# The Early Word On Amar'e



## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

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> So far on the season Suns' forward Amar'e Stoudemire is averaging better than 19.2 points and better than 8.6 rebounds a contest, just a touch under his 21 point and 8.9 rebound career average. Not bad for a guy on a massively repaired knee and a recently detached retina.
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> The eye looks funky, there is no question when you talk with Amar'e you find yourself looking at it – it's a little redder than the other one, and little puffy. Stoudemire says he's fine and is having no issues with the eye and his numbers and shooting percentages say there hasn't been a drop off as a result of the injury.
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> ...


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

Sounds about right. Hows his defense looking?


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## Dissonance (Jul 21, 2004)

Dre™;6101367 said:


> Sounds about right. Hows his defense looking?


Still lacking quite a bit, especially one-on-one, but he's giving much better effort and seems more focused, and that's an improvement alone. Help defense has been pretty good. Still shows some lapses with late rotations. Hopefully, he'll continue this and maybe get better, now that he's trying, though I'm not holding my breath. I also like that I've seen him hustling for rebounds, loose balls, and even diving on the floor.


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## Arclite (Nov 2, 2002)

He looks like a much smarter player this year to me, although he still has his lapses. I don't expect him to be Kevin Garnett so that's fine with me though. The thing I'm probably most concerned about is his inability to hold on to the ball in traffic.

I remember even in his rookie year he was taking people off the dribble, crossing other bigs over and with his huge hands he rarely lost control of the ball. Now he's bobbling it all over the place and getting stripped too often. Hopefully that's as much a product of him being out for so long as the sluggishness is. I don't expect to ever see the same Amare as 04-05 though, he might get up to that same level or maybe better overall, but it will be as a different player imo.

I'd love to see him follow McDyess' footsteps in transitioning to a smart player, and you see flashes of it, the real question is whether you can get him to care enough about defense and cleaning up the glass. But without the total loss of athleticism like Dice of course.


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