Posted by djsunyc:
close your eyes for a minute:
let's say there's a GM. he just got hired and he looks at his roster. it consists of eisley, ward, spoon, othella and dikembe among other players who's best days are either behind them or have never come. your new team is banking on a player coming off of 3 knee surgeries. your first round pick is on IR and your first round pick from the year before is benched.
fast forward 10 months later. your roster now consists of marbury, crawford, ariza, and a 1st round pick from IR clearly developing into something special.
now picture this GM, and imagine if he was WHITE!!!
ok, sorry, got carried away there for a second.
not one of you, not one of you would have hesitated for a second if you were presented with an opportunity to turn roster A into roster B.
Only for the same or less money. I've never liked Marbury, and I've always considered Crawford a major disappointment.
I do agree that Isiah is TRYING to put together a good team, and I agree with fishy that it will take another few years to make this team a contender. What I wonder is, did anyone tell Dolan that? Bet they didn't. I'll bet he thinks he got a deep playoff team for his $103m. I don't think he's under the impression this was supposed to take another 2 or 3 seasons. He's under the impression this is now a deep playoff team, favored to take the Atlantic.
He gave Layden the cash to take his shot, which ended up being Antonio McDyess. It was only once McDyess played in some games that Layden got fired, because Dolan saw that the supposed new star of the team wasn't all that great a player. If Dolan had watched any of McDyess before he was injured, he would have known that already. Now he's been told Marbury is some kind of great PG, which he never was. He's a streetballer with speed and some killer moves, but that's not what makes a great PG. Leadership and Bball smarts makes a great PG, and Marbury has neither. He's just a one-on-one, cut to the hoop guy, another dumb-dumb trying to be MJ.
Having been at MSG Saturday night (I'll be there tonight to see if they step up) I can say that, though everyone stunk in the game, the blame is more Stephon's than Lenny's. All NBA coaches do really is motivate their players (granted, Lenny failed miserably there). NBA coaches do not tell the players how to play, because it is assumed they know how already, save the really young guys. Sure, coaches give them some tips like "hey, your guy's getting a step on you, you gotta anticipate him" but they don't X and O until there's an inbound play. They speak in generalities like "we gotta want it more" and "we gotta get better on defense". They don't tell Marbury who to pass it to. Marbury decides what plays to run, who gets the ball.
Marbury is supposed to run the team when they're on the floor, and he failed to do so. In spectacularly bad fashion, mind you. But can we trade this cheap punk millionaire? Not until his contract is up, we can't.
So, we can only hope that these jerks become a good team. Any team i the NBA can look like a champion for one game, or one half or quarter, or sometimes even a few games in a row. But to be a champion, you have to be a winner at least 60 per cent of the time. Not 50. Not less.
Yeah, Briggs, I kind of want to see the collapse too, because I can't help but be smug and satisfied watching that piece of garbage Dolan fail. Too bad I bought a crapload of tix this year, thinking I'd at least have some fun at the games. My bad.
Cheer up. 
11/9/2004 1:01 PM
