LEADERS ARE BORN

Sorry to the Amare apologists, but I too must hate.

I think that is the most important point that I think is not being discussed here. Can Amare LEAD a team to a championship???

The organization has made every effort to help him grow. They have marketed him more than anyone. They have made roster moves to accomodate his weaknesses. Wrong hire or not, Terry Porter was brought in "for Amare" - all be it a cost effective choice for it.

So while Amare can point back at the organization, he also needs to appreciate what they have done for him... including max out his contract for every year he has been in the league.

Amare has provided some incredibly entertaining moments... that I will never argue. He has worked hard to recover from injury. He has worked hard on becoming an offensive force. He throws down some of the most athletic dunks and has proven to be one of the most dangerous pick and roll big men in the league, as his pop jumper is consistent, and his hands moving to the basket are as good as any in the league. These skills have been the ideal compliment to Nash.

That is where the compliments end from me.

I think Amare has near peaked. Can he become more consistent with his jumper? Yes. Can he finally develop a post game? Possibly. Can he spend an offseason learning how to use his left hand? One can hope.

However, there are two aspects which time plays no bearing on, and they are the two most important factors in my eyes, in what distinguishes Amare and a leader of a championship team. Effort and Basketball IQ. You either have them or you dont.

While Amare has shown to effective blocking shots off the weakside, his defense is atrocious. This is due to IQ and effort. He does not understand team defense positioning, positioning for boxing out, nor does he put forth the effort to make up for his lack of positioning. He watches loose balls, he allows his man to get to the glass, and on man to man defese he allows his man to establish position too often. He doesnt work hard on the defensive end, and there is no debate about this.

Did anyone see Speights last night? Kind of hard to miss it. How about Al Jefferson the past two years? Boozer? Duncan? The list is endless. Every PF's eyes light up knowing they face Amare as they have free reign to the glass.

Back to my most important point... Can Amare LEAD a team to a championship????

Has there been any championship team whose best player does not play defense?

Amare every year tells fans he is going to play defense this year, yet every game, every season, he fails to close out on jumpshots, box out, cover the weakside, step out on high p&r... etc, etc, etc.

And he is the annointed LEADER by the organization... and... well... himself. Is it not true that the rest of the team most likely follows suit of the leader?

Now, I realize Amare has not had the most defensive minded head coach. Mike D did not teach toughness, or bother at all with any defensive drills. And I highly doubt his AAU coaches were cramming his head with defensive footwork and establishing position.

Kerr, knowing this surrounded him with one of the most prominent defensive rebounders ever as well as a big man who could keep Amare off of 5's.

Anyone who bashes Kerr for acquiring Shaq must be insane, as Shaq has done everything and more than he has been asked. Shaq has been exposed to only one weakness: stepping out on the P&R... and considering his presence is more valuable in the paint, and he lacks the fluidity to do so anymore, I can not be upset with this.

Marion meanwhile, is now complaining for another team. You all remember Marion complaining right? You remember every year his dissappearance in the playoffs? You remember his complete lack of development of any kind???

Now... You counter by saying that trade took away from our ability to run... I would say that 4 straight games of 30+ pts fast break shows that we are more than able. The fast break however requires a defensive stop or defensive rebound, and then an effort to get down. Grant Hill, J-Rich, Barnes, Babs have all been flying down the court of late... anyone notice who hasnt? Amare. One of the greatest assets Amare brought was his ability to get up and down the court. Now, he is satisfied with a light jog and playing filler on the secondary break.

Additionally, on the pace and positioning on offense, Amare has 15-20 minutes a night where he is on the floor without Shaq. So his opportunity for an open paint is there. However, Amare has not developed a 1 on 1 game. He has not developed a post game. Essentially Amare is 2 dimensional when not feeding off of Nash. Face up J or dribble hard right. Defenders know this, and hence they are stripping him before he hits the paint, or are in position when he goes up. Do you all not see that half of his shots are right into the defenders hands? He is either blocked or throws up a wreckless shot and screams for a foul. This leads to my final point...

Amare is going to diminish a lot faster than people realize. He already has shown signs of not being able to jump over people, nor jump as quickly for follow ups as he once did. This guy has had two serious knee injuries... and while I credit our medical staff, and I am by no means a doctor, Amare's athleticism will decline before it increases.

When a players athleticism declines he has his skill and his IQ to fall back on. Personally, I dont see either of those to be Amare's strong suits.

