[h1]Signing Amar'e Stoudemire would be success for New York Knicks, may attract LeBron James' attention[/h1]
Mitch Lawrence
Saturday, July 3rd 2010, 4:00 AM
Former Phoenix general manager Steve Kerr (b.) suggests the New York Knicks may get LeBron James' attention if they sign free agent forward Amar'e Stoudemire (a.).
It can be officially reported: The lights at the Garden have been turned back on.
The dark days of
Isiah Thomas are over.
The
Knicks are moving toward grabbing
Amar'e Stoudemire, one of the premier bigs in the
NBA, making their offseason a success.
Now it's not a smashing success. That can come only if
LeBron James decides he needs to continue his career in New York, and there is nothing coming out of his camp that suggests he's thinking along those lines.
"But maybe this move for Amar'e will get LeBron's attention,"
Steve Kerr, the former
Phoenix GM, said Saturday by phone. "Who knows if it will? None of us really know what he's going to do. But I'd think he'd look at playing with Amar'e. The thing I love about Amar'e is that he wants to be great and he works at it. He's a competitor and he wants to be a star."
You can talk about New York and all it has to offer James - off the court. But this move for Stoudemire has given James the first legitimate reason to come to play for the Knicks. He's the big man and No. 2 star that James has never had, at any point, during his NBA career.
If James asks about Stoudemire's knees, Kerr would tell him, yes, they are a concern. But perhaps James noticed that Stoudemire ran, jumped and played at an All-Star level for the last three months of the season and helped the Suns advance to the Western Conference finals for the first time since
Mike D'Antoni coached in Phoenix. "I'd be concerned about years four and five of a contract because he's had four knee surgeries and microfracture surgery," said Kerr, who resigned at season's end after the Suns lost to the
Lakers and is returning to TNT as an analyst. "But I wouldn't be concerned about the first two, three years."
What about Amar'e's defense? James wants to play on teams that stress defense first, because that's how titles are won. En route to 29 wins, the Knicks allowed opponents to shoot a league-best 48.6% last season, the latest piece of evidence that D'Antoni is better coaching the other 47 feet of floor. And it's not as if Stoudemire made the All-NBA second team this past season because he was regularly stopping his man, either.
"Amar'e's not going to be
Kevin Garnett, everybody knows that," Kerr said. "But he's improved. He's still not a great defender and he knows that. But he's tried to get better. I think he's learned and grown. He's matured a lot, and we had a good, stable environment for him here. We had (assistant coach)
Bill Cartwright, who was great for him because he would tell him like it was. If Amar'e screwed up on defense, Bill would tell him he was screwing up. And he'd accept Bill's criticism. Amar'e is very coachable."
That has to be promising for James, but even more so for D'Antoni, who had his share of run-ins with Stoudemire in the four-plus seasons they were together. "This move for Amar'e will really excite their fans," Kerr said. "But the key thing is, what happens next in New York?"
For argument's sake, let's say that even if James is intrigued by the chance of playing with Stoudemire, he still doesn't come to New York. The Knicks will need a point guard who can get into the paint and deliver one of the game's premier finishers the ball.
Chris Paul isn't getting traded, if you believe what the
Hornets are saying. And the Knicks don't have the goods to get one of LeBron's best friends in the NBA, anyway.
The
Spurs seem to be open to the idea of dealing
Tony Parker, after seeing
George Hill have a breakout season. But they're not totally sold on Hill as their future playmaker, and will not take back peanuts for Parker. Another option is
Raymond Felton, the
Charlotte point guard who is a free agent. Other possibilities include
Luke Ridnour, late of
Milwaukee and on the Knicks' radar.
Then the Knicks will need to get a board man who can play alongside Stoudemire. Looking to get out and run the floor, rather than bang bodies to get a loose carom, Stoudemire has never averaged double digits in rebounds during his eight seasons. "Gee, just a point guard and rebounder? That's all?" Kerr said, laughing.
Yeah, nothing major, although this move for Stoudemire certainly is. "After planning for 2010 and making room, the Knicks had to make a splash," Kerr said. "And getting Amar'e is a splash."
But is it big enough to get James' attention?
