My opinion on Stephon Marbury
My thoughts on Stephon Marbury at this time…
Marbury is still young, yes, but also on the otherside, a cursed player. Every team that traded him suddenly became good. He’s making 21.9 million just to sit on the damn bench. The Knicks have to get rid of him already. It’s unfair for a talent like Marbury to just sit there when he’s perfectly healthy. If the Knicks were that desperate to get rid of him, they should get rid of him like how the Nuggets got rid of Camby, find a team with a similar exception so the Knicks can get the minimum amount in return (ie. 2nd round draft picks). Marbury is a talent that should not get wasted, send him to a decent team so maybe he can get a real of reality of being a role-player.
Marbury has had a negative impact on the Knicks, D’Antoni interviewed his players during the summer and many expressed displeasure playing with Marbury. The main reason the team went against Isiah Thomas last season was due to the Marbury incident when Marbury left the team before they were going to face the Phoenix Suns. He then returned and Isiah let him be in the starting line-up the next game, much to the displeasure to the rest of the Knicks. Since Marbury is sitting D’Antoni is setting an example and unless one of the knicks guards get injured, Marbury is going to stay on the bench because if D’Antoni lets him play, he will lose the team like Isiah did. D’Antoni gave him a chance in the preseason when he started one game of the last games, but his initial thoughts of Marbury were correct after Marbury had a shouting match with Eddie House of the Boston Celtics:
— “Less than two minutes into the Knicks’ 101-90 beat-down by Boston, Stephon Marbury started trading Tuesday night trash talk with Eddie House. After Marbury drew a foul on Kendrick Perkins and hit two free throws, he turned and screamed at House, from mid court: “You’re a bum!” When play returned to the Celtics’ side of the court, House chirped, “Don’t worry about me. You better worry about Ray Allen,” whom Marbury was guarding. Marbury shot back, “You’re nothing!” then added, “You’re caught up in basketball. Get caught up in life.” “I’m worried about you,” Marbury blurted back before later calling the Celtics’ guard “[unprintable] garbage.”—
This was pretty much the last straw for D’Antoni and he decided to bench Marbury.
On the flip side, Marbury needs a new start, with all that happened last year with the Knicks, and also his personal life, (aunt and father dying) he needs to be put in a new situation with another franchise. He’s still younger than the likes of Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, and Kevin Garnett, and only one year older than Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzski. He’s still got a few years left. Though I agree the knicks should get rid of him, they shouldn’t have put themselves in a situation where they pretty much are forced by their actions to sit Marbury. Just having Marbury at the bench is a distraction for the Knicks. If D’Antoni is telling the truth about playing for the future, he should have let Marbury play, so his trade value could still be decent, and let the Knicks organization find a suitable taker for him. By having Marbury not playing, his “attitude” becomes more of an issue for other teams, causing his trade value to fall. Marbury could be taking the minutes that Anthony Roberson and Marty Collins are taking, players that skill-wise do not deserve the minutes if Marbury is sitting on that bench so he can audition himself for different trade scenarios.
As for the Knicks themselves, I think they can surprise a lot of teams this year if they can control their “hot streaks.” The knicks have many streaky players, Crawford, Nate Robinson, and Q-Rich. Wilson Chandler has been playing consistently well, and Nate Robinson is still streaky at times but is getting better. Crawford had a game where he scored only 1 point, not good. I think D’Antoni’s offensive scheme is the best the knicks can do to compensate the lack of a “superstar” by having many supporting players on the team that can finish. The lack of size and a defensive presence in the paint hurts (only 1 knick has more than 1 block total this season, wilson chandler with 3, which he got all in 1 game). Eddy Curry is sitting on that bench and is not good for the D’Antoni offense, trade him for an atheletic big man!… maybe for Al Harrington, he wants to get traded, but i’m sure the Knicks would have to sweeten the deal more since Curry is not really a wanted player at this time.
In summary, hopefully Marbury learns from this and gets everything straightened out, snap back to reality, leave the Knicks, join a competitive team as a role player, and try to break his own curse. Marbury is in a tough spot but if he learns from this and get out of the situation, everyone will benefit. Oh and I think this can all happen much easier if Marbury was not his own agent, so.. get some help.
The Jason Kidd Movement….
The story of Jason Kidd.
