Amar’e Stoudemire Six Potential Landing Spots After Buyout

Jan 10, 2015; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) and guard Wesley Matthews (2) talks after a timeout during at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports

Portland Trail Blazers

The Blazers have been decimated up front by injuries, as Robin Lopez and Joel Freeman have both missed time, and LaMarcus Aldridge has an injured thumb. Outside of Aldridge, the remaining big men have limited offensive games, as players such as Chris Kaman cannot give many minutes a game, and trusting a player as raw as Meyers Leonard isn’t conducive for a team that has NBA Championship aspirations. That is something that Stoudemire could bring to the team.

Stoudemire has shown this season that he can score no matter how many minutes he is receiving, and extremely efficiently at that. He would add a scoring punch off the bench that the Blazers have lacked even when fully healthy. He would easily supplant Thomas Robinson as the backup power forward, and could even take some minutes from Kaman so that they are both healthy for the post season.

Signing Stoudemire would also give the Blazers a viable replacement for a period of time should Aldridge opt for surgery on his thumb and be sidelined. Stoudemire won’t be able to play the 36.1 minutes per game that Aldridge currently does, but playing even the 24.9 he has with the Knicks this season would be sufficient enough if combined with the production they have been getting from their other bigs this season.

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