Coming off a knee injury the Knicks have decided to limit Amare Stoudemire’s minutes. Apparently he isn’t too happy with the decision and spoke out after the Knicks lost yet again at home, dropping to a 3-6 record.
via ESPN
“It’s making me look like my game is gone or that I don’t have game anymore because when you play five minutes, it’s just tough to really get in a rhythm,” Stoudemire said before Saturday night’s 110-90 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
In an effort to protect his oft-injured knees, the Knicks have placed Stoudemire on a limit of 10 minutes per game. He has been playing two five-minute intervals.
“It’s tough to play five minutes and expect to be great in five minutes. It’s almost impossible,” he said. “By the time you get up and down and get adjusted to the speed of the game, it’s already three minutes, and then in two minutes you’re out of there. And if you miss a shot, it feels [like] the world is collapsing on you because you’re expected to do so much and somewhat win the game in five minutes and it’s tough. It’s hard to deal with.”
I understand what Amare is saying. It does take a little while to become acclimated to the game and become effective. What’s also true is that his knees continue to fail him and the often injured player just can’t sustain the wear and tear. Aside from the potential of hurting his knees lets call it what it really is; Amare’s minutes are also limited because he just isn’t effective anymore. The “power” forward barely has any power left and is often owned at the rim. His defense is laughable and he’d rather take jumpers than drive to the hoop. So far he’s averaged 2.8 points on 37 percent shooting in 9.8 minutes. He had five points in a season-high 14 minutes on Saturday.
