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Amare Stoudemire's Rocky Road to Recovery

For the time being, Amare Stoudemire will have to contribute at the free throw, from outside and with positional defense. (Photo by Max Simbron)

For the time being, Amare Stoudemire will have to contribute at the free throw, from outside and with positional defense. (Photo by Max Simbron)

A few weeks ago Phoenix Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry declared that his all-star power forward Amare Stoudemire was only about 60% towards full recovery from his eye injury. Gentry wasn't talking about Amare's eye itself which has a clean bill of health, but his conditioning and basketball rhythm.

Amare for his part denied this, declaring himself 100% and fully prepared to tear it up for another season. Amare has never lacked in confidence.

What we saw in last night's season opener was a 60% Amare. He only had 6 field goal attempts and it wasn't for lack of touches. His 6 turnovers mostly came when he put the ball on the floor and was easily stripped by guards digging down. This is a big indication that Amare's timing and court awareness haven't returned.

He was also stripped when he caught the ball in good position or got an offensive rebound and had to take an extra dribble and gather himself before trying to go up to the rim. That's a sign that his explosiveness is no where near what we are used to.

The best thing for Amare might have been that Blake Griffin wasn't on the floor to provide a visible reminder of the power and fury of the Stoudemire of years gone by. That contrast would have been painful to watch.

I don't know for sure if Amare will return to his old form but I am fairly optimistic that he'll bounce back to at least 80% or 90% of what he has before the injury last year.

Star-divide

So, instead of panicking and bringing up the Antonio McDyess comparisons (which I did last night in the game thread) lets all take a deep breath and check back in a few weeks.

But what if Amare doesn't come back to physical dominating form? What if he is McDyess and his injuries force him to change his game? There were some positive signs in that regard as well.

Unlike Rookie of the Year Stoudemire, the version we saw last night still managed to score 16 point with no dunks. He connected on four long jump shots (two from each wing) and missed two shots from the top of the lane. No layups. No dunks.

Amare also scored 8 points from the line and especially in the fourth quarter was able to catch in the mid-post and drive and draw fouls. He had 4 of his 10 FTA's in the 4th quarter.

The rebounds weren't there (5) and there were times when we looked a bit lost on his rotations and let his man beat him to the basket on dives or to get position for rebounds. But there was also a couple of key stops at the end of the game.

He played solid perimeter defense on switches and forced Rasul Butler to hit an incredible shot over him and did a great job playing Eric Gordon tight without fouling on the final shot of the game. His best last game stand however was against Kaman in the low right block. Amare stopped him from going baseline and forced the ball out resulting in a missed long range shot from the Clippers.

If Amare can continue to improve his defense and can still hit his outside shot and get to the line then there's no reason to think that Amare The Beast won't be back better then ever by late November.

Of course, having watched Amare for his entire career I would not be surprised if he went off for 30 against the Warriors on Friday night.

 

 

Earl Clark - Surprise of the Game

When Channing Frye went out early in the game with three quick fouls I was certain we would see Jarron Collins at least get a little burn. No. Instead it was Earl Clark who had 20 highly effective minutes in his rookie debut. He put up 6 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal and had no fouls and was a +11 on the floor.

He displayed his no fear attitude on both ends getting to the rim for a couple of nice buckets and playing impressive defense on the wing. His shot selection with that jump shot is still a bit troublesome but you know, at some point that shot is going to start falling for him and he's going to be a legit 1st option when he's on the floor. As long as he's taking open looks in the floor and not forcing it too much then I think we live with that for now.

Having watched Earl in preseason and listening to how the coaches talked about him, I was not expecting him to come out in the first game of the season and play 20 minutes. Big surprise and a good one.

Lou Amundson only had 10 minutes which I suspect was due to a sore foot. He rolled it in practice a few days ago and said that the side of his foot hurts when he tries to move laterally.

Frye in foul trouble. Lou with a sore foot. No Robin Lopez. No Jarron Collins.

You can make the case that Clark's 20 minutes were a big reason why the Suns won this game.

Other Game Links:

Poll
How are you feeling about Amare Stoudemire?
He'll be fine. Patience please
128 votes
His best days are gone. He'll never be the same
13 votes
He's ok but not worth the $16m salary
36 votes

177 votes | Poll has closed

2 recs  |  Comment 19 comments  |  Add comment |

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boxing out

amare said in his postgame interview that he and channing were focusing on boxing out camby and kaman, leaving guys like grant to get the actual board. having listened to the game on the radio, i was wondering if anyone who watched it could tell me if this is true? it certainly would explain slower running game if grant was staying behind, and it would also explain just how grant was able to end up with that many boards and amare and channing didnt. or is this just an excuse by stat? or a little of both?

if its true and he was boxing out, then i think that we should give him some credit for that. after all, weve always been on amares case for putting his individual performance before the team. but yesterday we actually came out with the advantage on the boards against the clippers beastly front line—doesn’t that warrant some praise for teamwork?

also, it seemed like he was giving alot more effort defensively. was this true?

by yanyanman2 on Oct 29, 2009 10:37 AM MDT reply actions   0 recs

Yes

I made this very point in the comments of the other recap…I would have to watch the game again (and pay close attention to that) to really say for sure but it certainly makes sense.

