Amar’e Stoudemire even admitted on Wednesday that he could envision a scenario in which he sits out certain games for the Knicks at various points of the season to preserve his troublesome knees for the playoffs.
“Yeah, you never know depending on how these games go,” Stoudemire said following Wednesday’s practice in Greenburgh. “It may be smart to take a recovery day depending on who we’re playing. But we have to wait and see.”
The decision by the league to play a lockout-shortened 66-game slate from Dec. 25 to April 26 could be detrimental to many veteran players, including Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Stoudemire, who have all had knee issues in recent years.
“That’s never a good thing as far as the players because we’ll be playing three games back-to-back, which is something I’ve never done before,” Stoudemire said. “And six, seven games in eight nights. It’s definitely hard on the body. You have to be smart about playing time and recovering from those games.”