Amare Out Four Months

[haverford]

What does this mean? I ask in all earnestness. What would you have the Suns do now by way of folding the tent?

No, I just meant the hell with trying to find some stopgap big man off the scrap heap to help the Suns muddle through the next few months. If it's a young guy with promise, sure, give him a chance. But Antonio Davis, please.

Also, now is definitely the time to figure out who the backup PG is. Forget playing Nash 36+ minutes per game -- the Suns need him next season, not next month. I'd be in favor of keeping Nash around 30 minutes per game (which was never going to happen while the Suns were chasing a title) and letting the young guys sink or swim. If they cost the team some games, so what?

Finally, it might make sense to let Brian Grant go elsewhere. He came to the Suns to play for a contender. Now that they aren't, it would be only fair to finish out his career with a team that is still in a position to let him chase his dream. It's not like he has much time left, so why force him to endure this season with the Suns?

I see, and agree. None of this is easy to do, though, obviously. I worry that BC/D'Antoni's instincts will run precisely counter to what you've suggested. Nash will be worked to death, and in the absence of any mid-term saviors, Grant will be made to dance until he drops. The economics (keeping fans interested, hyping the team nationally, selling jerseys, whatever) of the situation seem to drive us toward irrational short-term plausibility rather than rational long-term plannning.

Oh, Stephen Hunter, what might have been....sorry, couldn't resist.....

 

[arthurracoon]

*sigh*

 

[boisesuns]

We realy will be playing small ball now. I'm interested in seeing how some of the other players step up. Marion will probably be PF. I'm still exited about the season, but not confident of what will happen.

 

[SweetD]

WTF this is not good.

 

[greensborohill]

You guys aren't gonna be very good.

Still a playoff team, but not a contender.

Thanks for the insight. If you're going to troll, at least show some intelligence.

Steve Nash & Marion alone will allow you to continue to be a playoff team. . Nash is that good & Marion is a freak. W/O Amare & w/ Bell & Thomas you're team make up will go from the run & gun that you had last year to a slower pace. I don't think you guys would have traded Q away had you know this was gonna happen. & it was unfortunate that JJ was all about the $. But anything more than a division title is unlikely.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Steve Nash & Marion alone will allow you to continue to be a playoff team. . Nash is that good & Marion is a freak. W/O Amare & w/ Bell & Thomas you're team make up will go from the run & gun that you had last year to a slower pace. I don't think you guys would have traded Q away had you know this was gonna happen. & it was unfortunate that JJ was all about the $. But anything more than a division title is unlikely.

We definitely would have traded Q if we knew this was coming. Are you serious?? You think we would rather have a SG than a PF if we knew Amare was hurt?

Honestly, think for a second.

 

[haverford]

Marion will probably be PF.

This right here is going to be a problem, I fear. Accelerating the discontent of Marion is going to be a big storyline this year, if he is overplayed (probably inevitable) at PF.....

 

[goldseraph]

Well this is the 2nd crushing blow we've had this offseason. When we lost JJ, I was feeling doom and gloom. Now Amare is done for the season, and now he's going to have 'knee problems' and possibly never be the same player again. This team barely resembles the team I loved so much last year. Oh well, I shouldn't bother getting so into sports, it's always a disappointment. You fall in love with a team, then you realize they are all just playing for money, players are traded away, players get injured, then you're left with a starting 5 of Nash, Raja Bell, Marion, Grant and Thomas in a blink of an eye.
Well, we had our 'dream season', back to mediocrity for the forseeable future.

 

[boisesuns]

This right here is going to be a problem, I fear. Accelerating the discontent of Marion is going to be a big storyline this year, if he is overplayed (probably inevitable) at PF.....

After all this doom and gloom dies down, the trade marion threads will come up I think marion will be happy with more focus on him offensively. Unfortunatly, i don't think he can handle it.

 

[elindholm]

After all this doom and gloom dies down, the trade marion threads will come up

Heh, you're probably right.

