| 30 September 2009
With the exit of Shaquille O'Neal, the Suns training camp is a calmer and happier place this year. Before taking the short plane jaunt to the 6-day San Diego camp, our top guard Steve Nash was even quoted using the word "joyous" to describe his mood. But the upbeat outlook (refer to our previous post and loads of other coverage) doesn't mean we have an answer to one crucial question - Can Amar'e Stoudemire fill in the offensive gap left in Shaq's wake?
Putting it all on Stoudemire's shoulders may be expecting too much from a player who sat out 29 games last year with an injury in 2008-09 but he has already picked-up a clean bill of health for this year. Sure we all know that Amar'e is not a rebounding hound - he pulled down fewer offensive boards than Louis Admundsen last year even though he played nearly twice as many minutes - but when it comes to scoring, STAT and his newly minted team captain uniform really shined last season. Here's a quick look:
Player Games Played Minutes Played Total Points
Amar'e 53 1,948 1,134
Shaq 75 2,252 1,333
For Amar'e = a point every 1.72 minutes For Shaq = a point every 1.69 minutes
It looks promising and, if STAT keeps clocking in like that, we might never notice that O'Neal has gone to a colder climate.
What do you think?
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