Newsday.com
Knicks might get rid of Marbury, not Isiah

BY ALAN HAHN

alan.hahn@newsday.com

November 23, 2007
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Black Friday . . . a perfect time to put a very expensive point guard on the market.

Fans at Madison Square Garden called for the firing of Isiah Thomas Tuesday night, but what if the Knicks instead rid themselves of their other lightning rod, Stephon Marbury, and keep Thomas in place - as James Dolan is believed to be more interested in doing?

The argument against firing Thomas 11 games into the season and installing Herb Williams as interim coach and Glen Grunwald as interim general manager is that everything would be interim.

And Marbury still would be present in the Knicks' despondent locker room, which desperately needs to settle this battle of wills between coach and point guard.

The latest episode involved Marbury going out of his way to credit Pistons coach Flip Saunders after the 2-9 Knicks' 98-86 loss in Auburn Hills on Wednesday night, which could be viewed as an indirect shot at his own coach and team.

"Those guys play in a very good system and know where to go at all times," said Marbury, who played for Saunders with the Timberwolves earlier in his career. "They have counters to everything that you do defensively and they don't rely on the first or second option. They get it to the third or fourth option. Playing for Flip, you see the execution. You know what's going on."

Marbury also called out some of his teammates - Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, are you listening? - when he talked about how well the Pistons talk on defense and help each other.

"You hear guys helping each other by speaking," said Marbury, who has long been frustrated with the slow-to-help defense by the Knicks' big men. "That's the kind of a team we want to be in the future."

Let us remind you here about the point Thomas made in the preseason, when he said guards shouldn't rely on help defense from the big men.

"Don't get beat; that's how we teach," Thomas said a little over a month ago. "We're not saying 'if you get beat,' we're saying 'don't get beat' . . . If it continues to happen to that guard, we sub and we find somebody that won't let it happen. The answer is not 'Eddy, do something'; the answer is you do something or I'll find somebody else to do what you can't do."

Getting to the heart of the matter, aren't we?

If Dolan's first priority is to eliminate the insurgents, then Marbury would be the focus. But how do you trade a 30-year-old point guard with two years and $42 million left on his bloated contract?

You find someone just as desperate as yourself.

Enter the Miami Heat.

Pat Riley has said his struggling team isn't actively looking for outside help, but he left the door open for other teams to call him. "If somebody rang the phone and if it's something that made sense and we can afford it, we'll listen," Riley was quoted in yesterday's Miami Herald.

The "we can afford it" part is what makes a Marbury deal unlikely, but if the Knicks were that determined to remove him - and at this point Marbury seems amenable to the idea of getting away from Thomas and the New York crucible - perhaps Dolan would sign off on a trade that would return some bad contracts.

Mark Blount (three years and about $22 million) will start the conversation, which also would have to include guard Jason Williams ($8.9-million contract that expires after this season). To make the moves work, the Knicks either would have to waive a player, talk the oft-injured Jerome James into retirement or make a player-for-player deal to keep within the 15-man roster limit.

In other words, it won't be easy. And Miami has other options, including Philadelphia's Andre Miller (the 76ers have maintained he is not on the block) or Sacramento's Mike Bibby (out with a thumb injury and not expected back until mid-December at the earliest).

Can Riley afford to wait? Now that the team is healthy, he said, he wants to see what it can do in the next few weeks. Thomas is expected to make it at least to tomorrow's home matinee against the Bulls, which Dolan is not expected to attend. If Thomas remains in charge, it would be no surprise if he instructs Grunwald to check in with Heat GM Randy Pfund in the near future. If he hasn't already.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spknix235473225nov23,0,2298508.story

I'd rather we let Isiah stew in his own sht.

How about get rid of both???

I hope the scapegoating continues. It's fun

Posted by islesfan:

Hey Isiah, tell us again why you didn't take this hardline stance against Marbury when Larry Brown was the coach?

Because Steph never threatened isiah under LB watch. But now he says

he has some dirt on Isiah's personal life, they are neighbors you know.

This is why Isiah used the term we are keeping this "IN HOUSE".

Maybe a list of indecent proposals that Isiah bragged to marbury about while they were cutting grass this summer.


"I got a whole lot of stuff on Isiah, he better not mess with my minutes".

Obviously I want Isiah gone but most of his players need to go too in order to turn this around.

Maybe Isaih was in the "truck" with Steph.

Posted by GodSaveTheKnicks:

Mark Blount?

I will stick a fork in my eyeballs if we have to add Blount to Curry and James.

if it means getting rid of Marbury & buying out Turd, i'm all for it... White Chocolate sucks in defense too, so his expiring contract would be the only attractive factor in the deal... maybe u could use it in a trade deadline deal to unload Jefferies or maybe include him in a Curry trade to SAC to get Miller, Bibby & Artest?

Curry, Jefferies, Nate, Malik, J Will & cash (so they can buyout 1 of their scrubs to make room for this deal on their roster) to SAC for Miller, Bibby, KT & Artest

C - Miller / Blount / Morris
PF - Zach / D Lee / KT
SF - Artest / Balkman / Chandler
SG - Jamal / Q Rich / Jones
PG - Bibby / Mardy

then this offseason:
- offer up Bibby's expiring contract, Jamal, D Lee & our unprotected 1st rounder for Kobe
- sign Cassell to the MLE to be your starting PG

u end up w/a team in '08 that can take the East for the next few years.

C - Miller / Blount
PF - Zach / KT
SF - Artest / Balkman / Chandler
SG - Kobe / Q Rich
PG - Cassell / Mardy

What about Shaq and J Will for Marbury and Curry?

Even with Shaq a shadow of his old self he would mesh better with Zach. And getting Marbs out would be a god-send. Curry would look good with Zo as well.

Posted by Nalod:

Nalod says for days it don't mean a thing if you rid of Isiah and keep Marbury.

4949 dissagrees with that. This team would rid itself of internal problems, that is upsetting the entire team. We all see it now. We know what's going on, on the inside. These players would have a ton of bricks lifted off their shoulders and finally loosen up and play better basketbal, if one or both of these guys where gone. The money is the obsticle.

I would even dare say that Jeffries, Curry and even Jerome would benefit from it also. Ever buy a new pair of shoes and you feel like a new man? Like a fresh start? Well that's what it would be like if the internal cancers where gone.

[Edited by - 4949 on 11-23-2007 7:10 PM]