The Miami Heat played the New York Knicks on Monday night and they beat them handily but this game also featured a reunion of sorts as Amare Stoudemire, now playing for the Heat, got to see his former team and his old teammate Carmelo Anthony. The matchup against his old team had Stoudemire reflecting on his four-plus year career with the Knicks and he concluded that he and Melo were not used properly during their time together, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
When Anthony was brought to the Knicks back in 2011 there were questions about the fit between Stoudemire and Carmelo as they both played very similarly styled games. They were both very offensively oriented and loved the mid-range jumper but Stoudemire thinks it definitely could have worked if they would have gotten their coaches on board.
"I don't think we had enough opportunities to play together, I moved to the bench and became the sixth, seventh man. When I was in the game, Melo, he was out of the game and vice versa. When we did play together, we showed some flashes of what we could do on the pick-and-roll. I don't think that pick-and-roll offense between Melo and I was ever taken advantage of, which we could have. The way he shoots the ball, handles the ball from the outside and the way I attack the rim, it could've been a pretty good combination. I don't think the coaching staff at the time really bought into that," said Stoudemire.
During their four seasons together the Knicks always had high expectations due to the amount of star power they had but they never made it past the second round of the playoffs. While Stoudemire thinks that the main reason was the coaches, a bigger reason might have been the knee issues that consistently plagued him. Stoudemire missed 110 games in his four plus seasons with the Knicks and that is part of the reason why he was moved to more of a bench role.
The coaches during Stoudemire and Anthony's time together in New York were Mike D'Antoni and Mike Woodson and as much as Stoudemire wants to blame them it is kind of hard to agree with him. Stoudemire was tremendous in his first season with the Knicks back in 2010-11 but after that he was never able to stay on the floor consistently so the coaches really didn't have a choice but to bring him off the bench as a way of preserving his body. When Anthony and Stoudemire teamed up they were two of the biggest stars in the league and the expectations were through the roof but things didn't work out and Stoudemire believes that it never really had a chance to.
