Amare is now leading the league in scoring per game with 28 points and change. He also in the top 3 in FGP with .575. Impressive. Meanwhile, Kobe is now shooting a career low 38% from the field and 32% from 3 point land. Impressive.
Amare is a nightamare for his defenders since he's always trying to posterize people. But Yao seemed to win past matchups fair and square, mainly because he's not afraid to ge posterized.
Dude you're crazy if you think Nash isn't making Amare better, even posters on the suns board think so. With regards to A Walker...that guy just plain sucks...Nash isn't a miracle worker. All you have to ask yourself is this is basically the same team which sucked ass last season, what has changed? Namely adding Nash. He should be league MVP but won't get it cause he doesn't score enough since he looks for his teammates more than his own shot.
I realize you're comparing them offensively, but I just want to point out Amare couldn't hold young (or old) Hakeem's jock defensively.
Amare is playing well... because he has Nash. Same reason Kenyon Martin played better in NJ... because he had Kidd.
Amare is no where near the young Hakeem. Yes, they are both athletic, but Hakeem have the most incredible foot work, he can constantly beat his defender one on one with his foot work down on the low post. Amare is good, but he is not much of a post player, he needs space to operate, and he likes to face the basket and beats his defender with his quickness. He's doing great now, I'm happy since he is on my fantasy team, but I doubt he can keeps this up once other teams begin to constantly double team him and block his path to the basket.
Really, I think it’s more impressive that Amare is scoring nearly 30 with the addition of Nash. Usually when you add a star player to a team, the ppg of the current star players on the team go down because they have to share the ball more.
Not when you add a pass-first PG. I think Amare is a better scorer than young Hakeem. Keep in mind the game is played 1-on-1 back in Dream's days.
Well look at Marion and Joe Johnson’s numbers. They’re both down compared to last season. And look at Dirk in Dallas. He’s scoring 27 a game this season without Nash compared to 21 a game last season with Nash.
Joe Johnson is competing with Q for shots this year. No one compete with Amare in the front court. Nash also always looks Amare and sets him up for a number of easy baskets. Marion's game has been inhibited by Amare. It starts from last year. Otherwise it's hard to imagine Amare + Marion + Joe Johnson was the second worst team in the west.
Q is another reason why what Amare's doing is so impressive. There's another guy he has to share the ball with. Shots are shots. It doesn't matter if Q is a guard and Amare is a 4. He's still a player that's going to take shots away from Amare.
But Suns has enough possessions to give Amare his share of shots. Right now he averaged 17.6 shots and 11 FTs.
Absolutely no doubt. Nash is league MVP so far. If he could play a lick of defense, he would be the perfect point guard. Amare is scary good. Like another poster said, he has holes in his game the size of craters, but he just turned 22 and is leading the league in scoring at about a 58% shooting. He is like a mini-shaq (when he was young). Unstoppable around the basket. He also has the physical tools to lead the league in rebounding and be among the best shotblockers in the game, the only question is whether he will dedicate himself to that. If he does, we are talking about multiple MVPs for the kid. Who were the 8 players selected ahead of him again?
Oh and btw. Amare is The main reason why Nash is running away with the assist title this year. The guy's career assist average is 6.1. He is dishing out over 11 per game this year. Reason, Amare is the best finisher in the league. Just get him the ball within 5 feet of the basket and start trotting back.
