Former Knicks forward/center Amar'e Stoudemire joined Kazeem Famuyide on The New York Post's Big Apple Buckets podcast to discuss his time in New York, and the big man made some interesting comments.
Stoudemire signed with the Knicks back in 2010 when they had a solid crop of role players and pieces on the team.
But a large chunk of those guys would end up being included in the blockbuster trade for Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, which occurred midway through his first season in New York.
"I built a great relationship and friendship with Wilson Chandler, [Danilo] Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov...all those guys became like my proteges," Stoudemire said on the podcast. "I loved being instrumental with their development. So it was tough to see them go.
"And with Carmelo coming in, obviously he's a Hall of Fame player, and to have him with us was massive, but I truly think looking back if we could have acquired him in the offseason and kept those players, then we would have been a much better team."
Stoudemire added that Anthony did not want to play power forward despite head coach Mike D'Antoni wanting to utilize the four a lot in his offense, so Stoudemire played power forward instead of center, while Anthony stayed at the three.
But according to Stoudemire, even with a solid roster and game plan that in the 2012-2013 season got the Knicks the No. 2 seed in the East, there were too many changes in the organization to really get anywhere.
"Everything was changing, the organization was changing," Stoudemire said. "We hired a new GM, new coaches, new situations, the energy was changing, the cohesiveness was changing."
"Before everyone was on the same page. We had a solid idea of a system of what we were trying to deal with and then once that changed, it began to get very frustrating because guys was not on the same page. The management wasn't on the same page... so that was one of the reasons why I decided to go elsewhere."
Stoudemire was waived by the Knicks in February of 2015 after agreeing to a buyout on his contract and subsequently signed with the Mavericks.