No Stoudemire means no title (
Linkage)
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
March 29, 2006
It seemed too good to be true. It was. Amaré Stoudemire will miss the rest of the Suns’ road trip, possibly the rest of the season, and just like that, an NBA championship is about to slip through Phoenix’s hands again.
What a shame.
There will be, from some corners, an immediate and thorough flogging of the Suns. How could they risk Stoudemire’s future by playing him when he wasn’t healthy?
Answer: They didn’t. First of all, Stoudemire’s left knee was pronounced structurally sound in the most recent MRI the team took. Second, the Suns let Stoudemire decide when he would return. Some team officials, in fact, thought Stoudemire could have played earlier than last week, but they weren’t about to bite the hand that’s going to feed them the next 10 years or so. Had Stoudemire insisted on sitting out the season, the Suns would have gritted their teeth — and muttered privately — but backed their superstar. What it comes down to is this: Unless Stoudemire reinjured the knee by playing the last three games — and there’s no indication he did — little harm has been done.
Stoudemire took a shot, it didn’t work, and now the Suns might have to wait until October to see No. 32 in uniform again.
Perhaps we should have seen this coming. Basketball players don’t fully recover from microfracture surgery in just six months, particularly those who play above the rim, as Stoudemire does.
But we were seduced by Stoudemire scoring 20 points in 19 minutes against the Portland Trail Blazers last Thursday. We thought he’d encounter a few bumps in the road but, by the postseason, be a reasonable facsimile of the player who so dominated the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals last year.
We were wrong.
Stoudemire’s knees couldn’t handle the workload or the stress. And now he’s back on the bench.
At this point, the Suns should shut Stoudemire down for good. It’s clear his knee needs further rehabilitation. Let him rest over the summer and come back next season with a stable joint and a hostile attitude.
In addition, Stoudemire’s uncertain status from one game to the next would only hurt the Suns come the playoffs. And it makes no sense to sit him down the next couple weeks, then try to mesh him into a playoff-caliber team with only a handful of regularseason games remaining.
Stoudemire is not a nominal role player, someone who can flit in and out of the rotation without consequence. The adjustment would have been overwhelming for coach Mike D’Antoni and the players.
Unfortunately, Stoudemire’s loss means the Suns will have a mini-me lineup in the postseason. Kurt Thomas isn’t expected back until the second round, if then, so Boris Diaw is your starting center.
Diaw has had a terrific season — he’s hands down the NBA’s Most Improved Player — but he’s not a center, and as San Antonio and New Jersey recently proved, Phoenix can be overwhelmed inside.
Three weeks ago, the Suns thought they were a championship-caliber team. Thomas was giving them terrific defense inside, and Stoudemire was readying for his return. D’Antoni had lineup combinations dancing in his head. He could go big, with Thomas, Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, or small and quick with Diaw, Stoudemire and Marion.
Now, his options are gone.
And so are the Suns’ title hopes.