Last night, Stephon entered the game with 1:57 remaining in the first quarter and immediately showed a mix of trepidation and rust. He was mostly an afterthought on offense as the Knicks handed the ball to their big men, Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry. Randolph hit nine of 15 shots, including a pair of three-pointers, for 22 points in the first half, while Curry added nine points (though the two combined for nine turnovers). Meanwhile, Marbury barely handled the ball beyond half court, taking just two shots in 11 first-half minutes, his only basket coming with 32 seconds left.

In the second half, Marbury began asserting himself with the ball. He entered with two minutes gone in the third quarter and scored 12 points in the period. But just as Marbury was becoming more aggressive, Randolph was turning into a nonfactor. And with Marbury little help on a team that doesn't bother itself with playing defense, Mike Dunleavy scored 22 points in the quarter and the Pacers - who shot 63% in the second half and 58% for the game - began turning it into a blowout.

Marbury finished with 16 points but only two assists. Randolph took five shots and had just four points in the second half, and Curry - even with Indiana center Jermaine O'Neal on the bench in foul trouble for the majority of the second half - took just three shots after halftime for seven points. The second-half score: 66-46 Pacers.

Posted by kam77:

At one point in the 3rd, game was tied 64-64.

Zach Randolph doesn't get the ball on offense until its 71-64... 4 possessions later.

Marbury took 2 threes (one with the shot clock winding down)
Craw took one
Balkman totally ignored Zach under the hoop.


The offense was just putrid. When Zach finally did get the ball, he was too eager with his spin move and got stripped.

We gotta feed Zach more consistently. And conversely, he will give the ball up more if he knows we're gonna go to him every time.

Its not all on Marbury. We have a stupid coach who doesn't make anything happen.

Posted by Cosmic:

Posted by Queeniepop:

FROM THE DAILY NEWS:

Last night, Stephon entered the game with 1:57 remaining in the first quarter and immediately showed a mix of trepidation and rust. He was mostly an afterthought on offense as the Knicks handed the ball to their big men, Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry. Randolph hit nine of 15 shots, including a pair of three-pointers, for 22 points in the first half, while Curry added nine points (though the two combined for nine turnovers). Meanwhile, Marbury barely handled the ball beyond half court, taking just two shots in 11 first-half minutes, his only basket coming with 32 seconds left.

In the second half, Marbury began asserting himself with the ball. He entered with two minutes gone in the third quarter and scored 12 points in the period. But just as Marbury was becoming more aggressive, Randolph was turning into a nonfactor. And with Marbury little help on a team that doesn't bother itself with playing defense, Mike Dunleavy scored 22 points in the quarter and the Pacers - who shot 63% in the second half and 58% for the game - began turning it into a blowout.

Marbury finished with 16 points but only two assists. Randolph took five shots and had just four points in the second half, and Curry - even with Indiana center Jermaine O'Neal on the bench in foul trouble for the majority of the second half - took just three shots after halftime for seven points. The second-half score: 66-46 Pacers.

In other words, when Marbury started to look for HIS offense, the team started to become disjointed. Plus, why does Fred Jones get pulled for him after only two minutes at the start of the second half? If Isiah could, he would play Marbury only and let him go one on five. Isn't it ironic that the team gets BLOWN out the day he returns?

You have to look at that from every perspective though.

When Marbury is looking for his offense everyone else is sitting around getting nothing.
When Zach is looking for his offense everyone else is sitting around getting nothing.
When Crawful is looking for his offense everyone else is sitting around getting nothing.
When Curry is force fed for his offense everyone else is sitting around getting nothing.

Let's not pretend that without Marbury the entire team plays like the 90s Utah Jazz or today's Suns. That is simply not the case.

We have a team constructed of gunners. Guys that always need the ball to be effective or they're just about useless. Take your pick: When EITHER of the four are gunning away everyone else is standing around doing nothing but waiting for the ball and they then do nothing on the defensive end.


This team will never succeed with four such players. No team can. You need two gunners/go-to-guys. The rest need to be tough two way players who can score when they get it but don't need to take 15 shots a game to be in rhythm!

There's no blaming one of the four and eliminating them and expecting a fluid offense to develop as a result.

I want this thing torn down but for those that still think there is hope and you think the team can be resurrected and Isiah turned into a NYC legend well then I guess you go with Zach and Crawford as your gunners and seek to move Curry and Marbury for those two-way players at the C and PG position.

To sum this up, this team has no system. Players should utilize their team's system to make the sum of the parts greater than the whole, meaning players perform better than you would otherwise think possible. In this case, players were obtained due to their individual talent and with no vision for how these players would fit into a system, such as Phoenix, Toronto, San Antonio, etc. All the Knicks' players with the exception of a couple are shoot-first players, including the only PG on the roster.

The Knicks obviously place little value on team statistics, particularly defensive statistics. The team doesn't pass well, the team doesn't take care of the ball, the team doesn't shoot well...

Posted by martin:

Posted by kam77:

I'm not talking about anything on a greater scheme. The GM is who he is. I have more confidence in the GM than the coach.

I'm bringing up an example where the right coach would have a hold of this team. He sits there mute instead he should be up waving his arms and ranting HEY you ****s, get the ball to Zach every time down the floor.

you don't think that Isiah Thomas, HOF PG and multiple time winner of the Championship just forgot to tell his players to get the ball to the hot hand or run the plays that get Curry and Zach shots where they need to?

You don't think Isiah reminded his PGs this?

The team that the GM has assembled collectively SUCK. They may be individually talented but the parts don't fit.