As I said before, Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks are cleaning house. They traded JR Smith and Iman Shumpert, released Samuel Dalembert, are trying to trade Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani and now they’ve discussed the possibility of buying out Amar’e Stoudemire.
At one point Amar’e Stoudemire was the biggest free agent signing the Knicks had made in a long time. Stoudemire became the $100 million man who would help turn the Knicks around. Since then he’s been plagued with injury and low production and most Knicks fans are just waiting for his departure. He’s currently in the last year of his five-year contract and the Knicks have discussed another possible solution.
via ESPNNewYork.com:
Amar’e Stoudemire plans to return to the New York Knicks’ lineup Thursday on their British detour against the Milwaukee Bucks. How much longer he remains a Knick is now up for debate….
The Knicks, sources told ESPN.com recently, are not looking to move Stoudemire and, at least for now, intend to keep him for the rest of the season.
But sources say they have discussed internally the possibility of buying out Stoudemire to let him play for a contender if he preferred that route. Stoudemire, of course, would have to agree to such a transaction.
What that really means: If Stoudemire is willing to save the Knicks some cash and take a discount on what he is owed to be bought out, the Knicks would be willing to set him free. There’s long been reports that Stoudemire wants to stay with the Knicks and is even willing to come back next year at a much lower rate but a recent report suggested that he wants to play for a contender. My guess is the latter since he knows his playing career is slowly coming to an end.
