He was Amare’s Stoudemire’s boss the last three seasons, but Steve Kerr gives a slight edge to Chris Bosh when comparing him to the newest Knick.
Kerr, the former Suns GM who left Phoenix after the season and is now working for TNT, compared and contrasted the twin 6-foot-10, 245-pound All-Star free-agent power forwards yesterday for The Post.
“I think the attraction of Bosh is that he’s a little younger, a little more healthy than Amar’e. He’s probably a little better defender. Maybe a little better overall player,” Kerr said. “I think Amar’e is more explosive and more feared by defenses. But they’re both excellent players, All-Star players.
“I don’t think either one is going to be a No. 1 guy who’s going to lead a team to a title. Both guys need help. . . . I think the reason some people give Bosh a little bit of an edge is the injury history.”
Kerr said the Suns shied away from offering the 27-year-old Stoudemire, who is a year and a half older than the 26-year-old Bosh, a five-year max contract because of the precedents of Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal. Kerr used those former All-Stars as examples of players who joined the NBA out of high school and began breaking down once they neared the age of 30.
Like Stoudemire, McGrady also needed microfracture surgery, though it was later in his career than Stoudemire’s.
“Our position in Phoenix throughout this year was we feel he’s got several good years left in him,” Kerr said. “You start getting to years four and five, there’s definitely a concern. Amare’s one of the guys that came out of high school and has a tremendous amount of mileage on his legs and because of the microfracture surgery and combine that with the mileage, it’s pretty easy to see a scenario three years from now where he’s nowhere near as effective.”
Added Kerr, “He was a perfect fit in our offense and he and Steve Nash played so well together. So it was really all based on projected health and consulting with our medical staff.”
Though the Suns made a run to the Western Conference finals, they were struggling around the trade deadline and Kerr said, at the time, it made sense to consider dealing their leading scorer and rebounder.
“We talked to probably five or six teams at the break. And the main reason was just because what’s happened this summer,” Kerr said. “The Suns are going to lose Amar’e in all likelihood and get nothing back. Because of his opt-out clause, we had to explore different possibilities. We were never close to making a deal, contrary to what some people wrote at the time. I wasn’t interested in the Cleveland deal.”