Isiah ready to bench Francis tonight

By MARC BERMAN

MINNEAPOLIS - It should come as no surprise that Isiah Thomas said at this morning's shootaround at Target Center he's about to make a starting-lineup change in the backcourt tonight vs. the Wolves and break up the ill-conceived Stephon Marbury-Steve Francis tandem.

Thomas said he was "close'' to finalizing the decision and it's very clear Francis is out and likely Jamal Crawford in.

"Marbury and Francis have shown they are much better players than they are (playing),'' Thomas said. "My job is to figure out how to get the most out of them. I'm getting good play but I'm not getting the most out of them.''

The Knicks did a great job of steering Francis away from the media. They did not let the reporters onto the court after the shootaround, keeping them in a dark hallway. Marbury emerged and talked about Isiah giving him more freedom to attack the basket (sounds familiar?).

Then they shuttled us into another hallway for Isiah as Francis sneaked onto the bus.

The big question now is what's Francis' future. He's got three years and $42 million left on that pact. When Jared Jeffries gets back in two weeks, how do you justify even playing Francis at all?

isiah is still catering everything to steph. i guess that's to be expected b/c of their relationship but that relationship has really hurt this franchise. oh well, maybe we won't have to worry about it that much longer.

but now, we have got to get rid of francis. this is not going to be a good situation as francis, when unhappy, will cause problems. he could get banished like penny or he could get bought out if a deal isn't found.

maybe Q and Francis can both jump Marb.

Why bench Francis and not Marbury? Is Marbury clearly that much better? No. Marbury has had plenty of chances to be the man for this team.

Why not let Francis get a crack at being the man?

Marbury has played within the offense and better then francis over the ten games we have played. It's about time tthey were broken up. Now if only Frye and curry can be broken up.....

There's probably no more than a dozen or so people in all of NY who didn't see this coming since June.

Wonder how all that positive team chemistry is coming along?

That's okay, it'll get better when the "chemistry fixer", Jeffries, comes back (and kicks someone else to the bench.)

This is not a problem. Everyone here knows that Francis is more a team player and supporter of team than Marbury. Benching Marbury would lead to a bigger hissy fit by Marbury than Francis ever could. Besides this is a very good move. Marbury isn't good but for about 24 minutes a game the other 24 minutes Francis could get that. Its not a big deal. Now the KNicks have a very capable back up at the pg position. Nate and Crawford are not PGs as their mentality is to shoot first and ask questions later. This is a very sound move. Now if Marbury comes out lackluster than Francis can quickly come in and take his minutes. It puts pressure on Marbury to perform at a higher level.

A thought I had is that this is coming against the T-Wolves could this move be made by Isiah to showcase Marbury to the Wolves. I would love to throw him to the Wolves.

Posted by djsunyc:

i don't like francis as a player. and history has told us he's a problem for coaches as well.

but it looks like he's gotten the short end of the stick here. so the question becomes, will he play nice or not b/c it could make things VERY ugly.

Man, why do we have deal with these types of questions? WHY ISIAH? WHY?!?!?!?! It drives me crazy that no one who plays a part in the decision making for our team could foresee these types of problems occurring. In the meantime, we all knew way before it ever happened. This isn't a case of hindsight being 20/20.

This is probably a good move. Francis and Marbury have not looked good together about 90% of the time in games. A Marbury/Crawford backcourt should perform better. Once JJ2 comes back, I would sit Francis and let Q start at 2-guard. Marbury/Q with Nate and Crawford backing them up would be a solid guard rotation. Francis does not play point well enough to displace Nate and does not shoot well enough from the outside to displace Crawford. I know it leaves alot of talent on the bench and Francis will not be happy, but this really is the rotation the team should use moving forward if the Knicks plan to have any consistency and guard chemistry this year. I really wish we could trade Francis. Even if all we got was a mid/late first round pick, that would be addition by subtraction.

Man, this team is so terrible. Isiah benches Francis and what's the result? The 2nd unit is completely out of sync!!!

Posted by BlueSeats:

might there be lockerroom upset?

How could they be upset? Isiah is their pal.