The New York Knicks were tabbed as one of the teams to
beat in the Eastern Conference heading into this season.

So far, teams have beaten the Knicks. Mike D’Antoni’s
team hosts the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night at Madison
Square Garden and brings a less-than-stellar 6-7 record
with them.

Part of the problem for the Knicks has been their offense.
New York is ranked 17th in the league in points per game
(93.9), and their shooting percentage (.417) is 5th-worst
in the league.

Former Sun Amar’e Stoudemire may have diagnosed the
problems with the Knicks’ offense when comparing it to the
Suns’ offense during a media session on Tuesday without
even realizing it.

“They have a guy by the name of Steve Nash orchestrating
the offense,” Stoudemire said. “Things seem to run
smoothly when he’s got control of the ball, but we’ll get
there.”

The Knicks’ offensive output is down 12.6 points per game
from last season, when they ranked 2nd in the league
behind
Denver in scoring. Think Amar’e may have been taking a
shot at his point guards while planting the seed that the
Knicks could be contenders if they were able to swing a
trade for Nash?

Currently D’Antoni is starting rookie Iman Shumpert at the
point, and he’s been decent, averaging 11.2 points and 3
assists per game since his insertion in the lineup. But
the Knicks offense has sputtered even more lately,
averaging only
91 points per game in that span. Veteran Baron Davis is
also on the roster, but hasn’t played yet this season due
to a back injury.

Stoudemire knows he was spoiled by playing with a
distributor like Nash during his days in Phoenix, but then
again, he’s got one hundred million reasons to be able to
get over it.

And even if he doesn’t, the New York Post
has reported that Nash will be a free agent target of the
Knicks following the season.

Follow @Vincemarotta