix. His laziness on defense is sometimes overlooked because he’s averaged 1.4 blocks per game for his career, but even with the Suns, he would consistently give up boards and easy points that could have been prevented with a little effort. For someone whose offensive game lives off the pick-and-roll, you’d think he would know how to guard it, but Stoudemire’s hedging off the screen man is nearly as atrocious as his help-side D. Just search “Amare Stoudemire bad defense” on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean. Any time you get that many hits for your bad defense, you know you have an area to improve on.

I don’t mean to bash Amar’e Stoudemire, because he was part of a two-man tandem that made the Suns one of the most enjoyable teams to watch from 2004-10. But in trying to answer to question of “Will Amar’e Stoudemire ever regain All-Star form?” I have to say no. At least, not while he’s in New York. Melo is the man there now, while J.R. Smith and Raymond Felton have proven themselves as big offensive weapons. As for Stoudemire, he’s become an under-appreciated role player  that doesn’t particularly fit in with the team system unless he’s providing hustle points off the bench. And as I’ve already mentioned, that’s not exactly STAT’s area of expertise. There are few things in the NBA as awesome as Stoudemire’s patented slam-dunk routine: a drive to the basket, a humiliating posterization, a dramatic landing and a crowd-rousing scream while beating his chest with his fist. But like the run-and-gun Suns, Amar’e Stoudemire’s career might be remembered for falling short of his full potential because of injuries, Melo and the Steve Nash Effect.

Plus, you know, the whole fire extinguisher thing.