Isiah Thomas was in mid-sentence when the story changed. He wasn’t resting Stephon Marbury to reduce the wear and tear. He was resting the playmaker in order to get a look at Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson at the point.

Or maybe …

Thomas is exploring possible changes to the starting lineup in reaction to a horrible first quarter last night in Boston.

He says it’s not a response to a poor effort, but that’s not how it sounds.

“I look at our situation again no different than football,” Thomas said. “When a guy’s not doing it, they bring in somebody else. Rex Grossman led the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl last year and now he’s playing behind Brian Griese, so you want to keep getting better and the best people play. That’s why you open up the process every year and you want competition and you look at it and you put the best people out there that can help you win the basketball game.”

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But since the Knicks are historically slow out of the gate, it makes sense to at least explore other ways to line up for the opening tip.

Why not?

Take a scorer off the court and see what happens.

Let’s go with Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson, Jared Jeffries, Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry. Or maybe Stephon Marbury, Nate Robinson, Renaldo Balkman, Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry.

I don’t see this going anywhere, though.

Thomas came into training camp with a pretty good idea of who fit where.

“It all depends on what day you ask me that,” he said. “If you asked me after the Philadelphia game, I would say, ‘Yeah, that’s correct.’ But after last night’s game, I might get a whole new team.”

Posted by BasketballJones:

I must admit that the prospect of Stephon vs. Isiah is appealing to me.

Posted by arkrud:

Posted by BasketballJones:

I must admit that the prospect of Stephon vs. Isiah is appealing to me.

Steph has no chance.
Unless he is too close to God.