So again, I ask, can he LEAD this team to a championship???

Here is another question... and extremely pertinent to the matter... come 2010, would you feel comfortable giving him another max contract? another 6 years of Amare carrying nearly 20 million of the cap???

Personally I dont think he can LEAD a team to a championship, and there is no way in hell I would wish to extend a max contract to him, thus, my belief is get what you can when you can. And when he still putting up highlights, and being voted an all star - and thus marketable, I would certainly consider his value as high as it will be in the next two years.

Additionally, I believe the effort and IQ are there with the rest of the roster. Substituting a player like Rasheed Wallace, for example, and I consider the Suns as one of the better teams in the west, with potential to have it click at some point. We have some old players, no doubt, but they are capable if they are playing like a TEAM... and the most important means to playing as a TEAM is your leaders. This more so than your coach. (and mind you I am not a fan of porter, but this is another rant all together).

I am done... continue on Amare apologists, and continue to be satisfied with less than a championship.

- Wanka

It's Time



If you would have asked me three-years ago if I would ever advocate a trade for Amare Stoudemire, I would have said no. Pardon the pun but he was truly our prodigal son. We drafted him and watched him go from a raw but awe inspiring young athlete to a scoring machine that couldn't be contained. He dunked on anyone that stood in his way and greats like Duncan and Garnett had trouble stopping this force of nature. Time though, can change everything.

Initially, all Amare could live on was effort. He crashed the glass with reckless abandon and threw his body around all over the court. With his new found jump shot and offensive game, that effort has vanished. It's not rare to see the 6'10'' jumping jack pull down five or six boards a game. It's also not rare to see opposing big men with limited ability routinely score on him. He has become strictly a scorer with little substance.

In his mind, he feels that he's on par with the likes of Lebron and Bosh but it is very apparent that those players have surpassed him long ago. His development has stunted and you also can't forget his knees. Microfracture surgery looms again on the horizon and once that explosive lift is finally gone, what will remain? It's hard to say goodbye to a player that I've watched mature and come back from adversity. But, in the end, he will never evolve beyond what he currently is. It's a shame really because he could have been one to remember. In retrospect, I will remember him, but more for what he could have been.

The Rise of the Little Man



Ask the most casual observer of basketball what they think of when someone says the word "basketball" and one of the most prevalent answers you will receive will be "tall people" or simply some iteration of tall. I can recall as a child being in awe at the size of these men that seemed like giants flying high above the Earth. To this day, journeyman foul magnet Mark West seems like one of the largest human beings that ever walked the planet. I know this isn't the case now but at that time, he might as well have been Paul Bunyan.

Hiding behind all those towers has always been the little man. In terms of relative height, point guards are usually pretty tall people in everyday life. But on the floor in the NBA, it seems like a living reenactment of David and Goliath. These smallish people can't possibly stand up to this pillars of strength right? That's the beauty of basketball. Beyond the amazing grace of these tall men lies another fun battle on a nightly basis. The smallest people on the court can be unstoppable at times and in the modern NBA, they are starting to dominate it.

Many great guards have come before us. We had the razzle dazzle of Pistol Pete, the originator of show time in Bob Cousy, the blinding speed of Tiny Archibald and the pick and roll perfection of John Stockton. There have been countless guards that captured the imagination of the nation but they still lived in the shadows of Wilt, Shaq and Russell. Now though, the times are a changing. Chris Paul is openly discussed in MVP conversations every year now. Deron Williams carried the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals just last year. Rajon Rondo is stuffing stat lines like Big O at 6'1 and 170 pounds soaking wet. Devin Harris is a one-man scoring machine on a nightly basis. Derrick Rose is on pace to be the next rookie of year and Russell Westbrook is showing flashes of brilliance as well.

We've now entered a time where the best athletes are no longer your shooting guards or small forwards. Point guards today not only orchestrate the beautiful music that is basketball but they are completely controlling the game on both ends of the floor. They can be unstoppable scoring and distributing and disrupt the game on the defensive side of the ball as well. With so many teams looking to open things up and let these amazing athletes create, the point guard is as important as it has ever been. With Ricky Rubio, Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holiday approaching us on the horizon, this trend will only continue to grow.

So next time you go to a game and sit in amazement at the size of the big men, don't forget to look down at the point guards and watch as they control the game themselves.