Okay, how's this: Marion to the Clippers for Maggette, Wilcox, and ... um ... let's see ... hang on ... ******** the Clippers suck.

 

[mribnik]

If Amare didn't return at all for the regular season, I really believe we have enough talent on this team to win 50 games. Actually, we have a ton of talent on this team. Remember the series clinching game against the Mavericks? Amare was on the bench for the end of the 4th and overtime wasn't he? Nash and Marion stepped up. We are a much much deeper team this year and we also have flexibility. We probably still have enough to win the division as well. JMO.

 

[Yuma]

I wonder why they didn't "Randy Johnson" his knee. Randy had a gell (SP) put in his knee to keep it from rubbing and by all acounts it was a sucess. Maybe this microfracture has to be done first?

 

[NDSunsfan]

This being my first post here in a long time, I had kind of hoped on better circumstances, but it just seems to be the way it is for the Suns. Dang. Whoever said they've seen enough 50 win/playoff flame outs to last a lifetime is dead on, and I don't want to see another one of those either.

I'm all for 'take off the whole season and start over fresh next year.' I don't want this to become a Grant Hill thing, where it's always, next month/season/year he'll be ready and this is the best he's ever looked, blah, blah, blah........

he's young, sounds like his knee looks pretty good so if he gets enough time to rest, recover and rehab, maybe he'll be back next year, but don't push it.....

I'm bummin'......

p.s. is there still time to cancel my NBA package from DirecTV?


Brad

 

[JCSunsfan]

You guys just kill me. I have never heard such moaning and groaning in my life.

1. This is NOT the worst news in franchise history. The lost coin flip was #1 and Dice leaving for Denver was #2.

2. Did you read the article about the surgery? You read the work "microfracture" and freaked. Amare was sore. He was still playing and at a high level but was having some pain. They used microfracture to repair a very small section of damaged cartilege. In years past, this would simply be ignored and the player would play on. Medical technology is improving every year. You are comparing this surgery with much more severe injuries and surgeries from 5 to 10 years ago.

3. For those of you who are complaining that he should have had this done earlier--good grief. It was sore. He thought it would go away. It did and then came back. HE DID NOT KNOW HE NEEDED THE SURGERY UNTIL AFTER HE WOKE UP AFTER HAVING IT!

4. Declaring "the old Amare who struck fear" is gone is certainly premature and melodramatic.

5. I think I will wait to slit my wrists until AFTER I hear coach, JC, and BC. If this is really a career-turning injury, Mike DAntoni will not be able to hide it in his next interview. It will show on his face.

 

[Yuma]

I wonder why they didn't "Randy Johnson" his knee. Randy had a gell (SP) put in his knee to keep it from rubbing and by all acounts it was a sucess. Maybe this microfracture has to be done first?

Still I wonder about this. Especially since at the time they touted this as a better alternative to microfracture, which Johnson had and it didn't help him. Anyone?

 

[elindholm]

1. This is NOT the worst news in franchise history. The lost coin flip was #1 and Dice leaving for Denver was #2.

The coin flip, maybe, but there it was a 50-50 chance either way, so it's not like the Suns lost something that they already had. McDyess, give me a freaking break. He was never anything close to the player Stoudemire is now.

In years past, this would simply be ignored and the player would play on.

And it would continue to get worse. This is an attempt to correct the problem. That doesn't mean it will work.

5. I think I will wait to slit my wrists until AFTER I hear coach, JC, and BC. If this is really a career-turning injury, Mike DAntoni will not be able to hide it in his next interview. It will show on his face.

There's no way to know either way at this point. You can bet your bottom dollar that management is going to paint the rosiest picture they can. Just remember the song-and-dance that used to accompany each one of Hardaway's surgeries. Stoudemire could get run over by a bus and they'd all fall in line and talk about how he's in a great position to come back and be productive.

As far as D'Antoni goes, if he's not worried, he's an idiot. Whether he's worried-hopeful or worried-terrified is going to be hard to tell just by looking at his face.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Still I wonder about this. Especially since at the time they touted this as a better alternative to microfracture, which Johnson had and it didn't help him. Anyone?

