Knicks fans are the ones smiling
The New York Daily News is reporting that the New York Knicks have reached a buyout agreement with human dumpster fire power forward Amare Stoudemire. Stoudemire, the 2nd highest paid player in the NBA this season at $23,410,988 is averaging 12 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, as the Knicks sit at the bottom of the NBA standings with an embarrassing 10-43 record.
Amare Stoudemire had one great season for the Knicks when he was first acquired back in 2010. He was even in the MVP conversation that season, and would have won it had Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade, and Manu Ginobili all retired from basketball after 81 games (Stoudemire ended up 9th in the MVP vote). He followed that max-contract worthy season with a mediocre one, and then his knees went to shit and the former All-Star became a shell of himself. Knicks fans would all agree that STAT should have dropped the “and talented” part of his acronym-nickname approximately 3 years ago.
While details of the buyout have yet to be released, there are apparently some teams in the West that may be interested in signing Stoudemire once he clears waivers. And he’ll clear waivers. No one is dumb enough to take on that contract. The Knicks tried. No one would take him.
It’s safe to say that the New York Knicks have accepted their fate this season, as they’ll be chasing ping-pong balls for the 2015 NBA Draft rather than trying to win games after the All-Star break. There’s a good chance they’ll be shutting down their franchise player Carmelo Anthony for the rest of the season, making tickets to Knicks games utterly worthless.
The future is bright, though, as New York heads into next season with over $30mil in cap space, a pretty much guaranteed high lottery pick, and a healthy core of players who don’t suck too bad. If the Knicks can drop off a duffel bag full of cash at Commissioner Silver’s doorstep, get the #1 pick and draft Jahlil Okafor from Duke, then sign an actual max contract player, we’re talking an improvement of about 30 wins in 2015-2016.
As for Stoudemire, he’ll become some other team’s problem. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out
