and we're done

[Mister Meaner]

Not sure if posted....

Source: Amar'e 'ready' for more minutes
March, 4, 2013
Mar 4
6:24
PM ET
By Jared Zwerling | ESPNNewYork.com

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Amar'e Stoudemire has accepted his role off the bench since returning from knee surgery, not complaining about the 30-minute restriction on his playing time.

But according to a source close to the Knicks, Stoudemire is "ready" and "healthy" to play more minutes to help the team.

"He's in tip-top shape," the source told ESPNNewYork.com. "He wants to play; whatever it takes for [the Knicks] to win."

On Sunday, Stoudemire only got in for 21 minutes -- sitting out the last eight -- in the Knicks' losing effort against the Heat. Down the stretch he was needed because when the Heat applied more aggressive defense on Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks didn't have an inside scoring threat. Tyson Chandler was in the game, but he's not one to create his own opportunities.

If Stoudemire's body is ready, it would be important to increase his minutes now, to better prepare him for increased playing time in the postseason. That's usually what happens during this critical period of the season, as coaches shorten their rotation to focus on their best players.

"Now is the time to be giving him extending minutes to see how his body reacts to it," the source said, "especially when you're not on [a] big winning streak. ... Something has to shake up."

Head coach Mike Woodson is still banking on basic perimeter play and 3-point shooting, which worked in the first two months of the season when the Knicks started 18-5. But since then, they've been mostly playing .500 ball, and there are still too many outside shots from Anthony, Raymond Felton and J.R. Smith. In fact, against the Heat, while Smith shot 3-for-14 from 3-point, Stoudemire took just seven shots from the field, making five.

The source said the Knicks are "not a real hard team to figure out right now."

Perhaps that would change if Woodson played Stoudemire more, and got him additional touches. Stoudemire is shooting nearly 60 percent from the field, and he has already produced 10-for-10 and 9-for-10 shooting nights. The Knicks won both of those games in February, not only from his scoring, but also out of his double teams. In addition, the power forward needs to be utilized as the roll man, which has always been his specialty during his 10-season career. On Sunday, Melo connected with Stoudemire twice in pick and rolls.

Stoudemire will likely continue in his current role, as the Knicks don't have another low-post scorer in their second unit. But if he's not consistently hitting 30 or more minutes, attempting 10 or more shots per game and playing with the finishing unit, alongside Chandler for better weak-side defense, the team could continue to dig itself an even deeper hole.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/37770/source-amare-ready-for-more-minutes

 

[mronegative]

MrO, btw, Life of Pi was amazing man. Had to watch it twice and I never do that in consecutive days. But I had to plug in the second story, the second time I watched it.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

we all know what really happened

I feel like the trailer throws people off into thinking it's wet Avatar or something.

The newly revamped Esquire Network (formerly G4), which targets upscale males, continues to aggressively build up content, ordering two new six-episode reality primetime series to a premiere this summer.

The half-hour How I Rock It (working title), from Ryan Seacrest Prods. and Citizen Jones, host and NBA superstar Baron Davis profiles athletes, musicians, celebrities, designers, influencers and street-style icons whose careers, lives and lifestyles are setting a stylish new standard for today’s modern man.

DubA, MrOnegative, HTTB, Los... what the hell is this? :x

Why they all look like Lt. Daniels from The Wire?

 

[mronegative]

And

 

[don ramon]

look at muscles mcgillicutty over there

 

[harlemtothebronx]

DubA, MrOnegative, HTTB, Los... what the hell is this? :x

I read 'Teenage Mutant ***** Turtles'

 

[geoff2005]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/226500/Anthony-Dealing-With-Soreness-In-Right-Knee

any other word on melo, will he sit out next game?

 

[pr0phecy718]

I read 'Teenage Mutant ***** Turtles'

Even though NT censor it, I know what you wrote

 

[nicelikechrist]

So apparently its come to light that Melo asked to sit out prior to that fall and Woodson wasnt having it.