Drafted to the Dallas Mavericks in 1994 with the 2nd Pick. There was promise with Kidd, as he played with the “Three J’s,” which consisted of Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson, and Jamal Mashburn. Unfortunately, that did not turn out too well, as there were many disagreements within the group.
During the 1996-1997 season, Kidd was involved in a multi-player trade with the Phoenix Suns, where Kidd became a Sun, and Sam Cassell became a Maverick. Kidd had a good run with the Suns, however, and incident with his wife in early 2001 became the talk of the town for a while which caused the Jason Kidd Movement to begin once again…
After the 2001 NBA season, Jason Kidd was traded to the New Jersey Nets for Stephon Marbury. During the 2001-2002 season, Jason Kidd led the Nets, who had their on “Three K’s,” Kenyon Martin, Kerry Kittles, and Keith Van Horn, where the team also had newcomer Richard Jefferson, to the NBA finals. However, they were no match for the Los Angeles Lakers led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, as the Nets got swept in 4 games. The Nets would still make the playoffs for the next few seasons, with many changes, since the “Three K’s” were not all gone, and the notable Vince Carter joined the franchise.
Beginning last year, there was talk about trading Jason Kidd, as the Nets and Los Angeles Lakers had an extensive talk about. However, the Lakers would not want to give up their center Andrew Bynum, who by the way, was having a GREAT season until he got injured around 1 month ago. Recently, the Nets have had talks with Jason Kidd’s original team, the Dallas Mavericks for the trade.
Late week, a trade was supposed to fall through, which would consist of Jason Kidd and Malik Allen from the Nets going to the Mavericks for Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Devean George, 2 future first-round picks, and 3 million in cash. However, the trade did not fall through, as Devean George invoked what is call his “Early Birth Rights” from his contract. The clause states that Devean would have to pretty much agree to be traded, and if he does not, the trade will not occur. The trade was essentially blocked from occuring which caused a major stir between both teams. In my opinion, Mark Cuban was looked to be a hypocrite, as he previously stated that they would not make a run at Jason Kidd, as he would have to “Trade half the roster,” which was not feasible to do, but look what he tried to do, TRADE HALF THE ROSTER. Also, with anyway to revive this trade, there was talk to include a deal where the Mavs would resign Keith Van Horn, who has not played with the team for over a year, but Cuban also denied this, as it would not be as beneficial to the team. BUT there is reported talk with another trade, as the Nets would reported trade again, Jason Kidd and Malik Allen to the Mavs for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Trenton Hassell, Keith Van Horn, 2 first-round draft picks, and 3 million in cash. Take note that Jerry Stackhouse is not apart of this deal also. This is because he has a big mouth, and stated that the Nets agreed that they would buy-out his contract, and then after 30 days, resign with the Mavs, so essentially, the Mavs would get him back without a problem. This statement did not make NBA commissioner David Stern, or many of the other team General Managers happy, as it was seen as an “abuse” of the league rules. This caused David Stern to essentially block Stackhouse on being involved in the trade, where the Mavs had to scramble and try another trade to obtain Kidd.
In my opinion, Mark Cuban was very hypocritical with his statements of not trading a great deal of his team, and not using Keith Van Horn after the trade was first blocks, since as you can see, both occurred. However, on the other side of the coin, you cannot blame both teams for trying to make this trade work, since it was already made public before it was official. How would for example, Jason Kidd and Devin Harris feel about returning to their team without the trade occurring, knowing that their team wanted to trade them. It looks like the Nets will begin the rebuilding process, and it will center around Richard Jefferson, as Vince Carter seems to have lost that “passion,” as I see him just going through the motions during games. Don’t get me wrong, he is still a great player, but not as great as he was back in Toronto. As for the Dallas Mavericks, they get that perennial guard they have been looking for every since losing Steve Nash a few years ago. The western conference is VERY strong, and has been for the last few years now. From the current standings today, there is a 4 1/2 game gap between first and NINTH place. Where the Portland Trail Blazers are the 10th seed, and only 4 games behind the 7th seed and the 9th place Denver Nuggets are tied with 2 other teams for the 7th and 8th seed creates more reason to have the best team possible this year. Dallas right now is the 6th seed, which will definitely change after this trade occurs. We will see what happens between now and April…
