Jerry Stackhouse Says Vince Carter’s Knee Isn’t Right

AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Jerry Stackhouse discussed Vince Carter’s problems on his radio show.

“I got the scoop on that when we played them [February 2 in Orlando] and I’m glad we got to that, because I asked him. I was like, ‘Man, what’s going on? Is it the team? Kind of being close to home? What is it?’ He’s like, ‘Stack, man, my knee isn’t right. I’m basically not able, I’m able to play but …’ I think he kind of has a number in his mind of how long he really wants to continue playing because of all of the pounding and jumping that he has on his knees, and that’s what he told me, so I think that maybe that’s some of it. Hopefully he can find a way to weather that or strengthen it and be able to at least turn it on for them in the playoffs. But him playing at the level that he’s playing right now, I don’t see them really getting back to the Finals. They need him to be that guy, they need him to be that closer because they don’t have a bona fide closer on that team. Rashard Lewis has won some games for them late but you can’t really throw the ball down to [Dwight] Howard late because if he goes to the free throw line, [there’s] a good chance of having an empty possession with that. So you’ve got to have Vince Carter, who is a guy that has been a closer for the most part of his career, to step up and be that closer for them. And, I think, as far as he’s concerned, his body might not allow him to do that.”

Carter has missed time with both an ankle and a shoulder problem this season. Carter’s knee looked pretty good last night when he was slashing and shooting his way to 48 points.

Henry Abbott of TrueHoop has the story up here.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)