All the amnesty talk can stop. NYK used their amnesty on Chauncy Billups so that they could sign Tyson Chandler.
The other thing that is bothering me is people saying Stoudemire is done. Are you guys kidding? When he was in NY before Carmello landed there he was averaging 26pts 9 rbs and 2 blks (and a steal) per 36. I know that was a close to 2 years ago but it's not like he's not still capable of those kinds of numbers.
Downside is that Pierce probably only has two seasons left in him, and we need a backup SF who is not only good enough to back up Pierce, but also good enough to take his place in the starting lineup once he moves on. Green fills that role perfectly, so we really need to hold on to him...yet we'd probably need his contact going out in order to make the deal happen.
I agree we need a backup SF, that is why I included Brewer in the deal because he's a defensive minded, athletic SF who can start in a pinch. I'd want to sign Pietrus back too if we sent both Lee and Green packing.
The SF of the future argument is an interesting one. I don't personally think we have that right now so I'm not afraid of losing it in the same way some people are. I don't think Green has shown enough to even be mentioned as the heir to Pierce but we'll see. I do think that when PP's contract is up so is the contract of 6 very good SFs. James and Carmello have ETOs and Gay has a player option (which he'll pickup). Granger and Deng UFAs so it's not like we have to find Pierce's successor right this moment. We might even trade Pierce's expiring contract next year for an unhappy superstar. 15M expiring is a pretty big deal for teams on the rebuild.
Anyway I don't think Danny would trade for Amare. It's a lot of risk from injury, no way to insure the contract and worst of all it's kind of an "all in" move that just isn't needed right now. It would very closely resemble the Joe Johnson trade that happened this last off-season. If that doesn't pan out there is no backup plan. Danny likes outs and Amare is $20M of uncertainty for 3 years.
Doesn't mean I don't like the idea though