And then the fall happened and Melo just walked out on his own.

Woody said that in hindsight he probably shouldve taken him out when he said his knee was bothering him at first.

 

[don ramon]

that's fine. i'll take the player's position over the coach's in a case like that every time especially when it's a high-calibre player 

it'll be food for all the critics though

 

[johnnyredstorm]

That Cowherd dude is a clown. Did Melo force himself off his team because he was the number two option to one of the best players ever? Did he refuse to practice and make his teammates better? Stuff like this is why I barely listen to any of these fools. Give me Joe Benigno over these clowns every day of the week.

 

[illoquent aka dsk]

At least Woody admits he's stubborn.

NEW YORK -- Knicks coach Mike Woodson acknowledged that he made a mistake in deciding to leave Carmelo Anthony in Monday's game before the star forward injured his right knee.

Woodson revealed Tuesday during an interview with ESPN New York 98.7 FM that Anthony had asked to be removed from the game due to knee discomfort before suffering the injury in the second quarter.

Woodson decided to leave Anthony in the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the All-Star aggravated the knee injury after tripping without contact. Anthony went to the locker room with 6:42 remaining in the second quarter and did not return to the game, as the Knicks rallied from a 22-point deficit to win, 102-97.

The Knicks announced later Tuesday that Anthony officially has been diagnosed with a sore knee and will be listed as questionable for Wednesday's game against the Detroit Pistons.

Woodson called Anthony's injury "alarming" during his interview on "The Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco Show" and admitted his decision to leave the star forward in the game was "stubborn."

"Melo was hurt," Woodson said. "For him to ask me to come out of the game before he actually took that spill made me realize that something wasn't right. He's never ever, ever, even hinted about coming out of the game [before Monday]. I play him too much in that regard. Melo's a trooper -- he's a warrior, he's a tough kid."

Woodson was asked during the interview why he chose to leave Anthony in the game after he requested to come out.

"I should have [taken him out]," Woodson said. "Stubborn coach -- I just didn't."


Woodson explained that he hoped Anthony would help dig the Knicks out of their 22-point first-half deficit.

"Maybe I should have taken him out before he actually stumbled and took the fall," Woodson said. "But again, I'm thinking [during] the game, 'Hey, he'll play through it. He'll figure it out.'

"But he was hurt. He walked out after he took the spill and he didn't come back, and that's not Melo-like. Obviously, his knee is bothering him."

Anthony said on Monday that his knee had been bothering him in recent days, and an MRI taken recently revealed no structural damage.

"Today I just woke up, and you know how some days you really don't feel right," he said after the game. "I came out here and I tried to warm up and I thought it was going to loosen up before the game, but some of the things that I was doing, I felt like I was dragging it."

The Knicks have not planned further tests on Anthony's knee. The 28-year-old Anthony is the NBA's second-leading scorer at 28.2 points per game.

 

[lver of jordan]

Damn you Woody >:

 

[mronegative]

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

 

[loveslt]

Lets be real, if he would've sat out yesterday everyone would be criticising him for not being tough enough to play through injury.

 

[8pm at msg]

Lose lose situation. So whatever, let's keep it moving.

 

[harlemtothebronx]

Melo should sit against Detroit. We should be able to handle the Pistons without him. SHOULD BE.

 

[x Buddha Bless x]

Well if we can make a comeback without Melo against the Cavs. We should beat the Pistons without Melo.

I blame LeBron for Melo's knee.

 

[Bonafide]

Won't be dissapointed if Melo sits out. We should beat the Pistons by 15+ with or without melo. I expect Amar'e to have another big game.

 

[pr0phecy718]

the knee injury could be more serious

 

[harlemtothebronx]

That's surprising...

...

 

[nychiphophippo]

Woodson shoulda kept that under wraps. bad look for him and an easy point for the media to target him for.

