Will Amar’e Stoudemire participate fully in training camp? Doesn’t sound like it, according to Raymond Felton.
Felton believes Stoudemire will be held out of much of the preseason in order to have him ready for the regular season and preserve his knees.
Felton said Stoudemire is only starting to run during informal workouts and isn’t scrimmaging with the team. The Knicks’ training camp officially opens Monday.
“He started running today,’’ Felton said at an Under Armour appearance. “He’s not playing. We’ll sit him out as long as we can. He’s getting shots up. We don’t need him to go hard now. Training camp isn’t that big for us. It’s more for the young guys.’’
Will Stoudemire play in preseason?
“I’m not really sure,’’ Felton said. ‘We need him to be there, to see what’s going on. If a coach puts in a new play, he needs to be around. As far as going up and down, banging, we don’t want to risk that. Not for practice. We want to have him for the 82 we have coming up.’’
The Knicks shut down Stoudemire over the summer. As The Post reported, they refused to allow him to work with former Rocket great Hakeem Olajuwon on his post moves in order to rest.
Stoudemire played just 29 games last season because of two knee surgeries. The Post also reported the Knicks are mulling only allowing Stoudemire to play 20 minutes per game and limiting him in back-to-back games, which would be easier this season with the addition of power forward Andrea Bargnani.