Even if Amare were to never play another game for us again, his signing was the turning point of this franchise and the way the Knicks will model themselves from now on.
If Amare didn't sign here the whole 2010 thing woulda been a complete bust and we would have looked like an even bigger laughing stock. We would have looked like a franchise of clowns who suffered for years to get Lebron, just to wind up with nothing. Then with the whole CBA thing, Melo obviously wanted to extend his contract before that summer so maybe he doesn't even consider the Knicks without Amare bringing respectability and credibility to the franchise, and also making the team relevant again.
And then with no stat and no melo, Tyson Chandler and the other vets don't come here either.
Instead the Knicks are now at a position where they can potentially never fall into spells of sucking or rebuilding ever again. Free agents WANT to play for us, and as long as GMs and Dolan manage the cap properly, we'll always be in the running for top FAs.
So instead of looking at the situation as Amare being a waste and taking up cap space, remember that this dude turned the franchise around.