| Time For Marbury To Move On But Not For The Reasons You Think Authored by Jarrod Rudolph - October 20, 2008 - 3:07 pm
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That said, though there are areas where he'll be an asset the idea of him starting over Stephon Marbury is a joke.
In Chicago, Duhon played behind Kurt Hinrich for a reason -- his skills are better suited for a backup role. His game is better when served in small doses. In a perfect world, he's the guy you bring off the bench for an energy boost.
In New York, he'll be a starter, benefiting from an incumbent whose name has been dragged through the mud. But make no mistake, the disdain people have towards Marbury won’t in any way make Duhon a better player.
With the spotlight directly on him, his deficiencies will become more noticeable. People will quickly forget about the things he does well and he’ll become the target of harsh criticism. For Duhon, it should never even come to that. Instead of letting him get comfortable in his new surroundings, in his more familiar backup role, he'll be foolishly pressed immediately to be a catalyst.
This will prove to be a big mistake, Marbury should be the starter.
Not only is he the best guard the Knicks have, but also their best player and by far the best equipped to play in Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense, but he can’t get a fair shake.
You make ask why he can’t get a fair chance, think about it.
There has been this belief among most of the members of the media, who have unfairly vilified Marbury, and the New York fans, a segment that's as fair-weather as they come, that he is the sole reason that the Knicks have struggled over the last five years. He’s been called a cancer, a gunner, overpaid, selfish and most recently “Truckhead.”
Combined with years of losing, this has created a situation where anyone who has come into the organization looks first at Marbury as the problem and not the overwhelming amount of pieces that the team is missing.
Excluding D’Antoni, the team has had four different coaches and four different systems in the last five years. They’ve lacked a player that could help Marbury shoulder any of the on court responsibility. They also lack consistent outside shooting, a big man that provides a true interior defensive presence, a true small forward and shooting guard.
Despite those facts, all fingers are pointed towards Marbury as the sole reason the Knicks have struggled. Apparently, he’s also the reason the team lost in 41 of the 58 games he missed last season.
It seems as if D’Antoni has bought into the garbage that has been said about the 31-year-old point guard and would rather not be bothered with the headache of dealing with him and the microscope he's always under. It’s obvious that something isn’t right when you’re forced to talk about how good Duhon was while he played at Duke.
What does how he performed while in college have to do with anything? How will winning a national championship seven years ago help the Knicks this year?
It won’t.
It won’t make him a better outside shooter and certainly won’t improve the inconsistent pace that he plays, things that contributed to his exit from Chicago.
Most of the guys in the league were good in college. Jared Jeffries led his Indiana Hoosiers to the national championship game, should he get a starting spot also?
I’m sure Duhon was pretty damn good in high school, too, one of the country's top recruits out of tiny Slidell, LA. That won't get him any extra calls on this level; give me a break.
The situation is truly a shame because if D’Antoni would give him a chance Marbury would have one of the best years of his career. He’s been through a lot in New York and deserves a chance to play in a system that he would excel in.
Those who choose to look at Marbury’s time in New York fairly will tell you that, as a player, he isn’t much different than when he arrived. He’s older and his image is shot to hell, but he can still perform at an All-Star level.
His game has suffered due to the many changes he’s been asked to make. As the perceived source of the Knicks problems he has been asked to tone down his game when nothing around him warranted him doing less.
Now he’s in the same situation again, but worse.
After working to get himself in the best shape possible and saying and doing the right things during the preseason, the Knicks want him to come off the bench and backup a career reserve. There isn’t even a guarantee that he’ll play in front of Nate Robinson. Added to that nightmare is the reality that the media and, in my opinion, the worst fans in all of sports are going to continue to ridicule him on a daily basis.
It’s clear that he won’t ever be given a clean slate in New York. It’s time for Marbury to face reality, the Knicks experience has been a failure and it’s time to move on, today.
The only reason he’s still a Knicks is because the front office doesn’t want to eat another contract. He’s not getting any younger and doesn’t have the time to sit on the bench of a team that probably won’t make the playoffs.
Marbury needs to be the bigger man, take a reasonable buyout and get out of town.
He has plenty of money to enjoy the fruits of life. Taking a little less than what he’s owed won’t hurt him. In fact, it will probably be worth it in the long run. He still has a tremendous amount of skill that will allow him to be successful elsewhere.
Nothing good can come from him staying. He’ll only get frustrated and blow up, which, quite honestly, may be exactly what the Knicks are waiting for.
If he stays, it’s pretty certain that he’ll want to play more and he'll express that at some point in the season. That will turn into a story about how he’s creating a problem in the locker room because he’s not happy with his minutes, or a story reporting that he’s at odds with D’Antoni.
He may even decide he has had enough of the Knicks and ask out of New York. But the timing of the request will come after a bad game or blowout loss and that will turn into a selfish Marbury bails on team story.
As long as he is in a Knick uniform, he can not and will not win for losing.
Either scenario makes him look bad and continues to make people forget about the part the Knicks play in all of this. Keep in mind that the Knicks missed the playoffs in the two seasons prior to Marbury’s arrival, not to mention the host of terrible decisions that were made before the idea of acquiring the All-Star guard existed.
Decisions such as drafting Fredrick Weis and trading Nene for Antonio McDyess. Let’s not forget about the decision to hire Scott Layden, the true source of the Knicks struggles. People seem to get a case of convenient amnesia when talking about why the team hasn’t been very good, and at this point it doesn’t seem like it’s going to change as long as Marbury is in town.
At the end of the day it won’t be worth all of the stress this must be causing him.
He could go to Miami and help Dwyane Wade get the Heat back to the playoffs. He hasn’t been in a situation where he wasn’t the centerpiece of a team since he left Minnesota. He could also go out west and play for the Warriors, who play a system that fits him perfectly and have a vacancy in place with Monta Ellis out until at least late December.
He's got options. It's time to start looking at all of them. The Knicks were bad before he got there and will be bad after he leaves. It’s time for him to accept that his dream of lifting his hometown squad to prominence isn't going to happen and that the time is now for him to go out and prove people wrong.
Marbury has a lot more great basketball in him. He's just got to start making the right decisions to get his career back on course. Another All-Star berth and more apologies than he can handle await him if he can get it together.
- Jarrod Rudolph may be reached at jarrod.rudolph@realgm.com |
