I don't want to see Marbury go just so Crawford can run the team, but if we could get a guy like Odom for him, even if you forget about turning Kurt into Grant and their lotto pick, I would jump on it.

Marburry is a superstar

I do have to disagree with that. Superstars can carry their teams for a period of time. Marbury's a very talented player, but a superstar he is not.

[Edited by - MaTT4281 on 04/20/2005 11:59:35]

Marbles basketball IQ is much higher than Craw's. Marbles just needs a good coach now. He hasn't had one since he's been in NYC.

Crawford is still at a stage in his career where he can be taught to refine his game...Marbury at this stage in the game is basically what he is, a great scoring, penetrate & dish style PG who may not be a good fit w/what the plan according to Isiah is, which is to get young, athletic & run an uptempo style game...if you want to stay the course w/Marbury fine, but you'll need to surround him w/players who can help this team get better NOW...i'm looking at this from a perspective of maybe cutting our losses & going the youth route to see if that improves the future of this franchise...i think that roster i posted would be a nice start from that perspective.

he's been playing 7 years of organized basketball, which is about the same as a normal player graduating from College has...he's still learning the game...Marbury is a great player i already said that...no need to point that out to me.

agreed...i saw him show some flashes of superstardom when he was allowed to lead in Chicago...he just needs to learn how to harness his game somewhat...he's been giving the coaches his full & undivided attention & willingness to work on his game, & no one EVER complains about his teammates not liking him...Marbury just has this bad aura about him for some reason, i don't know if he'll ever be that great of a fit here...i could be wrong but it might be better to cut our losses & go in another direction.

[Edited by - TMS on 04/20/2005 12:20:37]

Posted by TMS:

btw, i'll tell you what else this trade does...it gets the Knicks under the cap in 2008 (or VERY close to it) in time to be players in the Lebron James Sweepstakes i believe.

thats all i care about...thats why I wanted Marbury traded after last year's playoff embarrassment

What about keeping both and see what happens? The Knicks were playing very good until Crawford had to sit because of an injury. After that, everything went wrong. What about giving both another chance, its not like either is easy to deal away anyway. I think that Steph deserves a chance to prove that he isn't really a loser and the only way I would love that to happen is here. If we were NBA players and our only dream was to win a championship in NY but we hadn't the right supporting cast, we would want another chance to win. Its our biggest dream. We wouldn't want to be traded again for something we know we are not. I believe Marbury, the one we have that is more mature and more clever, is a winner, only on something that's not yet a team.

Crawford is a player with great potential to be a superstar, most people agree with that. What he is now is a player that wants to win but doesn't know yet how to make his team better. Sometimes he showed us how good he could be when he had a better shot selection, when he had to set up the players, etc. He can be a great player, he only needs time to make it happen. He is a combo guard, and we can live with that at SG.

What if the real problem of this team wasn't Craw or Marbs? What if we really lacked a real Center, a real post up player? What if we really lacked someone to play post defense, to block shots? What if we needed a real SF instead of the fake one we have in TT?

Maybe we would've been better without the Marbury trade. Maybe it was a mistake to deal for Crawford. The fact is that we have both and we can win with both, they only need better players around him. Craw can learn to play defense. Marb is ready to lead a team, he only needs one. Improve the cast and we should all see the results...

As I have said im one of my posts, the very first thing that Isiah has to do is: hire a coach with an identity and style; second, draft players that would fit that particular style; third, get rid of Kurt Thomas, Sweetney, TT, Penny, and Houston...