After missing much of the season from having surgery on his knee, Amare Stoudemire made a New Years Day return to the New York Knicks roster. While many were concerned about his willingness to come off the bench, Stoudemire was fine with the decision and playing quite well proving to be a great asset to the team. Unfortunately the Knicks have been hit with another devastating blow concerning the star forward. Read more after the jump.
Knicks PR released this information today saying:
Forward Amar’e Stoudemire is scheduled to have a right knee debridement this coming week. He is expected to miss approximately six weeks.
Though he still needed improvement on defense, Stoudemire provided much needed scoring for the Knicks especially in the post where he showed off moves he no doubt learned during lessons with the great Hakeem Olajuwon. He was averaging 14.2 points and 5 rebounds off just under 30 minutes per game.
This is a huge blow for the Knicks who are already dealing with a slew of injuries from Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace and Jason Kidd who’s minutes are also under watch. The Knicks will also be without star player Carmelo Anthony who also suffered a knee injury but the Knicks have been mum about the seriousness of it. They’ve received help by picking up free agent Kenyon Martin but they’re going to need much more than that.
The Knicks played well earlier in the season sans Stoudemire but they were playing better defense and sharing the ball. They haven’t been doing that lately and have since tapered off after their hot 18-5 start. Now without STAT they’re going to have to rediscover that early fire to stay in the top four of the Eastern Conference.
