PHOENIX — Amar’e Stoudemire peeked his head around the corner, and first surprise and then satisfaction showed on his face. A large group of reporters had gathered to hear what he had to say in his return here, with a Knicks resurgence under way and the Phoenix Suns still seeking an identity without him.
The constant in all this is that the Knicks added Stoudemire, the Suns subtracted him and the decision has reshaped each franchise.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be the same once I left,” Stoudemire proclaimed.
In retrospect, seven seconds or less did last a pretty long time in Phoenix. That was the maximum amount of time that Mike D’Antoni wanted to elapse before the ball was shot here, creating the system in which Steve Nash dished, Stoudemire dunked and fans cheered.
But D’Antoni departed as coach more than two seasons ago, moving to the Knicks, and Stoudemire took the same path over the summer. Since D’Antoni left, the Suns have had two coaches (Terry Porter and Alvin Gentry) and two general managers (Steve Kerr and Lance Blanks). They have brought in a new president (Lon Babby) and gone through several roster makeovers.
Phoenix did catch lightning last year, going 54-28 in the regular season and making it to the Western Conference finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Stoudemire said he believed the Suns could do well again this season, and that his preference was to stay here with a new contract. But he looked elsewhere, and ultimately toward New York, when the Suns asked him to meet playing requirements in the final years of a maximum deal because of concerns about his surgically repaired left knee.
With Stoudemire gone, the Suns have retreated. The team is not deep enough nor tall enough to threaten top-tier teams, although it may ultimately find a way to grab one of the conference’s last playoff spots. Still, going into Friday’s game against the Knicks, the Suns were only 14-19.
“I wouldn’t use the word rebuilding, but obviously we’re in transition,” Gentry said, before adding in reference to Stoudemire, “We’re a different team than we are when we had him.”
Phoenix is no longer the offensive powerhouse it was, and it recently went through a three-game stretch without topping 100 points. It was the first time that had happened since January 2005.
The Suns are not even the team they were earlier this season, having sent Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson to Orlando in December in exchange for Marcin Gortat, Vince Carter and Mickael Pietrus.
The Suns are 2-6 since that trade, although it did give them future financial flexibility.
The deal also served as an admission that the initial trade the Suns made to acquire Turkoglu — a transaction that involved sending away Leandro Barbosa, another D’Antoni mainstay — had failed. In a twist, Babby, a longtime agent before he assumed his current role with the Suns, had negotiated Turkoglu’s current contract.
“It was ironic, I suppose,” Babby said of the December deal that sent Turkoglu to the Magic. “But I knew from the time I represented Hedo that his place of greatest success was Orlando.”
Now, rumors are resurfacing that Nash could be traded as well, a notion that does not intrigue Babby.
“I answer this question once a week,” Babby said. “He’s the sun and the moon and the star of this franchise, and I expect him to remain so.”
The most vexing problem for the Suns is coping without Stoudemire, who is averaging 26.4 points and 9.0 rebounds for the Knicks. In debating Stoudemire’s future, the Suns opted to absorb his short-term loss and absolve themselves from the threat of a long-term risk should he sustain another major injury.
Meanwhile, Kerr, who is now an analyst for TNT, pointed to a paradox: as things have become tougher for the Suns, they have become easier for Stoudemire.
When Stoudemire was in Phoenix, Kerr said, the Suns often had championship aspirations, which raised expectations. The Knicks, after a long run of ineptitude, simply want to qualify for the playoffs. Stoudemire has the Knicks pointed in that direction and as a result, said Kerr, he is treated like a “rock star.”
“On the climb, which is where the Knicks are now, people focus on all his strengths,” Kerr said. “His explosiveness, his scoring.”
During the last few seasons in Phoenix, Kerr said, “There was a lot of frustration with the fan base because we were so close and couldn’t quite get over the hump.”
He added: “At that point, it becomes a matter of detail. And people picked over the details — Steve’s age or Amar’e’s knees or Amar’e’s defense.”
Nobody is picking apart Stoudemire in New York. Reunited with D’Antoni, he has moved on.
“We’re not the Suns East,” he told reporters on Friday. “Not at all. We’re the New York Knicks.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/sports/basketball/08suns.html
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