According to a source of mine, the team would be best if we had Amare starting. That source is NBA2K.

Seriously though, SFs back in the day still figured out how to get buckets playing with 2 bigs, and PFs back in the day still got buckets playing alongside SFs who can play inside and a Center. It's clear that Stat is almost fully back. Dudes been playing well and is a nightmare to defend. The x-factor is if Dolan can successfully perform inception on him to not take plays off on defense. And if Tyson will stop being the nice and lovable guy to his teammates, and instead hold him accountable on defense and get at him when he sleeps.

If Stoudemire's body is ready , it would be important to increase his minutes now, to better prepare him for increased playing time in the postseason. That's usually what happens during this critical period of the season, as coaches shorten their rotation to focus on their best players.

"Now is the time to be giving him extending minutes to see how his body reacts to it," the source said, "especially when you're not on [a] big winning streak. ... Something has to shake up."

Spoiler

body ready

 

[don ramon]

According to a source of mine, the team would be best if we had Amare starting. That source is NBA2K.
 

 

[harlemtothebronx]

I hate the New York media. They've been dying for some conflict since the KG thing, so they're taking this and running with it.

 

[the gr8est]

I see no reason as to why Melo and Amare cant coexist together kind of like Artest and Jermaine O'Neal did on those Pacers teams in the early-mid 2000s. Those teams were unbelievable and looked like they could have been headed to a championship if it wasnt for that brawl game. Melo/STAT's games dont differ too much from Artest/JO's either circa 2004 (offensively at least). And i refuse to believe their PG play (Jamaal Tinsley) was so much better than ours (if it was even better at all) where they made it work in a way that we couldnt, plus we have Tyson manning the middle instead of Jeff Foster.

I get that Melo is a much better offensive player than Artest was and maybe he demands the rock a little bit more than he did, but they both had similar offensive repitoires in that they both were able to shoot, drive, and post, and they have similar body frames. People tend to forget how good Ron was offensively back in his day and the kind of offensive season he was having before the suspension occured.

Artest was an early MVP candidate (24.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 3.1 apg) yet JO was pretty much just as effective (24.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg) and that team was great. They finished with the best record in the East in 03-04 with 61 wins, and on the night of the infamous Palace brawl they were wrapping up a beat down (no pun intended) of their biggest rival on their home floor, and the Pistons had just won the NBA championship the season prior.

Woody should go watch some of that squad's game film. Cant think of many other 3/4 #1/#2 scoring options that were very effective in recent memory, but it shouldnt be too unrealistic to think that with Melo/STAT's combined skillsets they couldnt produce similarly to the way Artest/JO did together.

Admittedly both players were much better defensively, but they definitely made it work offensively together and throughout the course of their careers I would also argue that both Melo and STAT have been better offensively than Artest and JO. Certainly Melo at least, and we have Tyson/Shumpert who are X factors defensively... God I miss Donnie Walsh sometimes 

 

[nychiphophippo]

Another important factor in my wanting to start Amare is that we don't have a shortage of bigs anymore with Camby and Kenyon back. Kenyon is definitely a good enough back up PF for a championship level team.

I think the awkwardness and egos have gone away between stat and melo now that was there when they first came together. Its obvious that the team is Melo's and past the phase of Melo stepping on Amare's toes after he resurrected the franchise is over, they don't have to force feed each other to keep one another happy, they don't have to worry about the other guy when taking a shot. Melo is a more willing passer, and we have PGs that look to pass instead of score like Chauncey, or inept ones like T God Toney Douglas. I think they've reached a point where they can go out there and just play ball.

Once his minutes cap really does increase to 35 min or so he should def start IMO. I also don't see why he wouldn't be able to guard Battier, and force a mismatch on the offensive end if we were to make the ECF against the heat. So the matchup issue isn't really there. Battier would get some hustle points here and there, but realistically he would do that to just about anyone that matches up against him.