via Fanhouse.com
Matrix Unloaded
It turns out that New York's amazing power forward acquisition -- maxed out Amar'e Stoudemire -- might be New York's amazing center acquisition after all. The entire preseason, coach Mike D'Antoni has played Stoudemire at PF next to one of the roster's two true centers: Ronny Turiaf or Timofey Mozgov. It hasn't worked, because Howard Beck of the New York Times reports Amar'e could very well line up in the middle come opening night, with Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari (two true small forwards) with him in the frontcourt and Raymond Felton and Roger Mason in the backcourt.
Sound familiar? It shouldn't, because D'Antoni never had a regular lineup that meek in Phoenix. There are two central issues at play here, at least in the context of this lineup experimentation happening in New York, where David Lee manned the middle in recent years.
The first is the difference between Stoudemire and Lee, and how the team's identity changes with what is essentially a one-for-one swap of the two. But perhaps more importantly, given that it's D'Antoni at the wheel and Amar'e in the front seat, the question of comparison between Chandler and mid-decade Shawn Marion looms largely.
According to 82games.com , about 96 percent of Lee's minutes last season came at the center spot. In 2008-09, Lee spent 94 percent of the time at center. Lee is a great rebounder, comparable to all but the most elite enters on the defensive glass. Still, the Knicks finished 27th in the league on the defensive glass last season and 20th the season prior. Stoudemire is decidedly not a great rebounder. Amar'e typically collects 18-20 percent of opponent misses; Lee has been around 27-28 percent. That's a massive difference, and New York's (already bad) defense will suffer from the Lee-Stoudemire swap based just on the impact of defensive rebounding.
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