Amar'e Stoudemire plans on playing the entire year with the New York Knicks no matter what the NBA rumor mill is saying. The power forward has not been seen on the court since the beginning of January as he deals with injuries all over. Playing in the final year of his $100 million contract, Stoudemire is on the block to either be traded or released. However, the forward is making it clear that he intends to stick this season out and focus on getting healthy.
"I don't think there'll be something during this season," Stoudemire said, via Newsday.com. "The future is within their hands and in my health. So I just want to make sure I stay healthy and maintain that health throughout the rest of my career and we'll go from there. I haven't talked with Phil or [general manager] Steve Mills yet about the future. I'm sure we'll talk soon about it. I don't think something will be done this season. But the future is in their hands and my health. I want to make sure I stay healthy and maintain myself the rest of my career."
According to ESPN's Marc Stein, Stoudemire could be victim of a contract buyout after the deadline. At the moment Jackson is actively seeking trades for a number of players and if a deal for Stoudemire does not go through, he could be released by March 1 which would allow him to sign with a contender for the remainder of the year. The forward told the media that it was hard to think about bolting the team after the Knicks have notched a wins in recent games.
"It's always a thought process, man, but I think the way we're playing basketball, it's tough to decide something right now,'' Stoudemire said. "We win together, lose together. Guys are new to the system, new to the Knicks. Now we're all learning. The most important thing is to stay healthy and get back to my dominant self. That's the main objective."
At this point, there is not a team that will trade for Stoudemire simply because no one knows what you are going to get with him and his health. The Knicks are benefitting from Lance Thomas and Lou Amundson who are motivated off of two 10-day contracts. They have been picked up for the remainder of the season which makes it easier to cut someone like Stoudemire mid-year. Jackson has said that right now his experiment is failing in New York and changes would need to be made to fix things.
