Here’s the bottom line question: Do you think Amare Stoudemire is a max player?
New York did -- they knew they needed to pay to get someone to start rebuilding around, someone who they could market. Stoudemire was that guy (if not the first choice, or second, or...).
Phoenix did not. But if they had offered a five-year guaranteed max deal, Stoudemire would have stayed, he told Chris Tomasson at FanHouse.
The last two years of the deal in Phoenix would have been contingent on minutes played and other benchmarks.
It’s a difference of situations. Phoenix realizes that Steve Nash has maybe three years left at his current level in the league. At that point, they’d like options. It’s hard to predict how they will want to rebuild at that time.
The Knicks needed to go big. They needed a star, and they got one. If they had to take some risk on the last couple years of the deal to change the momentum of the franchise, that is a reasonable risk. Amare was a guy who fit Mike D’Antoni’s system perfectly, so this is a good risk.
Not one the Suns would take.
