Daily Links: Where Amare Wants More Love

No, I mean what Shaquille O’Neal has. Stoudemire needs to leggo his ego.

Greatness is judged by playoff success…Amare hasn’t even made the finals..

Whatever! LBJ was considered great before his 1st game in the NBA! James is a one-of-a-kind phenom that transcends any sort of formula to success that most may have to follow. Playoff success would add to Amar’e’s popularity, but as long as Nash is there he’ll always play 2nd fiddle (which is fine by me b/c I think 13 makes everyone on the court w/ him better) no matter if they went to the Finals or not.

doesn’t hurt that lebron has a great chance at getting back into the finals and even winning it this year. Says everything to me. And he’s doing it with a team with less talent than l.a. or ….(was going to add orlando in here….not going to)

some people paid him to use his name

that (majerle’s) doesn’t pretend to be better than it is. It simply has a ton of tvs to watch the game and good food. At least I like the patty melt.

assuming he opts out, amare would earn at least, $17,197,242 next year, as the first year of his new contract must be a least 105 % of the last year of his old one. (im assuming his player option wouldnt count as his last year, since he wasnt actually paid.) he will have 8 years of service time at the end of the year, so he can ask for up to 30% of the salary cap. (i assume they mean the actual cap, not the luxury tax line). this is pretty old, but espn guesses the cap will be around 50-53 million for the 2010-2011 season. this would mean amare’s max would be between $15 million and $16 million. the 105% rule trumps the leaguewide maximum rule however, so it appears that a max contract for amare next year would be $17,197,242. it says there are restrictions on how big raises can be from year to year, but it doesnt give specifics.
ESSENTIALLY:
$17,197,242 next year for a max contract is as much as i can piece together from that.

I think a deal that is win-win for both sides is doable. We can’t just dump him for a bunch of D-league guys just so we get something. And I think Amar’e does want to win, and would rather stay in Phx with the core guys we have here to make another run. Regarding some posts as to Amar’e’s comments, I think part of the reason he might feel the need to talk about himself is because so many of the posts here are negative and slam him for what he can’t do. It’s human nature at some point to feel the need to defend yourself and remind people of what you have done and what you are doing. You’re kidding yourself if you say that we’d have had the run we did from 2003-2008 without Amar’e. And yes we also needed Nash and Marion…but the combo of Amar’e and Nash were the key to those teams.

I think the team that has played the last 4 games is a team that no one would want to face in the playoffs. If we can continue to get contributions at the SG, and can play D, rebound and at least stay at or below our TO avg, I like this team’s chances in the playoffs this year, and to be able to really contend next year with out a lot of need to change anything…just time to develop the synergy we need.

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for things between mid-Jan and now because of the uncertainty due to the trade soap opera. I think the entire team has had moments like that. Hoping he and the team can continue to bring the effort we’ve seen the last 4 games. But we also have to give credit to Gentry, both for talking to Amar’e and for the changes he’s made in the lineup and rotation.