Anthony Gruppuso-US Presswire
When Amare Stoudemire signed with the New York Knicks in 2010, he developed his leadership and was generally an effective leader of the then young Knick squad. He was very vocal at practices and lead by example generally coming in first and last at the practices. He was voted in an as an All-Star starter in the 2011 All-Star game and scored 29 points, tying LeBron James for the most points in the Eastern Conference. The trade deadline welcomed Carmelo Anthony as the Knicks cashed in on their young players to acquire the talented small forward. Stoudemire finished the 2010 season averaging 25.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2 blocks and a career-high 2.6 assists. He was named to the Second Team All-NBA and had a successful Knick debut.
Carmelo was also effective in his time with the Knicks after the trade. In 27 games with the Knicks, he averaged 26.3 points and 6.7 rebounds. But in the playoffs, the Knicks were swept by the Boston Celtics as Stoudemire was injured in Game Three of the First Round.
Their first full season together was met with a lot of criticism and disdain, as both were in and out of the lineup due to injuries and personal reasons. Carmelo had career lows of 22.6 points and 6.3 rebounds. Amare also had low averages of 17.8 points and 7.8 rebounds. What was even more troubling was that the Knicks had more success when both players were injured thanks to team play and Linsanity.
Entering essentially their third season together as teammates, the Amare and Carmelo tandem is virtually in the hot seat. If they struggle to find team success once again, we may see one of Amare or Carmelo be traded. This roster just doesn’t seem to gel and both players are seemingly me-first types who only care about what they produce on the score board.
They just don’t seem to fit that well as a team and they will struggle to make a playoff spot come April. Neither player is really tradeable though, as Amare’s knees are not insured and the trading of Carmelo could send a bad message to the Knick faithful. In the end, the Knicks maybe stuck with this tandem for the long haul and they may have to stomach being the number two team in New York behind the Brooklyn Nets for the next few years.
