Stoudemire out for Four Months

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Resigned to the fact that Amaré Stoudemire will be out of action for four months due to microfracture surgery on his left knee, the Phoenix Suns are doing the only thing they can at this point – gearing up to win without him.

While piling up the victories without the All-Star forward-center is easier said than done, Head Coach Mike D’Antoni believes spreading the offensive wealth for the next few months will help ease the burden of temporarily losing the team’s scoring leader from a season ago.

“We have a lot of offensive weapons on the floor, D’Antoni explained. “We lost our biggest weapon, but we have a lot of others. We’re not hanging our heads at all. It’s just too bad for Amaré, but the Phoenix Suns will go on. Steve Nash has played a lot of years without Amaré and his teams have scored up into the hundreds. He’ll find out, as we will as a team, how to score 110 points anyway. That’s our focus, our goal, and if we do that, we’ll be successful. Shawn Marion will have to step up. Steve will have to up his game. Then we have Kurt Thomas, Raja Bell, James Jones – we have a lot of guys to score the basketball. No one will replace Amaré’s 26 points, but four or five guys will add up to that.” </div>This could be a huge blow to the Suns. They're gonna have a tough time replacing all those points and probably won't have much of an inside prescence on offense either. Without him, the shooters on this team could be hard pressed to find an open jumper for quite some time before he comes back. This is coming from a non-Suns fan, how bout you fans. How do you think this injury will affect your early season play?

http://www.nba.com/suns/news/without_stat_051011.html - Full Story

 

Well this is really bad for the Suns. They are going to have a huge problem and I don't think they will be in the Playoffs.

 

It is sad for the Suns and Amare. The Suns can hold it down for the mean time. They will be very surprising. For one Nash is very hard to guard and he will create open shots for everyone. They have more depth than last year. I wouldn’t count them out just yet. And when Amare does come back they will be even stronger. Go SUNS!!

 

I think the more worrying thing aobut this is how will it affect amare when it comes back? will he be back to his dominating himself within a season? or will he fade away and become a what if? i hope he can bounce back from this injury because he is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining ballers.

 

Now Whose gonna play center ?
Kurt Thomas ? He's only 6 foot 9
Other than Kurt, the rest of the centers on this team suck

 

KT played Center for the Knicks. He'll do fine.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting panfolk:</div><div class="quote_post">KT played Center for the Knicks. He'll do fine.</div>He is also VERY undersized at only 6'9". In the East, you usually can pull off 6'9" and still play center, but he's not out East anymore. Remember, the West has a lot of the more taller and physical players, i.e. Duncan and Yao. He's going to be hard pressed to defend some of the centers, especially Duncan and Yao, because he's so unersized.

And the thing about the Amare injury is where are they going to get all those points from? I realize they're deeper this year than they were last year, but 26 points is hard to make up for. They'd be fine if they had last years roster and this happened, because they'd still have Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson. However, each of those guys have parted ways, so now with Amare gone, the only real reliable source of offense is going to be Marion and Nash. Otherwise, this team is full of role players. Jimmy Jackson is good but he's sure not the scorer he once was. Kurt Thomas wasn't brought to Phoenix to score, he was brought there to bring toughness and play defense, and beyond that, has never averaged more then 14 ppg in his career. Plus, he's at the tail end of his good days and isn't going to be as effective as he once was, so I'm thinking that they're not likely to get much more then 10 or 11 ppg from him. After that, you have Raja Bell, who once again, is known for his defense but has the ability to score, and Leandro Barbosa, who has been enigma. He's shown some signs of being good, but his battles with inconsistency make him very difficult to gauge.

The other bad thing about Stoudemire going down is they're not going to get as many open looks. With Stoudemire in the paint, they were able to feed off of him because of the double teams he demanded, leaving their shooters open for good looks. That's not going to be happening. I highly doubt teams will be double teaming Kurt Thomas and whomever else they start in the frontcourt with him.

All in all, I don't think the Suns are in good shape with this injury. It's like I said, a year ago, this probably wouldn't have been as bad, but it's not last season. Joe and QRich aren't here anymore. All they have left is Nash, Marion, and a bunch of role players. This team is going to be hard pressed to make up for Stoudemires prescence, and I think they will likely be hovering around the .500 mark, if not lower, prior to his return around January.

 

I feel that Joe Johnson was a way over rated player. Don?t get me wrong he is very talented, but I think no one is giving Raja Bell a chance when I feel he has allot more to bring to the court. Q was awsome he was my favorite player last year for the Suns, and he still is on of my favorite but he was no where to be found playoff time. I think James Jones is going to be a surprise to many this year.

The Suns live off the pick and role and even when they are playing bigger guys whether it Kurt Thomas or Brain Grant They will make the big men come out and guard them and open up the floor.

I know I am being very optimistic. I know there is no replacing Amare's presences on the floor but the Suns will have to hold it down till he gets back.

 

This is tough for the Suns. Their team is built around Amare; with his loss for four months they lose lots of inside presence both offensively and defensively. Nash and Marion are basically going to have to get it done for the Suns for a while. And obviously, they won't be as good. The Suns will likely have a mediocre record until Amare comes back, and he is going to have to come back very strong and quickly to. Meaning if he comes back and isn't ready then the Suns may still see struggles when he comes back. Four months is a long time, it is going to be interesting to see how the Suns turn out without Stoudemire for that period of time.