Good one. Amare is overpaid because he only plays one side of the ball, Nowitzki plays better D than him. He's only worth half of that max contract, and that's why no team will be successful with him as the main man.
I wouldn't call a rare eye injury and 1 knee injury where he missed just under 1 season "injury prone."
For their careers so far, Amare has missed more games than Yao - that's the definition of "injury prone". In his first 7 seasons he's missed more games than McGrady did his first 7 years. Yao is a bigger injury risk going forward, but I won't be surprised if Amare ends up like Tracy, with a few more good years left before his body starts breaking down as the injuries take their toll on the later part of his career.
So because of 1 major injury in the first 7 years of his career, he is injury prone, you are completely wrong. Michael Jordan missed nearly his entire 2nd season, so he was injury prone? Injury prone means getting hurt every season (Yao, tmac), not having an occasional freak injury.
Injury prone means getting hurt and missing games. He's missed 50 more regular season games than Yao and McGrady for their first 7 seasons. For their first 7 years, Amare has been the more injury prone player full stop. Besides his knees he's also injured his ankle, toe and his eyes twice. And yes, major injuries do count and are just as worrying.
The team would still benefit in having him. Its not much of a risk since his contract is expiring. The Rockets can just gamble and hope that injuries like his eye would not hunt him during the season.
And what if he has a good season and bolts to NY? He has already indicated he would "seriously consider" NY because he grew up there and D'Antoni is there. Why give up young assets and 2010 cap space (we will have to take a big and longer contract to make up the difference between Amare and McGrady's salary) for a one year rental? I don't think any team trading for Amare will do the trade unless he agrees before hand to sign an extension, and he wants the max amount for max years. Trading for Amare is a long term risk. Amare would be great if we were a real contender and Amare puts us over the hump. As a piece to build around not so much.
Its a short term risk. They do not have to sign him to an extension until next year so if He does not fit the team, They can look the other way and use the salary space to sign a player that they could build around.
If you trade McGrady's expiring for him, you will have to take another big contract that is likely to go beyond 2010 to make the trade work. In the most recent rumour we had McGrady/Battier/Landry outgoing for Jrich/Amare. That would mean adding another 4mil committed to 2010. If you read Bima's thread in the GARM, we might not have enough cap space to offer the max to FA in 2010 without doing trades that dump salary. Adding Jrich and another 4mil makes things even harder.
