The New York Knicks have bought out the contract of F/C Amar'e Stoudemire, ending a tenure that began with a buzzing Big Apple in love with his 40-point performances, but will end with red wine baths and DNPs as its legacy.
After playing in 78 games in his first season with New York, Stoudemire's games played over the next three seasons were 47, 29 and 65. His inability to play big minutes anymore, coupled with his notable shortcomings defensively, no longer made him worth playing on a Knicks team that is competing for the league's worst record this year.
In limited action, Stoudemire has shown he can still score. He's scored 12.8 points and grabbed 6.8 rebounds in 24 minutes a night this year, and should attract interest from contending teams. Here are the five most likely spots for him.
Los Angeles Clippers
The Clippers may move quickly on bringing in Stoudemire. With star power forward Blake Griffin out with a staph infection, their big men not named DeAndre Jordan include Glen "Big Baby" Davis, Spencer Hawes and Ekpe Udoh. That's far from a murderer's row, with Hawes the only real threat to score and that's if he's dialed in from long range.
Stoudemire will burden the rest of the Clippers' defensively, especially Jordan, but he can replace some of the scoring they miss with Griffin out of action.
Dallas Mavericks
The Mavericks and Clippers have been the two teams most closely linked to Stoudemire. Dallas' depth took a major blow when they traded several key bench players to land point guard Rajon Rondo, and right now they're giving real minutes to Charlie Villanueva in a reserve role. Stoudemire's not good defensively, but he is likely a small upgrade on Villanueva, in addition to being a much more reliable scorer.
Toronto Raptors
The Raptors have a deep club, but their frontcourt, aside from Jonas Valanciunas, is short on dominant offensive players. Amir Johnson and Patrick Patterson have been nice pieces, particularly Patterson for his ability to stretch the floor. In crunch time though, Stoudemire is someone that Toronto can bring in and run their second unit through in the post for stretches of time. He's also got a lot of postseason experience, while many of the current Raptors are still fairly new to playing deep into the summer.
Atlanta Hawks
Mike Scott has been a serviceable backup power forward for the Hawks, who like to litter the court with shooters. If they wanted to have another dimension on their bench though, Stoudemire fits.
One of the concerns surrounding the first-place Hawks is their lack of a go-to scorer late in games. While Stoudemire is no longer that surefire option, he can give Hawks opponents another wrinkle to consider that they haven't dealt with up to this point.
Brooklyn Nets
The Nets are one game out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and unlike some other clubs that don't mind dropping games to improve their draft stock, the Nets need to succeed. Their future was mortgaged via trades to add veterans that are either no longer with the team, or struggling with injury, age or both. There has been talk of buying out veteran power forward Kevin Garnett, who is playing just 20 minutes a night and adding 6.8 points.
Losing KG and bringing in Stoudemire might add some scoring punch and liven up the team. Desperate? Yes. But this is a desperate situation.
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