Posted by nyk4ever:
First of all, Marbury had his shot to play in Phoenix's offense and he squandered it. He didn't like the system and he didn't buy into what D'Antoni was doing, I don't want to hear anything about how he's never gotten that oppourtunity.
Actually D'Antoni admitted that he wasn't as committed to his current philosophy when Steph was there. He also only had Steph for a few games, since D'Antoni took over for Frank Johnson i believe on Dec. 10th a few games after Amare was injured on Dec. 5 and Steph was traded on Jan. 5, 2004. PLEASE don't try to make it seem like Steph was playing under the same offense as Nash for any significant time.
They didn't hate Steph. In fact they had no idea that things would go bad since they had just came off of a 46-36 season in which Steph led them to the playoffs and a hard fought series with the eventual champion Spurs. tthe next year they had big hopes and Steph was part of it. That year Steph only played with Amare for 18 games. That's hardly enough to determine that they couldn't work together. I believe the team was about 8-10 when Amare went down with his injury. The main point being that the injury gave them a chance to rethink the team direction and it was the right thing to do for the teams future. They didn't blame Steph for their problems. Remember he had just helped them to make the playoffs the year before.
From a Dec 2. interview with the Coach:
"Ray: Everybody looks to Stephon Marbury. He’s the point guard on this team. Clearly the leader of this ball club, just by virtue of not only his position, but really his nature, as well. You want to be a running team, but it’s hard to be a running team when it seems like not everybody’s on the same page (with respect to) running. Is that still something that this team is having to work on very hard each day in practice? Because you see opportunities to run but it doesn’t seem like there’s anybody to fill the lane.
Johnson: We do a good job at times, and then at other times we don’t. We’re just not consistent there. Sometimes our rebounding is not as strong as it needs to be. We need to get those rebounds without having to run them down. Clean rebounds without them being poked out of our hands. And sometimes when we do and we get steals and we get those clean rebounds, we have a better chance of running. As you’re seeing, we just have a tough time sometimes holding onto those defensive rebounds that we’re getting."
This is what the Owner Colangelo had to say about Marion, Amare and Steph On Dec 4. the Day before Amare was injured. The Team was struggling a bit at the time:
"Colangelo: ... Shawn has been very tentative. He came off this ankle injury and he doesn’t even look close to being the same player that he was previously. But he needs to be much more aggressive in his game overall. Amaré is letting too many things bother him, it appears to me, on the court, be it the officials, the conversation from the bench, whatever. But he’s not on a synch that he should be. Marbury (Wednesday) night took the bull by the horns offensively, to pick up slack, and I think he’s been so conscious of distributing the ball; he lost part of his effectiveness in a number of games. When you hear things like, “Well, you’re out of synch,” I think that’s a pretty good representation, individual players and the team collectively.
OK so lets get some FACTS straight here about Steph's days in PHX. They didn't hate Steph or blame him, he was moved along with Penny to clear cap space. It was a smart move since the team had young studs and this would give them a chance to start over and add the players they needed to contend. They couldn't add anyone with Steph and Penny on the books. They had NO IDEA they'd get Nash that offseason. They caught a BIG break when Dallas didn't resign him.
Posted by nyk4ever:
Second of all, I looked up the all-time APG leaders in the NBA. Wanna hear something ironic, EVERY single one of those players, who averaged over 8APG for their career, played in well over 30 playoff games by the time they were Steph's age, most of them played in well over 40-50 playoff games at that age. Steph is at 18. 18 playoff games for Starbury, the man that gives you 20&8 every nite on the court. Yeah I know, you'll all blame it on his teammates but fact is, Steph has squandered every single oppourtunity he's had with his attitude and me-first style and leadership on the court.
What you're saying is really so far from true. Steph never went into a situation with a negative attitude. He only wants to win. Now if you look at the years in Minny, he was successful and helped that team to its 1st success in the NBA. They made the playoffs each year he was there. Its his years in NJ that seem to really be the worst of his career in terms of being called selfish. Really tho you have to look deeper and see that when he was there that team SUCKED. They also had a RECORD number of games lost due to injuries. It was a bad situation and not really his fault. Go ahead and blame him for that franchise being a mess, but its not really accurate. His reaction to the bad times was REALLY BAD, but he didn't just act up for no reason. Things had gotten really bad for him to do the stupid things he did.
NY so far hasn't been much different from his NJ years, with one difference. I think it will end better. Again like almost every one of his stops, he's surrounded by young players who are just learning how to play in this league. In the past he had KG as a 2nd & 3rd yr player. Van Horn as a 2nd yr player and KMart was injured a lot and also just at the beginning of his NBA career. I think Steph can be a very successful player here. We just need to stay the course and allow this team to develop an indentity and chemistry.
8/26/2006 8:48 AM