Lou Amundson has played for 10 teams in nine NBA seasons and hasn't played 50 games for a team since 2011-12. He may finally have found a home.
Acquired as a salary-matching piece in a three-team trade on Jan. 5, Amundson was subsequently waived by the New York Knicks, and it looked as if his journeyman career was set to continue being lived out of a suitcase. A pair of 10-day contracts later, the Knicks liked Amundson enough to sign him for the rest of the season.
Now, general manager Steve Mills is talking about the UNLV product like he's going to be a piece moving forward.
"He's a guy who can be part of something," Mills said last Thursday in a presentation to season ticket-holders. "But just not as a starter. We're looking at a player we think that could be part of what we're doing."
Amundson, who has changed locations so many times that his Twitter biography leaves a blank space for his current team, is playing more minutes than he has in his entire career.
In 36 games, 34 of them starts, he's averaging 21.1 minutes, six points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.3 blocks, providing an effort and defensive intensity that's fun but hasn't at all moved the needle for the last-place Knicks (and that's a good thing in the big picture).
For his part, Amundson is open to re-signing with the Knicks but won't limit his options to the NBA:
Yeah, everything is on the table for me. I would like to play. I’ve been in this league, so I know what that’s like. So I think going overseas would be a new experience for me I think I’d enjoy. I’d get an opportunity to play. So yeah, everything’s on the table.
Knicks fans surely have far bigger offseason concerns than the fate of the 32-year-old forward, but there's something to be said for continuity at the back end of the roster, at least.
