Comments on: Is Stephon Marbury Finished?

By: Brandon Hoffman

Brandon Hoffman — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:35:03 +0000

I apologize but I think I mistakenly deleted a few comments when sorting through the mountains of comments that were by our spam filter.

TSB – Thanks for pointing out my error with regards to Amare’s microfracture surgery. I’ll edit the post to reflect your comment shortly.

xphoenix – My apologies.

I’m going to install a spam deterrent plugin this week.

By: xphoenix87

xphoenix87 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:48:01 +0000

I think the Knicks are trying to distance themselves from the Isiah era as much as possible, and the biggest symbol of that era has been Marbury’s disastrous tenure. This year isn’t going to be about winning games, it’s going to be about developing what they’ve got, so why would you give minutes to Marbury? He’s not in your future plans. Those minutes will go to guys like Crawford and Robinson, who might have real trade value or maybe even be pieces for the Knicks’ future. If you buy out Marbury, you save a bit of money (buyouts are usually for a small chunk less than the player is owed, since they get it all at once and they can then go get paid elsewhere) and you don’t have to deal with his idiocy anymore.

The Knicks don’t want to trade Marbury because they aren’t going to get anything in return that they would want. Nobody is going to trade for him as a player because he isn’t worth anything remotely near what he’s paid. Teams would want him as an expiring contract, but in that case the Knicks would have to take back $20 mil in contracts that aren’t expiring, which works against their single goal of freeing up cap space for 2010.

As for the Iverson v. Marbury debate, certainly Iverson has been a high-volume scorer his whole career, with fairly average efficiency. He’s posted offensive ratings right around league average for most of his career. Marbury’s offensive ratings have actually been a bit higher for his career. However, we can’t just assume that Marbury would maintain that efficiency with a bigger workload. In fact, that very rarely happens. Iverson’s usage rate has been enormously high, the second highest in modern NBA history (2nd to Jordan), the fact that he’s been able to maintain an average efficiency is amazing at that workload. Despite Marbury’s already high usage rate, the difference between Iverson’s usage rate and Marbury’s is larger than the difference between Marbury and your average role player. On top of that, since coming to Denver Iverson’s usage rate has dropped (though still above Marbury’s career average) and he posted an offensive rating significantly higher than Marbury has ever posted.

By: Brandon Hoffman

Brandon Hoffman — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:47:57 +0000

King_Kaun,

Marbury isn’t a run n’ gun point guard. But he could still put points on the board in D’Antoni’s all-offense, no-defense scheme. If it doesn’t work out, the Knicks can use his expiring contract before the trade deadline.

Let’s be honest, the Knicks have little to lose this season. They aren’t going to contend for the playoffs, much less the championship. And they could benefit from another lottery pick.

Marbury could end up poisoning the locker room. But who is he going to poison? Duhon, Lee, and Gallinari are the only three players worth retaining beyond 2010.

By: Celtics247.com » Blog Archive » Today’s Links 9/25

Celtics247.com » Blog Archive » Today’s Links 9/25 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:00:56 +0000

[...] The marketing of an 8 year old TrueHoop Notes from a day with NBA referees Ballerblogger Is Stephon Marbury finished? NBA Week Miles away from a Celtic Steve’s Ramblings Can they repeat? WCSH6 [...]

By: King_Kaun

King_Kaun — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:00:15 +0000

I am a staunch opponent of the Knicks waiving Marbury. There is seriously no reason to do it. He could be a spark plug off the bench or be used to in a trade…Im sure there are plenty of teams that would like to trade for Marbury’s expiring contract (though they would probably cut him…)

The Knicks would be idiots to waive him and get nothing in return…