I'd like to take a moment to take a step back and take a good look at Amare Stoudemire right now. It's sometimes difficult to look at him as a player in an objective light... a lot of people have been predispositioned to dislike him based on the common belief system regarding his defense, (Which isn't as bad as you think) whereas most people have a hard time giving him a lot of credit for what he does on the offensive end. (Trust me, it's not like he gets 12 dunks a game that are spoon fed to him by Nash, though that notion has faded some over time.) Take a quick jump back to middle ground, that includes you Suns homers too, and take a quick, yet objective, look at what Amare Stoudemire has done through the first seven games of the season...

Through the first 6 games he averaged 25.8 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1 BPG in 38.2 minutes a game. He did this on an absolutely unreal 67.1 FG%, also shooting 86% from the free throw line. Now that, in and of itself, is a hell of a statline, but if you start looking at putting his scoring numbers into perspective, he is averaging 25.8 points a game on 13.2 shots a game. That is 1.95~ points per shot. Looking at it another way, Amare is #6 in points per game behind Tony Parker (27.4), Danny Granger (27.2), Chris Bosh, Tim Duncan and LeBron James (26.0). Let's make a little visual representation of the efficiency of the people ahead of him as compared to Amare...

Take a good long look at that. The closest person to Amare in there is 4.6 shots per game higher than Amare. The closest person to him in points per shot is just shy of .43 per attempt lower than him. Not only is Amare scoring in rather astonishing volumes, he's doing it at historic level efficiency. (And once the game from tonight against the Bucks registers, it will be even crazier, as he had a somewhat surreal 24 points on 8 shots.) Oh yeah, and he's leading the league in True Shooting %. Go figure.

However, Amare's scoring prowess is well documented, and while it's even more ridiculous than normal, it still doesn't shock and awe Suns fans and skeptical critics. What is interesting is his apparent willingness to be unselfish and make good passes. While his turnovers to assist ratio is nothing to be proud of, he has significantly increased his assist totals this year and is visibly making better decisions on the offensive end. He's not just being a finisher or scorer, he's rounding into a more complete offensive player.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the season, however, is Amare's focus on the defensive end. Terry Porter must have got a hold of him and shook him or something, because he is clearly playing better off ball defense this year. He's playing passing lanes, contesting shots and, perhaps most importantly, not picking up stupid fouls that take him out of the offensive end of the game. You combine this with the fact that he's doing a better job boxing his man out (instead of flying around trying to snatch the rebound), and pulling down the contested rebounds that we really need on the defensive end. His 9.3 RPG isn't a particularly impressive number, but you watch him play and you can see the difference in his attitude on the defensive end. it's refreshing, and frankly, about damn time.