The New York Knicks and Amar’e Stoudemire have agreed to part ways as Stoudemire consented to a team buyout of his contract for the rest of the season.
The Knicks forward will reportedly be paid $23.4 million on the fifth and last year of his five-year contract with the Big Apple basketball franchise and he is now officially a free agent just a few days before the NBA trading deadline.
The buyout agreement came just hours before the NBA All-Star game in Madison Square Garden in New York City so when Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony learned about it, he felt saddened by the news because he said that he will be parting ways with a good friend too.
In addition to clearing salary cap space, the Knick appears to have completed its revamp of the team roster in an attempt to rebuild and make a fresh start beginning this summer. The team will definitely run after big name free agents in the offseason to join Carmelo Anthony and the relatively young Knicks team in the next NBA season.
Groping for form
When Amar’e Stoudemire came to the Knicks in 2010, he brought the energy and the enthusiasm to the Big Apple basketball franchise that was sorely missing from its previous past few years in the league.
It was during his entry to the team that the Knicks started its three consecutive years of playoff appearances and his best period in New York was during the 2010-11 NBA season where he came up with an MVP worthy performance. When Carmelo Anthony was brought in from the Denver Nuggets in mid-2011, things have changed for Amar’e.
From being the team’s main offensive option, he became the second choice, which somehow diminished his strength and scoring prowess.
He was groping to find his form and playing alongside Anthony makes him unable to play his game and his true potentials. The two never jelled together on the floor despite being good friends outside of it, observes Yahoo! Sports.
Plagued by injuries
When he joined the Knicks in 2010, Amar’e was making 25.3 points per game and 8.2 rebounds per contest. He is averaging 12 points and 6.8 rebounds per game this season and is logging an average playing time of 24 minutes.
Other than not being able to jell with Carmelo Anthony, Stoudemire was also plagued by numerous back and knee injuries beginning with the 2011-12 NBA season that slowed him down from the franchise player-level performance he was delivering just one season before.
The buyout of his contract by the Knicks will also allow Stoudemire to be signed by other teams in the Western Conference for the remainder of the current season.
Word has it that the Los Angeles Clippers are very much interested in taking in the 32-year-old Amar’e and so is the Dallas Mavericks and his former team, the Phoenix Suns.
For sure, there is still some juice left in the battered body of Amar’e Stoudemire and it would be up to his future team to take the gamble.