He's averaging more ppg, assists, blocks and steals and has went 5-9 form 3 point range. He's averaging 8.3 rebounds as opposed to his career average of 8.8 and shooting 50% from the field after starting slow on a much worse team. It looks like it may not be much of a difference after all. I think both Nash and him are fine without each other.
amare doesn't need nash to the extent you think he does. watch the knicks play and you'll see their spacing is terrible compared to the suns, they aren't utilizing him in his favorite spots (he's playing away from the basket) and felton is subpar at running the pick and roll. all that said, he's had some really good games during the last week. granted, they were against some terrible defenses in the kings, clippers and warriors. he's still getting it together, though. his stats last year are a bit better. he wasn't as turnover prone but that can be explained by an increased role in the offense along with more defensive attention. his efficiency is again explained by the knicks lack of spacing, inability to maximize his talents and felton's inability to run the pick-an-roll certainly doesn't help. but, on the flip side, his assists are considerably higher as he's more of a focal point and he's getting to the line as well which is always a good sign. i don't think he's going to miss nash as much as people are implying here. nash certainly made him a better player, though.
obviously a great PG makes the life of a big man easier. but he's an elite scoring big man so he doesn't need nash or other great PGs for him to get his. what his problem so far this year is that he is now the #1 target of teams' defenses. that explained his turnovers and his slow adjustment. he's slowly getting it and you can see the results. it also helps that his teammates are hitting their perimeter jumpers, which open up the middle for him.
His faceup move is getting really unstoppable good to see they are both getting used to playing without eachother and both playing pretty good ball
Good time for a bumb for those who don't watch basketball other than the rockets. I guess after 20 games its a good time to see if amare really needs nash. Amare Stoudemire #1 PF 2010-11 STATS PPG RPG BPG 26.1 9.1 1.9 Steve Nash #13 PG 2010-11 STATS PPG APG SPG 18.4 10.2 0.8 Looks like they noth are doing well without each other. Joe johnson did well without nash either. The elite talents can play without nash, but guys like Q cant. Also looks my felton predictaion came true also. He's playing uptempo and his true pg skills are coming out vs the slow it down ways of larry brown. Raymond Felton #2 PG 2010-11 STATS PPG APG SPG 18.3 8.4 2.1
Where do you get your "#1" rankings? Color me impressed with the way Amare's stepped up. Either Felton's much better than I give him credit for, or I was 100% wrong on Amare being able to create his own shot. Honestly I was expecting Amare to bomb the way JJ has bombed in Atlanta, and Gay has bombed in Memphis.
You people are delusional. Amare has been a beast before and AFTER Steve Nash. The Knicks have won 9 in a row and will probably make the playoffs for the 1st time in forever. All the while Nash and his Phoenix Suns suck. I would assume at this point it's obvious who needs who
he needs to get another shooting big man next to him because as the season moves along he's gonna take a pounding trying to battle inside and he'll wear down
If Amare benefited so much from Nash, couldnt Rockets fans conclude that Yao benefited so much from McGrady? Both Nash and McGrady arrived on their teams the SAME year in '04-05. And both Amare and Yao had improved numbers as a result. Factoring out style of offense and pace, what made Amare so DEPENDENT on someone, while Yao was his own independent self? We know why, still ... the older fans who've watched ball over the years never heard things like Gary Payton "made" Shawn Kemp and Vin Baker and put an asterisk next to their name. The notion that Amare was basically hatched out of an egg from Steve Nash's incubator I thought was a bit suspect. On Felton, if Chris DUHON Rafer 2.0 could put up respectable stats in NY then Felton definitely stood to benefit.
Frankly, I'm very impressed with Amare but still don't buy that Nash didn't make him significantly better. He's averaging his lowest FG% in 7 years and his rebounding remains average especially considering he's playing 37 minutes per game. He's also turning it over way more than before. Once again, he has exceeded my expectations by a mile, but clearly he was helped tremendously by Nash, as is any athletic person over 6'9. That's not a knock on Amare who is a star anyway, but it is important to recognize the effect of a great PG on a big man. I will watch his playoff games very closely to see what he can do when the pace of the game is slowed down significantly. That will be a good test for him.
nash was a respected all-star so he got his own defensive attention. that gave him more spaces to operate. felton hasn't been an all-star so coming into this year, amare got more defensive attention than he ever had. the turnovers are an indication of that and he is adjusting. the fg% is another. his fg% has been 57% since the diastrous 3-8 start. so nash did NOT make amare better; he made amare life 'easier". those are two totally different things. you can argue amare made nash's life "easier" as well. nash is shooting 32% from 3s, a ridiculously low # (that could be due to the lack of double team help off the screen roll or low post). that's the lowest of his career.
What a short memory you two seem to have. Nash was an MVP and had the Suns in the conference Finals in 2006 with Amare playing a grand total of three games that season.
Yao was able to make it to the playoffs 2nd round, while T-Mac was injured. We can't credit Yao's performance on T-Mac, since Yao had more playoff success with T-Mac in street clothes than on the court.
