I guess Rashweeds intense run last year, and for the most part this year was the exeption, not the norm.

His distraction over officiating is affecting his play more than the actual officating.

Winning championships are not easy, and sometimes you need luck. But he shows again when his leadership is needed the most, he folds.

Larry Brown is not effectively leading his team either with his over reaction to each call.

In the big picture, overcome injury and bad calls is not easy, but they are still the champs, and they are not looking like it mentally!

Rashweed is pulling that self absorbed act again on the court and it ain't cool.

This is why we need blue chip players whom can handle the stress and play in the moment. Jordans clutch play over the years really becomes more and more impressive. Starks and Masons meltdowns in those moments (bad shooting or the idiot technical)are examples of talented players, but not tough enough mentally when it counted.

This is why I don't like the idea of Marbury being our focal point. We need leadership on the team, but I just don't think of him as Isiah-like presence. At 28, and almost 10 years in the league, he has not shown that ability. He is a fabulous talent that I prefer we utililze his strenghts, not ask him to do things he is not capable of.

This is not hating, its just a realization. Marbs is not the Messiah.

I agree that Marbs is awesome, but he's not a 4th quarter player. This doesn't mean that we need to trade Marbs. Marbs can dominate a game for 40 minutes. We really just need a closer to complement him. I think that we need to think of Marbs as a Billips type player - big talent, but NEEDS lots of surrounding talent and a veteran coach to suceed.

the more I watch Marbury the more I see a guy that should move to off guard. Its easy to focus on what Marbury isnt. He's not a leader, he's not a great player in the clutch. He's not good at running a team. He's brilliant at times and retarded at others. It seems he never has balance, even within the context of one game. He's either dominating with his scoring or literally refusing to shoot in order to get his teammates involved. Its almost like he picks a qtr to do one of the other, but I cant remember a game where he was able to do both at the same time.

What Marbury is? How about unguardable at times. Unstoppable attacking the rim. A gifted passer that creates easy opportunites. A tough competitor that doesnt back down from challenges. A bulldog physically able to guard bigger stronger players.

I think the best thing for this guy would be to remove to burden of leadership and the need to carry a team. Move him to shooting guard where he no longer has to think, just attack and pass. If he takes 25 shots in a game fine, because you know he will be attacking the glass.

I have talked about Raymond Felton because I think he could be a pivotal player in rebuilding this franchise, but its awfully tough to take a PG with our only lottery pick. Maybe its looking at bigtime CB player later in the draft like Jameer Nelson fell last year. Probably this year's guy is Nate. Maybe its Jason Williams in a trade that gets us the 19 pick. But I think getting Marbury out of the leader role and just freeing him up to focus on what he's best at anyway will drastically improve this team.

You can't turn a 10 year pg into a 2guard. I think he is good at what he does and he hasn't been clutch this year, but has been throughout his career. He needs help. Moving him to the 2 guard isn't the answer. We are not a very talented team, and we he was our only consistant scorer. We need some reliable offense in the post, and on the wings. When we have those things it will appear as though Steph is improving as a player, when in reality he is just doing what he has been doing all along, just on a better team. That is essentially what happened with Steve Nash, he played his same game on a better team and now he's the MVP. I am not making any MVP predictions, but if Isiah can give this team better offensive and defensive talents, Stephs game will appear to elevate that much more.

if we're not going to trade Marbury we have to surround him with better players. I was thinking yesterday about how impressive his 8 assists with this atrocious team was eventhough he has the ball in his hands every possession. With a guy like Bynum or an athlete like Splitter/Blatche to feed and hopefully a trimmed down Sweetney he should average at least 2 more assists per game.

no doubt diderotn.

I was doing the same comparisons last night with detroit to the knicks.

Ben wallace isn't 7' tall, neither is rasheed. Heaven forbid Tiny Tim played to his ability, then we COULD have a rasheed, but we have no athletic big.

I see no reason why Craw can't develop like Hamilton did (hamilton wasn't all that when he played for the wizards, in fact, craw is ahead of his curve).

marbs = billips, even when they play each other they look like bizarro twins, though i think marbs sets up his teammates MORE.

The way hamilton and Miller play is a direct result of how they were coached (both by brown), run off screens, find opening, shoot midrange jumpers.

We know what we are missing, moving marbs to the 2 leaves a gaping hole in the 1.

Crawford continues to improve and we get some athletic bigs and a defensive wing and we are no different then the other top contenders.

I mean, Reezy is in his second year, will be 20 and already is showing an ability to plug one of our biggest holes (defensive wing).

Come on Zeke...get us that athletic big and let's turn this around like Phoenix did.

BTW...we were missing the biggest mentally strong fourth quarter presence all year...HOUSTON!!!

He's our 2 guard...healthy houston...it's as zeke, and the rest of us, imagined.
Marbs, H20, TT, Kurt, Nazr
bench: Ariza, Sweets, Crawford
season bench: JYD, Penny

Looks like a 45 win team to me. Imagine Houston on the court during those many 4th quarter meltdowns...I can, I have and with H20 popping off at the mouth today (what's with the post making us sign up to read?) he better be effing back this year.
http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/24761.htm

[Edited by - rvhoss on 06/03/2005 13:55:43]

I don't think you can address Marbs lack of leadership & lack of consistency by moving him to the 2-

I think he needs to mature and having some kind of coaching stability would help.

Also- when he was inconsistent during games, I think that's on the coaching staff to get him back on track as well as having a system that forces marbs to attack and dish- we need a system like what phoenix has that fits their players- just like detroits systems fits theirs.

Marbury is a great PG- he does need some more horses to run with, but he also needs to be in a system that maximizes his talents-

Lenny was clearly not mentally prepared for this year and Herb did a good job filling in.

Whoever has the job next year has to be able to build around the players and work with all the players to keep them focused.

I think he's made great stides in New York at becoming a PG and looking to get his teammates involved. Aside from the fact that he is being payed $22mil per year to do that, the problem is he has no inside presense to feed the ball to. We need someone who can post up inside or an athlete who can catch his passes off penetration and finish with authority. Marbury is going to look like a genious then and he'll average 10assists.

I agree with Franco. A guy coach that can show him the way like Larry Brown showed Iverson and Billups would be great!

right... all Marbury needs is Garnett and McGrady and everyone will see what a good PG he is.

$110mm payroll + we added over $200mm in future deals and we dont even have halfway decent players. But Isiah is good GM.

lol