It informs. It haunts. It’s always there to remind us about how things once were. If things were once great, we’ll often hold on to it with a vice grip.
We have trouble with the past.
One of the many concerning things about any new Star Wars venture was that somehow they were going to screw up Han Solo. Whether new writers couldn’t capture what made the character so charming or Harrison Ford wouldn’t be up to the task of diving back into trash compactors, something was going to prevent us from spending another two hours with one of cinema’s most beloved legends.
In a way, that’s what happened. Some of Solo’s banter in The Force Awakens felt a little forced, even a little off character, and Ford looked like what a 73-year old actor is supposed to look like while running away from tentacle monsters in a giant spaceship with a laser-blaster hanging from his hip. And that was just fine.
If you were expecting the old Han Solo, you might have felt a pinch of disappointment. If you went in hoping for a solid Old Han Solo, the offerings fit the bill and then some. It all depended on whether you wanted to relive the past or enjoy something new.
Athletes have it tougher. Actors are afforded the chance to age gracefully over multiple decades, with every appearance cultivated by teams of writers and makeup artists and directors and photographers. In performing on live television for over a dozen years, Amar’e Stoudemire hasn’t enjoyed such luxuries.
When Stoudemire, in a convincing Miami victory over the Atlanta Hawks, posts his first double-double since December of 2014, it’s very easy to discuss the performance in the context of an All-NBA career.
‘Man, he was Vintage Stoudemire tonight, wasn’t he?’
Talking about a player only in reference to what they’ve done before can only do them a disservice. The HEAT don’t need to try and find a back-in-the-day version of Stoudemire that lives in the past. They’re embracing the today version. The one who has had multiple knee surgeries, who has played over 25,000 minutes and who has years of experience as one of the best pick-and-roll players in the league. Some may see Stoudemire and expect to see a dominant force when, if you abandon your expectations, you’ll see an artist.
“There’s an art to it,” Stoudemire says of setting playing pick-and-roll basketball. “There’s a certain speed you have to have to get to the screen. There’s a certain angle it takes for you to set the screen because you want the defender to react a certain way. It’s up to us, we the screeners, to dictate how we want that defender to react. Then it’s up to the guard to now create that problem when he drives downhill, forces the other team to make a decision.”
“Let’s say they’re pushing to the right side,” Goran Dragic said. “[Amar’e is] not going to come to set the screen on the right side, but he’s going to change the angle and set the screen between the defender and the basket. That’s how [Dwyane Wade], me, we can get downhill inside the paint, and it’s much easier to play like that.”
“He’s played with one of the best pick-and-roll players to ever play the game in Steve Nash, so that doesn’t go away,” adds Wade “He knows how to set the screen. He knows how to roll.”
That’s the current Stoudemire. Someone who pays attention to detail, gets to his spots and helps his teammates spring free – as he did in the third quarter against Atlanta, starting a chain reaction leading to a paint score for Wade just by putting a body on someone.
And of course getting into the thick of things in two-man actions, never seeming to get too far ahead or behind the play.
Actions which Wade described at length.
“Because he rolls so well, it makes the big (defender) make a decision. A split decision on if should he take me or should he take his guy, who is rolling. I love it from that standpoint and it puts a lot of pressure on a defense. And with me and my ability to score and make plays, sometimes I feel like I’m picking you apart because you have a split decision to make and I like to think in that split decision I might be quicker than you are to get to what we need.
“Amar’e’s been great and I’ll continue to say it, he’s helping myself and Goran and Beno. He’s helping us get to the paint, helping us get downhill, which is great for our team. Good for everybody.”
It helps that Stoudemire can do these things within a positive pick-and-roll ecosystem as he uses an open painted area next to either Bosh or a small-ball power forward, but the offense is his bread-and-butter. Stoudemire might be playing with timing and angles more than he is finishing over and through people, but he has always existed as a paragon of modern pick-and-roll big men. None of which would matter if the team couldn’t defend while he was on the floor.
Though Stoudemire played sporadically through the first couple months of the season while getting his knees up to strength, in the seven games he did play in before January 1 Miami was allowing 109.1 points per 100 possessions while he was on the court, a number that just isn’t viable when extrapolated into rotation minutes. But in the 13 games he’s played in since then, the team is allowing just 99.1 points per 100, which is the equivalent of a Top-5 defense.
Nobody expects Stoudemire to turn into an All-Defensive player at this point in his career, and obviously all numbers carry a sample-size caveat, but all that matters is that it’s working, and it is working. The team isn’t asking him to do anything out of the ordinary as he adheres to their more conservative pick-and-roll scheme, trying to keep the ball in front and out of the lower paint, and he still has those good hands and the athleticism to make plays on the side of the floor where he didn’t make his name.
“Defense is what I am starting to focus on and compete the most. So far, I have been improving,” Stoudemire said.
As long as the numbers hold up, that’s more than enough given Stoudemire’s clear effect on the offense – we haven’t even touched on how quickly he works, allowing Miami to cycle through multiple options while forcing quick-decision after quick-decision on the defense.
The HEAT aren’t asking him to be a hero or, to borrow Erik Spoelstra’s parlance, a magic bullet. In relatively limited minutes, you aren’t going to be able to point at Stoudemire and say, ‘He definitely won that game for them’. He’s simply showing he can help by doing the little things.
As long as you aren’t holding him against the legends of the past, there’s joy to be found in appreciating the player Stoudemire is today.