With Rasheed Wallace and Marcus Camby each battling left-foot pain, the time has never been better to start easing in Amar’e Stoudemire.
Stoudemire is closing in on getting cleared to practice fully with the club. He is expected to make his return sometime this month while Iman Shumpert is on his heels, looking at January.
Coach Mike Woodson has said Stoudemire still needs to be cleared by the medical staff to cut and absorb contact before practicing. The Knicks, who were off yesterday, have two practices later this week.
Camby, battling plantar fasciitis, probably will miss his sixth straight game tonight in Brooklyn, and said he may take a cortisone shot. Wallace is listed as questionable for tonight after missing Sunday’s win over the Nuggets because of his foot.
Woodson could use a big man off the bench — even if it’s a $100 million one.
“It’s exciting,’’ Carmelo Anthony said of the prospect of Stoudemire and Shumpert returning. “Amar’e is working his [butt] off. Shump is working extremely hard. We’re ready for them.’’
Wallace’s foot pain has not been disclosed, but it also could be plantar fasciitis. He missed a game last month because of his foot and it was reaggravated in Chicago Saturday, forcing him to sit out Sunday.
“Those guys are taking it day by day,’’ Anthony said of Wallace and Camby. “If they can come back, we would love that, but we got to go with what we got.’’
Wallace has been the first big man off the bench but his 3-point shooting is waning — down to 29 percent in 14.8 minutes per game. Camby, even when healthy, hasn’t been a regular in the rotation and has played in just 6 of 20 games.
So there is room for Stoudemire as a reserve at the very least. According to the Knicks, Stoudemire still is on pace to get back sometime during the six-to-eight-week time frame they set on Nov. 1 after his knee-debridement surgery. The Post reported mid-December — the earliest part of the window — was unlikely and he was hoping to return around Christmas.
* The Knicks are ranked better offensively than defensively. They are ninth in points allowed and fifth in scoring average. … J.R. Smith has a buzzer-beating game-winner in Charlotte and emphatic breakaway dagger dunk in Miami and has made a couple of big plays down the stretch in Denver. But his shooting slump grows. He was 5 of 19 against his former team, the Nuggets. In the last 10 games, that makes Smith a pitiful 37 of 142. His shooting percentage for the season is down to 38.7 percent. Woodson keeps playing Smith because he still is defending, rebounding, making the smart pass and hustling.