Bounce Back Year ??

Amar'e Stoudemire: PF, New York
There is no doubt that last season was extremely dissapointing for Amer'e Stoudemire. The lack of chemistry with new teammates, injury woes, and personal hardship all played a role in his sub par season. You have to go back two seasons, when Stat and Felton were running an effective pick and roll, that he was a force to be reckoned with fantasy wise. Stat's value seemed to disappear once owner James Dolan decided he was going to ship Felton off to Denver along with a glut of other talent for Carmelo. This trade came much to the dismay of coach Mike D'Antoni. Needless to say, Carmelo won that battle and had D'Antoni run out of town the following season. A season that was shortened by a lockout and which didn't allow for any time for the two superstars of the Knicks to mesh. Add Tyson Chandler to that equation and you get a very disappointing fantasy year for Stat.

The good news is expectations are low coming into this season. Certainly a fall from fantasy grace when CBS has you ranked behind Ryan Anderson in terms of forwards. Right now Stat is projected to go around the 5th or 6th round of fantasy drafts. I wouldn't mind taking a shot on him in the 4th. Here is why......

• This team will finally a full training camp in order to gain some chemistry going into the season.
• Raymond Felton is back in the fray running the point and like I mentioned before, the last time that Stat was a fantasy force was before Felton was shipped out of town.
• Personal hardships and injuries have been put behind him for now. Sure, his back could always act up again, but he will start the seaso healthy.
• Carmelo has stated that he will sacrifice points for a championship. Now I don't think the Knicks are championship contenders, but hey, that's a start.
• Last, and what I consider the most important development is that Stat has reinvented his game over the summer. He spent a great deal of time with Hakeem Olajuwan in Houston this summer working on developing a post game. Clearly Stat isn't the athlete he once was so this is definitely going to be a boon to his scoring going forward.