Forget the defending NBA champion Heat and the retooled Lakers, Amar’e Stoudemire believes the Knicks can be a “top team” this year capable of winning a championship.
Now that he is fully healthy, the All-Star power forward thinks he and Carmelo Anthony can thrive once they have a full training camp together.
“Training camp is very, very key for us,” Stoudemire said yesterday morning at Barnes & Noble on the East Side, where he signed copies of his children’s book, “STAT: Home Court.”
“We get full training camp, get that chemistry down, we’re going to be golden.”
Stoudemire, 29, also thinks he is better prepared to excel in coach Mike Woodson’s offensive system, which is predicated on post-ups and isolation plays, after spending two weeks this month with Hall of Fame pivot Hakeem Olajuwon, the two-time champion and back-to-the-basket guru.
At the suggestion of Woodson, Olajuwon’s former teammate with the Rockets, Stoudemire went down to Houston at the start of the month to work with “The Dream,” who has tutored NBA stars Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwight Howard in recent years.
“There’s so many moves that I picked up from Hakeem,” said Stoudemire, who has spent much of his career scoring on pick-and-rolls and soaring over defenders for dunks. “Just developing my post [game] has been phenomenal for me. When I came out of high school, I was thrown the ball and [told], ‘Do what you do best.’ I never got a chance to develop my game as far as [in the] post. Working with Hakeem is going to be a great advantage for me.”
Stoudemire lauded the changes made by general manager Glen Grunwald, such as bringing in point guards Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton and veteran forwards Marcus Camby and Kurt Thomas. He said he hardly noticed Jeremy Lin’s departure to the Rockets.
“I was too focused on training,” he said.
Stoudemire was far more talkative about Felton, whom the Knicks acquired in a sign-and-trade with the Trail Blazers. Felton and Stoudemire clicked in their 54 games together in New York before Felton was sent to the Nuggets as part of the blockbuster Anthony trade.
“Raymond’s going to be awesome,” Stoudemire said. “He’s going to be great for us. He’s a player that wants to improve. He always talks about getting better.”
Stoudemire is excited to get started after suffering through what he described as “the toughest year of my career.” It got off to a rocky start after offseason back surgery. His brother Hazell died in a car accident. Then coach Mike D’Antoni resigned and the Knicks bowed out in five games to the Heat in the opening round of the playoffs. At the end of a Game 2 loss in Miami, Stoudemire lacerated his left hand punching the glass casing of a fire extinguisher outside of the Knicks locker room, causing him to miss Game 3.
Stoudemire said he has moved forward. He got engaged to Alexis Welch, the mother of his three children, and put himself through multiple workouts per day to get into tip-top shape.
“I feel phenomenal,” he said. “I feel this will be a great year for myself and the team.”