I think this idea of being an "offensive juggernaut" does not take into account the full picture. Amare is terrible offensively and gets lit up quite a bit. He can still score 30 quite easily but what is being scored on him and is he setting up anyone when the defense starts to collapse on him? How much of his offense is down to Nash and so on and how many of the intangibles does Amare bring. How much better are Phoenix with him on the court.
Looking at Amare on the 82games site (not updated since 5/3).
His PER is 23.2 and opposition is 18.0.
On the court Phoenix are +3.8 and when he is off the court they are +2.1.
Looking at Bogut
PER of 22.8 and opposition is 13.6.
On the court the Bucks are +4.0 and when he is off the court they are -3.1.
Watching the Boston game the other day and the presence Bogut had about him was quite suprising. Perkins is a very good low post defender and Bogut made him look second rate. Boston were driving and dishing off for jump shots as Bogut was blocking and contesting everything and it seemed to really have a huge effect and intimidate them.
Has to find a reliable 15 foot jump shot in the off season. Found his stroke back on the free throw line so its a chance of happening.
I agree, Stoudemire's defence is his biggest problem. The funny thing is im in this debate here and I really think he is an overrated player. I just think to run away and declare Bogut better already is jumping the gun.
I'm not a fan of PER, I find it silly, but it does correlate with the +/-, which paints a good picture for your argument.
It basically says that Stoudemire is a very good player on a pretty good team, and that Bogut is a very good player on a pretty bad team.
The thing with Stoudemire is that he could be one of the best players in the NBA if he was on a team that had a sound defence. But since Phoenix has not believed in defence for a long time, it's not happening. People can exploit Stoudemire's weaknesses and go straight to the ring. If he was playing along someone like Bogut, this wouldn't happen. He could get help with a double team, wouldn't have to play 5 ever, and it would just be better. The main thing with Stoudemire though, is that unlike Nash, his inability to play defence is because he is lazy, not because he is small.
I think Bogut is having a stellar year, I just think overall that Stoudemire is a better player. Has been so far and unless you want to base all your NBA assesments on the past two months, he is a better player.