Posted by Marv:

dj - great post. even being a hardcore marbury supporter i'm open to considering what you're saying and i'll keep more of an eye on missed opportunities to push or dish on his part.

Posted by djsunyc:

some thoughts from djsunyc LIVE at the game:

- the garden was buzzing and pretty pumped for the game tonight.

- i thought frye played a VERY good first game. he looked comfortable out there and grabbed boards. he took good shots, yes he missed them, but they'll go down in the future. he should be getting 25 mins a night MINIMUM and he should play with curry.

- boos galore for that first quarter but let me tell you, the crowd was JACKED for that 2nd unit in the 2nd quarter. the crowd was excited seeing those young guys out there...something they haven't seen in a long long time. the crowd is ready to watch that young unit. i don't know if that translated well on tv, but the crowd was juiced for them.

- the big game is already in the doghouse and will turn out to be the WORST signing in club history. this will make the signing of clarence weatherspoon look like a bargain. what a BUM.

- i don't know if Q is hurt or not but i don't like him on this team. he has been nothing but a jock so far. this should NOT be our starting SG. a player like raja bell would've been PERFECT for us.

- now this is a big one so here's another mini marbury rant, and i'm not sure how it translates on TV but when we get a rebound, and everyone runs up the court, pretty much everyone in our section is SCREAMING for marbury to push it, but he doesn't. he has players open on the wings but he doesn't get the ball up fast enough nor make that first pass quick enough. it's tough to explain when you can't see the full court on television. there were many times that we had wing men open even in our half court sets yet steph would take that one or two extra dribbles before moving it. it's glaringly apparent to me, that steph's best attribute is his scoring ability. i think trying to run the offense with steph at the point just won't work here. all of his assists, throughout his ENTIRE career has come off his offense - mostly when he gets doubled trying to score. but we need a pg that can pass within the flow of the offense and i don't think we're getting it from him. yes, it's early, but i'm talking about steph throughout his entire career, not just the 1st two games. he's trying hard but there's just something missing there. the best pass of the entire night was the back door cut assist from crawford to ariza. steph is better off playing off the ball and just scoring when he gets it. i know everyone has been over this 100 times and there will be guys that don't agree but this is not just coming from me but ALOT of people at the garden. someone i know was sitting behind the knicks bench last night and there were times when steph had the ball and you could hear not only LB but the players as well screaming "CRAWFORD CRAWFORD CRAWFORD" b/c he was open but steph didn't get him the ball. and that play with curry and barnes open under the basket when steph didn't pass it but drove and drew the foul instead was just a microcosm of his play. the guys were WIDE OPEN but he wouldn't pass it. he put his head down and drove instead. is he scared to? is he nervous with LB? or is he just not that type of pg?

when i see a team like pheonix and now new orleans and milwaukee, what do i see? i see a team that pushes the ball with a point guard that is quick and dribble penetrates at will and more importantly, gets rid of the ball early. first passes are made EARLY in the shot clock and to me, marbury just isn't that type of point guard. and that's what we need. it was our second unit that was our best unit last night and LB did not go back to it in the 2nd half. crawford has more potential to be that guy than marbury and really is wasting away on the bench b/c of it. can crawford be as good a player as steph individually? probably not but i think crawford running the point for us would be and needs to be explored sooner than later - even if that means to move steph PERMANENTLY to SG and have him come off screens like rip while craw becomes chauncy. (btw, i know craw hasn't looked great this season so far but in preseason, he ran the team pretty darn well and that was sort of taken away from him until that 2nd unit came on the floor yesterday. THAT unit is our future minus mo. craw, nate, ariza, frye, curry - that's who we should play AND that's what the fans at the garden want to see.)

[Edited by - djsunyc on 11-05-2005 10:15 AM]

Excellent post!

Marbury has a habit of not giving the ball up at the right time. I remember last year when sometimes Ariza would be on the break head of Marbury and Mrbury would not give it up the ball. Instead he would drive himself for the point. People can say what they want, but Marbury is not creative at the pg position. The sad thing is, many of the backdoor or easy lobs plays have been coming from Jamal not Marbury who is our main point guard.




[Edited by - BigC on 11-05-2005 11:38 AM]

Posted by nyk4ever:

Didn't Larry Brown say that he didnt want the team to run until further notice and therefor Steph pushing the ball like that isn't allowed? I thought Larry said that, correct me if I'm wrong.

Posted by djsunyc:

it's going to be interesting to see how many assists marbs is going to average now that the pick and roll is not that prevalent in our offense. i would say that 80+% of steph's assists last year came off the pick and roll. i'm going to keep an eye on this over the next 20 games or so.