We’ll see what Gentry says today at practice. He did talk about having the bigs face-guard their man so it wouldn’t be a surprise. Gentry is usually pretty straight about stuff like this. If he’s unhappy w/ Amare and Frye’s work on the glass he’ll say so.

Stay tuned for that answer. Thanks

Blogging Suns Basketball . twitter: @phoenixstan

by Phoenix Stan on Oct 29, 2009 10:43 AM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

I was pretty happy when I noticed Amare boxing out a few times during the game, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to go after and grab the rebound too.

by brian13 on Oct 29, 2009 10:55 AM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

I remember at least a couple rebounds

where Stoudemire unselfishly let either Dudley or Hill get the rebound

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Oct 29, 2009 11:09 AM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

That's one area where I want Amare to be selfish though..

Granted, he’s not 100% so i’ll let it slide. But when he is, he needs to go after every rebound like it has his name on it. I don’t care if he’s battling our own players for the ball.. He needs to think to himself that “this ball is mine!”

by brian13 on Oct 29, 2009 3:16 PM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

Thanks for spinning Amare’s game positively. I was definitely worried about it last night and after reading I’ve calmed myself down a little.

by brian13 on Oct 29, 2009 10:53 AM MDT reply actions   1 recs

Amare

I definitely think we need to pump the brakes panic wise for a few reasons. First, he has shown flashes of that old explosiveness (I was in attendance @ the Suns-Kings preseason game when Amare destroyed the Kings front line.) Second, take a look at the other stud big men who are just returning from injury, Kevin Garnett (who strangely enough, went out the same day as Amare) and Al Jefferson. KG’s first two games (avg 11.5 ppg and 8.5 rpg) looked very similar to Stat’s (mostly jumpers, lots of TO’s), and Jefferson was just awful (8 points 4 boards.) Third, unlike those guys, there was no injury to Stat’s legs, which would cause a lack of explosiveness. We’re talking about a guy who wasn’t even aloud to BREAK A SWEAT for 5 months, his muscles and stamina will come back in time. Finally, I did notice Amare basically face guarding both Kaman and Camby on the defensive glass (keeping his guys off the offensive backboards) so while his #’s may not look so hot, he did a really good job keeping his guys from getting to the glass. PATIENCE PEOPLE.

by jma67 on Oct 29, 2009 10:56 AM MDT reply actions   1 recs

+1

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Oct 29, 2009 11:10 AM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

+1

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Oct 29, 2009 11:10 AM MDT reply actions   0 recs

I hand em’ out like candy on halloween

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Oct 29, 2009 11:11 AM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

Amare (from what I saw)

OK I missed the second half of the game due to a game of my own I was playing in but in the first half I was VERY impressed with Amare’s interior D on Kaman. He is making strides defensively and if he continues to improve on that end while working to get back his explosiveness on the offensive end we may see the monster we’ve all been waiting for. I saw last night as very promising for Amare and the Suns squad – good win. Yes, it was the Clippers but a W is a W and hopefully that and the (I’m going to assume here) W over Golden State on Friday will get us started on the right foot and ready to start surprising the league especially when JRich returns.

by watdogg10 on Oct 29, 2009 11:14 AM MDT reply actions   1 recs

+1

Couldn’t agree more

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Oct 29, 2009 3:54 PM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

I'm not worried at all about Amare

Agree on patience. Amare looked about as dialed in to last night’s game as possible. He just isn’t in regular season form by any means. Throughout the game, he really seemed to be trying to write checks his body simply was unable to cash.

I would go so far as to say that if he maintains the focus he demonstrated last night. Once his body catches up, he will prove himself worthy of a max contract come season’s end.

by Mike Lisboa on Oct 29, 2009 11:58 AM MDT via mobile reply actions   0 recs

write checks his body simply was unable to cash

CLASSIC – I like it!

They say "don't swim with the sharks", but I'm faster than sharks so it's not a big deal...

by Eutychus on Oct 29, 2009 3:54 PM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

ok a lil off subject

but did anyone see Ben Wallace’s line last night….he STARTED for Detroit and he grabbed 9 boards….I figured he could at the least helped us in a back-up center role…any thoughts

by ron_dasun on Oct 29, 2009 12:34 PM MDT reply actions   0 recs

how much would he have cost us?

would we have been able to get nash and hill back? channing? just wondering what the financial situation was.

by yanyanman2 on Oct 29, 2009 12:37 PM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

don't know

but it couldn’t have cost us that much if we bought him out and resigned him for the league min….I mean we signed Collins and Griffin and they aren’t worth squat

by ron_dasun on Oct 29, 2009 3:48 PM MDT up reply actions   0 recs

Then/than

Pssst…. 2nd to last para on Amare – switch them

by AllanGentry on Oct 29, 2009 2:06 PM MDT reply actions   0 recs

Amare

Man when you got a team like the Clipps who have 2 REALLY big guys clogging that lane, not many people in the NBA could go to the post often against them. The Clippers blocked some shots early and CLEARLY wasn’t letting ANYONE really get to the rim much… Amare had to take what was givin to him… I think if he can really hit those sweet outside shots consistently, It’ll open the lane for the dunks…

by Will Smith on Oct 29, 2009 9:21 PM MDT reply actions   0 recs


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