I have no idea about the procedure you are mentioning, but perhaps it has to do with the amount of pounding a basketball player takes compared to a baseball player.

My guess is that there is something about the use of the knee in basketball that doesn't allow that procedure to work as well.

 

[Yuma]

I just worry he's maybe not had the best surgury for his injury since they didn't think or admit in the papers to this kind of injury. They thought it was something less than this. They made it sound exploratory to the point that it was going to be no problem and 4 weeks was all that was expected. Then they find a microfracture type area. I'm sure they weren't expecting that and may not have been prepared for the better procedure. Maybe they should have stopped until they were prepared to do something different is all I'm worried about.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I just worry he's maybe not had the best surgury for his injury since they didn't think or admit in the papers to this kind of injury. They thought it was something less than this. They made it sound exploratory to the point that it was going to be no problem and 4 weeks was all that was expected. Then they find a microfracture type area. I'm sure they weren't expecting that and may not have been prepared for the better procedure. Maybe they should have stopped until they were prepared to do something different is all I'm worried about.

They definitely knew that Amare might need microfracture. That is why he got 3 opinions, and why the microfracture surgery was already scheduled for this morning.

The surgeon that did this is nationally acclaimed. He is a top surgeon, I have no doubt that he did the best surgery for the injury.

 

[Yuma]

They definitely knew that Amare might need microfracture. That is why he got 3 opinions, and why the microfracture surgery was already scheduled for this morning.

The surgeon that did this is nationally acclaimed. He is a top surgeon, I have no doubt that he did the best surgery for the injury.

That's my only fear is that he comes back like Johnson did, and finds the microfracture didn't work and needs the gell surgury anyway. Long term I think (hope) he will be fine.

I think the silver lining in all this is that D'Antoni will be forced to get others ready for the playoffs instead of playing Amare 40+ minutes a game he would have done if Amare was ready to play now. A seasoned squad will help us tremendously in the playoffs. As long as D'Antoni is forced to see how to play guys.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

I just worry he's maybe not had the best surgury for his injury since they didn't think or admit in the papers to this kind of injury. They thought it was something less than this. They made it sound exploratory to the point that it was going to be no problem and 4 weeks was all that was expected. Then they find a microfracture type area. I'm sure they weren't expecting that and may not have been prepared for the better procedure. Maybe they should have stopped until they were prepared to do something different is all I'm worried about.

No one could be that stupid, the suns just signed him to an 70+ million dollar deal. I am sure they did their dilligence and made the best decsion at the time based on several scenarios and were prepared for all options or they would not have gone in.

I mean you make it sound like the school nurse was going in here with ice and a rusty drill.

The only reality is they told us fans the best case scenario and probably prepared for the worst. This is propoganda 101.

 

[Yuma]

I mean you make it sound like the school nurse was going in here with ice and a rusty drill.

Oh, so you've been to the Yuma hospital?

 

[Treesquid PhD]

possibly

 

[Skkorpion]

elindholm gets it. All of it.

Microfracture is a last-ditch effort to save a ruined knee and the effort fails most of the time.

It is quite likely that Amare's career is over.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Korneheiser and Wilbon now think Denver is the #2 team in the West after our tragedy.......

This IS the worst moment in our franchise history as this is the best player we have ever had, still 6 years from his prime, and now a knee injury which at the very least will give him less life and bounce in his jump. This for a player whose athletic ability is one of the primary reasons he is a star.

Good luck reading the Suns brass emotions. Like eric said, they will paint a rosy picture but even now they are terrified this will turno out bad. The precedence is too strong. WTF? Like serpah said i should not be so emotionally invested in a team where it actually feels like i lost a family member or favorite pet when this kind of news breaks, but thats how it goes. No matter what optimism is shown going forward from myself, this will be hard to swallow for years to come. The kid was just too damn good to be true......