Interesting that Amar’e Stoudemire came to New York without Carmelo Anthony or Jeremy Lin and had fans chanting “MVP…MVP.”
And then Jeremy generated Linsanity minus Melo and Amar’e, and spearheaded seven-straight Knicks’ wins.
Monday night, without Stoudemire (out indefinitely with a bulging disk) and Lin (left leg contusion), Melo looked like the Nuggets’ version (28 points and 12 rebounds) before, he, too, got hurt (groin) midway through the third quarter. Functioning for 6:48 in the fourth, he hit one of three shots.
Who could blame interim coach Mike Woodson for praying Melo’s damage is nothing severe … and Lin recovers quickly … so the Knicks can get back to the normalcy of winning every game and coast to their first championship since 1973?
If not this season, at the risk of overreacting, it figures to get progressively challenging in subsequent seasons. Should Stoudemire need (potential career-ending) lower-back surgery, then what? If robbed of his spring and suppleness, he’s reduced to being halfway human. It’s not as if what’s upstairs has ever gotten him over.
Equally troubling is how inflexible the Knicks’ maneuverability will become should a diminished Stoudemire be unavailable intermittently or permanently.
Either way, it will be virtually impossible to replace what he promises across the stats sheet with established quality. The Knicks already are over the salary cap for the next three seasons. Plus, Stoudemire is on the books for $65 million over that span. What’s more, they exhausted their lone amnesty exception for the duration of the new collective bargaining agreement when they released Chauncey Billups in order to sign Tyson Chandler.
Should doctors declare the uninsured Stoudemire irrevocably inoperative, the best the Knicks can look forward to is reaping an injury exception. Applications for a season-ending injury only can be made from July 1 to Jan. 15. Generally, the exception can only be used to sign one player, not broken up to sign multiple players. The exception amount is the lesser of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception or 50 percent of the player’s salary. The salary of the injured player stays on the cap.
Consequently, the Knicks would only be entitled to use $5 million (this year’s amount) to recruit or acquire an established big man. Good luck!
How smart does Suns owner Robert Sarver, who followed the advice of his team’s medical staff, look now for ending the bidding at three years max money when the Knicks offered five?
On second thought, this probably isn’t as big a problem as I’m making it out to be, especially for the time being. After all, from what I read, the Knicks are deeper than a Wayans Brothers’ family dinner.