Amar’e Stoudemire’s claim that the Knicks had the best NBA team on paper can be open to all sorts of debate from most sane-thinking people.
But few can argue how effectively Stoudemire has been, especially on the offensive end of the floor this season.
“He’s been great,” said coach Mike Woodson, calling Stoudemire a “reason we’re even close” to the final playoff spot, a hope that officially died over the weekend. “A month and a half ago, we were 6 ½ games out. And we were able to make a push where we sniffed a little of the eighth spot, and a lot of that had to do with Amar’e.”
When Stoudemire scored 12 points in the Knicks’ 100-89 victory over the Bulls on Sunday, it marked his 19th straight double-figure scoring game (he had two rest-and-recovery days mixed in during the run). Not bad for a guy who began the year on a minutes restriction. And he feels new team president Phil Jackson must have noticed the 16.5 scoring average Stoudemire put up since the start of March.
“My game speaks for itself,” Stoudemire said. “I don’t have to toot my own horn. I play extremely hard and I work hard to return back to my dominant self.
“Going into the offseason, you want to know what the next steps are as far as strategies on offense and defense so you can keep that mindset … and you can train and prepare yourself for that type of an approach.”
Woodson didn’t object to Stoudemire’s “best team on paper” notion, but he allowed that any chance for that to be proven died among the injuries and misadventures the Knicks endured.
“Our personnel was good when we started out, but when people started to tumble…,” Woodson said. “Tyson [Chandler] missed 40 games, Kenyon [Martin] missed 50 games, [Andrea] Bargnani’s missed 40 games, you can go on and on. Raymond [Felton] and Pablo [Prigioni] missed 16 games apiece. Those are the things you can’t control. And I’m not sitting here complaining, but it’s reality.”
One other player who is anticipating an offseason to implement the things he has learned is rookie Tim Hardaway Jr., one of the undeniable bright spots in a wretched season.
“I learned a lot, especially when you have a lot of All-Stars and veterans on your team like I do,” Hardaway said. “I’m very fortunate, more so than all the other rookies that came in this year. We’ve got [Carmelo Anthony], Amar’e, Tyson, guys that have been through it all, some guys that have won championships and some guys that are defensive-minded out there. It was great just to have them as teammates my first year, and hopefully we’ll come back next year and have a different outcome.”
Hardaway enumerated the areas of his game he wants to improve — he started small but kept expanding his list.
“Definitely to get stronger and definitely defense,” Hardaway said. “Those and ball-handling. Those are the key. And rebounding.”