http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/31345.htm

STEPH AN ARIZA FAN

By MARC BERMAN

October 30, 2004 -- Isiah Thomas' claim to fame as Knick president has been bringing Stephon Marbury to the team. But even Marbury admits Thomas outdid himself in his first Knick draft, when he selected preseason sensation Trevor Ariza with the 43rd pick of the second round.

In the grandest rave yet on the former UCLA product, Marbury said Ariza should've been a high lottery pick, top five, saying he's every bit as talented as Dwight Howard and Ema Okafor.

Calling him the "biggest surprise" of the preseason that ended Thursday night, Marbury said, "I think teams now, they're picking kids from overseas, they're not picking kids who really know how to play basketball. I'm not happy for him as far as the money standpoint. But as far as us getting a guy like that, it's a steal. He's definitely a 1-to-5 pick. And I've seen Okafor and I've seen the other kid [Howard] play. And he's right up there with those guys."

The 6-8 Ariza, 19, is exactly the type of athletic swingman with whom Marbury loves to play. Ariza constantly gets out first on the fastbreak with his long strides, burns to the hoop at will, occasionally for power dunks and gets to the free-throw line often. He also gobbles up rebounds on both ends and has a knack for interceptions.

Veteran Tracy Murray, also a UCLA product and close observer of the Westwood program, said Ariza was misused by coach Ben Howland in his lone season as a Bruin. Murray, who was cut Thursday, told The Post, "I'm not knocking coach Howland, but I think his system held Trevor back. It was very structured."

Ariza gently acknowledged UCLA's system wasn't for him.

"Coach Howland did what he thought would help the team," Ariza said. "Here, we get up and down a lot. I just fit into the flow of this. The system that coach Howland played, it was a good system. It's worked. I don't think it fit certain player's games. But he won with it in his previous years."

Last season, UCLA was horrible and Ariza bolted, though he somehow slipped out of the first round, costing him major dough. A high lottery pick is slated to make close to $2M per season. Second-rounders play for the rookie minimum of $450,000.

Despite a nice summer league, Ariza was still viewed as no guarantee to make the active 12-man roster. Now he's got a firm spot on the rotation and could get 15 to 20 minutes a night. He averaged 9.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in 24 minutes, including 2.38 steals.

"Trevor is like, every day he's getting so much better," Marbury said.

"The thing that's so impressive about him, every day he works with the [coaches] to get better."

Despite attempts elsewhere to make injured list/buyout candidate Shandon Anderson into a martyr, Ariza has so badly outplayed him, it's been embarrassing.

"I was really happy," Lenny Wilkens said. "I think Trevor made his presence known in preseason. He really gave us energy."

Steph was also a big reason Stoudemire wanted to go to the Suns & Sheed had a lot of interest coming to NY. Thats another thing that wasn't valued when some fans growled at the Marbury trade.