Z-man: And these guys are in their supposed 30 yo primes like Amare and in mid-season form, right? Or is one an out-of-shape relic out of mothballs and the other a guy so great on D that nobody would sign him even for peanuts?

Let’s see those two play more than 300 minutes or actually shoulder any significant burden on offense before we fault Amar’e for not playing defense like them. He didn’t play defense like Jared Jeffries, either.

flossy: You mean he didn’t magically become as good as two of the best defending big men of the past generation? Gee, you don’t say!

And these guys are in their supposed 30 yo primes like Amare and in mid-season form, right? Or is one an out-of-shape relic out of mothballs and the other a guy so great on D that nobody would sign him even for peanuts?

Z-man: And our standards have gotten pretty low for defense if we think Amare has improved much on that end. Look at how K-Mart defends after only 3 games back since not playing or practicing for a year, or how Sheed looked on defense after 2 years away from the game.

You mean he didn’t magically become as good as two of the best defending big men of the past generation? Gee, you don’t say!

Z-man:
My point exactly, this team has serious problems, and had them with or without this version of Amare. A bigger, but even more predictable, loss for the team was Rasheed.

And who is Miami’s big low-post scoring threat?

This team, with or without STAT was not going to beat the better teams in the East with low post scoring. If we can’t hit 3?s we are going to make a quick playoff exit, no matter what happens down in the post. Amare is also a terrible passer out of double teams, so good defensive teams will just funnel him and run help defenders at him.

And our standards have gotten pretty low for defense if we think Amare has improved much on that end. Look at how K-Mart defends after only 3 games back since not playing or practicing for a year, or how Sheed looked on defense after 2 years away from the game.

Our standards have gotten pretty low for defense if we think committing 6 fouls in 17 minutes is somehow stellar.

flossy: K-Mart will be a godsend, and he’ll stop the bleeding a bit, but let’s not kid ourselves–if Ray Felton and JR Smith are competing to be your 2nd option on offense, your team has serious issues.

d-mar: just who are we going to for offense other than Melo when we play strong defensive teams (ie playoff teams) JR? If you’re counting on JR for consistent scoring you’re delusional.

My point exactly, this team has serious problems, and had them with or without this version of Amare. A bigger, but even more predictable, loss for the team was Rasheed.

d-mar: It’s a major loss if he doesn’t return for the playoffs, we have zero low post scoring without him.

And who is Miami’s big low-post scoring threat?

This team, with or without STAT was not going to beat the better teams in the East with low post scoring. If we can’t hit 3′s we are going to make a quick playoff exit, no matter what happens down in the post. Amare is also a terrible passer out of double teams, so good defensive teams will just funnel him and run help defenders at him.

And our standards have gotten pretty low for defense if we think Amare has improved much on that end. Look at how K-Mart defends after only 3 games back since not playing or practicing for a year, or how Sheed looked on defense after 2 years away from the game.

d-mar: And Amare’s defense of late was actually pretty decent, so this idea that playing Martin and Camby significant minutes is going to suddenly turn us defensively into the Bulls is misguided as well.

flossy: Amar’e defense in the past few weeks was as good as it’s ever been, not elite but certainly not dramatically sub-standard for a PF.

Disagree, he’s been the same old lousy defender he’s always been, just not exposed as much against other team’s second units.

flossy: he and Kevin Durant are (/were) the only two players with a usage above 25 and a TS% above .640 this season.

I don’t think the way Amare was scoring would work against the better defensive teams like Indiana and Chicago. The fact that Amare could pile up points vs the second units of lousy teams doesn’t impress me, and apparently doesn’t impress Woodson either, as the benching vs. Miami would indicate.

Seriously, which win vs. a quality opponent since Amare’s return would we have lost without him? Maybe the Celts?

flossy: his injury is not good news in any way, shape or form, period.

No it is not, we agree on that. We’re stuck with a $20 mill contract for another 3 years worth of playoffs, just like we were stuck with H2O. If you want to believe that Amare was on his way to regaining the greatness he showed in his first 50 games as a Knick and was derailed by a freak, unpredictable injury, go right on ahead. To me, this was totally predictable, and I’m relieved to be past hoping for his knees to magically heal. He has Allan Houston written all over him.

His *health* may have been an illusion, but the production was vintage Amar’e and it’s what we needed to compete with any of the other elite teams in the league. We’re going to get smoked in the playoffs if we’re really going in there with an undersized scoring PF, a bunch of defensive role players in the frontcourt, and a bunch of low-efficiency shooters in the backcourt, all of whom need to be absolutely on fire from downtown for the whole thing to work.

K-Mart will be a godsend, and he’ll stop the bleeding a bit, but let’s not kid ourselves–if Ray Felton and JR Smith are competing to be your 2nd option on offense, your team has serious issues. Amar’e was supposed to be a major piece of the puzzle and his injury is not good news in any way, shape or form, period.

It’s a major loss if he doesn’t return for the playoffs, we have zero low post scoring without him.

You seem to think that the Amare we have been seeing lately is anywhere close to what he has been. Give me a break. TS% isn’t the end-all, and he has been poor at almost every other facet of the PF-C game.

That’s the tragedy…that the Amare we saw recently is just an illusion. He didn’t land awkwardly and twist his knee, or have someone fall on it while it was planted. It simply gave out, just like the left one did in preseason. In retrospect, it was a certainty that this would happen, and everything we have seen was just a tease.

The silver lining is that the illusion has been confirmed for what it really is. As much as that sucks, it is best that it happened now while we can adjust to life without him before the playoffs start, rather than in mid-late April. I feel for Amare, but am glad that any thoughts of depending on him are now out of the way.