Dallas Mavericks: How Amar’e Stoudemire’s Addition Changes the Mavs
Amar’e Stoudemire has decided to sign with the Dallas Mavericks, but don’t expect his impact to be ground breaking
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While I won’t exactly go all the way to say that Amar’e Stoudemire and Dirk Nowitzki‘s game compliment each other, because at this point in Stoudemire’s career they really don’t, I also won’t go all the way to say that this is a bad pairing.
Because it’s not, and it won’t be.
The biggest reason why is simple. The Dallas Mavericks don’t need Stoudemire to be anything more than what he is at this point in his career. He doesn’t need to be smashing up rims, or putting up 20 spots on a nightly basis. He doesn’t even need to play more than 20 minutes a night.
What people keep missing is that Amar’e Stoudemire on a veteran’s minimum contract is 100 times (literally, I did the math) more valuable than Amar’e Stoudemire on a max contract.
All the Dallas Mavericks will be asking from the player formally known as STAT is to pick up a few boards, hit a couple of jumpers, ignite the team’s bench from time to time and to fill in when Tyson Chandler gets in early foul trouble or when he needs spelling.
And that’s something that this year’s version of Stoudemire is fully capable of achieving.
Stoudemire was averaging 12 points and seven rebounds in roughly 24 minutes per game this season in New York. Most importantly though, he has gone through stretches where he has just looked much healthier. There was a stretch this season in which Stoudemire played at least 30 minutes in six of nine contests. I’m not even sure when the last time that could’ve been said for Amar’e.
Even though he’s missed games this season due to ankle, wrist and knee injuries, none of them have proved to be longterm. And it doesn’t appear that the Dallas Mavericks have any concerns either.
To be entirely frank, the Mavs have absolutely no depth behind Tyson Chandler and Dirk Nowitzki. Stoudemire is already a huge upgrade, no offense, over Charlie Villanueva, Bernard James or Dwight Powell.
And if he simply brings energy and cleans up put-backs off the bench, I’m sure the Mavericks would be more than willing to sign up for that. And with the plethora of jump shooters that the Mavs have, the way Stoudemire has played on the offensive end this season actually fits in the team pretty nicely.
79 percent of Stoudemire’s shot attempts this season have come inside the restricted area, and he’s connecting on 60 percent of those shots:
Ideally, Stoudemire would add another element off the bench for the Mavericks team that they have not had in years, propelling them to another level in the hierarchy of the Western Conference. Although, that can’t be realistically assumed. Not yet.
If you’re expecting Stoudemire to turn the Dallas Mavericks into a (better) contender, you’re going to be disappointed. That isn’t realistic and that’s not going to happen.
However, if you believe that Stoudemire can solidify the team’s depth on the frontline, and can offer nice contributions here and there, you’re exactly on point. Because that’s exactly how he’s going to make an impact on this team.
That’s it. Nothing more.
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