Stoudemire as Sixth Man? - NYTimes.com After failing a chemistry exam in a lethargic 98-90 loss to Cleveland, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire's combined for an impressive 61-point, 22-rebound performance on Sunday - a 113-112 win over the Hawks - and provided a glimpse of what's possible for the Knicks" stars. But can Anthony and Stoudemire do that consistently? With the two stars thus far failing to mesh, there's a growing sentiment that, with Anthony's play at the four a promising development of late, Stoudemire - who had a quiet 10 points and seven rebounds against the Clippers Wednesday night - might be best suited to being the first Knick big off the bench. Proponents of such a strategy point to Boston, where 36-year-old Ray Allen's move to sixth man - replacing Avery Bradley - helped propel the Celtics to another Atlantic Division title. Critics, on the other hand, see the two situations as apples and oranges. After all, Allen is older, has a much different role, and makes about half of what Stoudemire does. Benching a player of Stoudemire's caliber, it's thought, would be tantamount to the front office admitting defeat, and potentially be damaging to any future trade scenarios involving the six-time all star. Besides, the triumvirate of Anthony, Stoudemire, and Jeremy Lin had gone 5-1 under Coach Mike Woodson, before back and knee put Stoudemire and Lin out of commission. But here, the numbers are somewhat misleading: The Knicks played only one playoff-bound team in that stretch (a Sixers squad that very nearly played itself out of the postseason). Meanwhile, New York's 110 offensive efficiency rating (ORtg) in those six games, while certainly impressive, was virtually the same as it was during Stoudemire's absence - itself a much tougher stretch in terms of the schedule. Meanwhile, the Knicks had managed some of their best ball in Stoudemire's absence, compiling a 9-5 record, with four of those losses coming at the hands of playoff-bound Atlanta, Indiana, Miami, and Chicago. A quick look at the numbers shows that - with the team's second-leading scorer unable to play and Anthony playing primarily at the four - the Knicks" overall offensive efficiency actually improved, jumping from just over 100 to 109.6 over the last 15 games (as mentioned above, roughly what it was during Woodson's first six games). To put that in perspective, if the Knicks had maintained that clip throughout the year, they'd currently be a good point-and-a-half ahead of current N.B.A. leader San Antonio. What-ifs aside, the Knicks have been - offensively speaking, at least - on something of a roll of late. With the playoffs just days away, New York won't have much in the way of rehearsal time before their two-man show plays on a bigger stage. The question now becomes, should the Knicks consider tweaking the script? Bringing Stoudemire in as the sixth or seventh man would provide some additional scoring punch to a second unit heavily reliant on the wing production of J.R. Smith and Steve Novak. Additionally, having Stoudemire as a second unit centerpiece gives backup point guards Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas a genuine pick-and-roll option, which could give Smith and Novak more open looks along the perimeter. Furthermore, slightly decreasing Stoudemire's workload would mean fresher legs - and lower back - during crunch time, where Carmelo Anthony has lately been options one through five. Woodson might be right in saying - as he did at a press conference earlier this week - that it's "his job" to assure Anthony and Stoudemire can thrive as complementary scoring threats. But it's also his job to win basketball games. As such, he owes it to his players, the fans, and himself, to use Stoudemire in a role that puts him in the best position to succeed, and puts the team in the best position to win. Given how well the Knicks have played without him, that might well mean making Stoudemire the Knicks" new weapon off the bench. Jim Cavan is a contributing writer at KnickerBlogger.net, a member of the ESPN TrueHoop network. You can find him on Twitter (@JPCavan).