Steph: Blame Me for Awful Season

[Shapecity]

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CHICAGO ? If you must slap the blame on him for this grotesque Knick season that ends tonight, Stephon Marbury said he'll accept it, right or wrong.

Though he indicated he can't do it all himself and made an interesting reference to Phoenix star Steve Nash, Marbury understands.

"When you don't win, it doesn't matter," Marbury said before being benched in the fourth quarter of last night's 92-91 loss to the Bulls. "It's all about getting W's. The way I look at it, if I average 12 or 15 points and we win 63 games, then I'm an MVP candidate."

Nash, who replaced Marbury in Phoenix, is averaging 15.5 points for the 62-win Suns. "I think that's what I've got to do," said Marbury, who claimed he sat last night because of a bunion on his foot while coach Herb Williams said it was his sore knee tightening up.

"We've just got to win games. That's how you're going to be judged in the NBA. And I'm at the point in my career where I can deal with that. I can deal with getting criticized for not winning. </div>

Source

 

[Mr. J]

The blame isn't only on Stephon, it's on every single Knick. The lack of defense (especially from the backcourt) is why we lost many games. Also the loss of Allan Houston cost us many games.

 

[Karma]

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">
The way I look at it, if I average 12 or 15 points and we win 63 games, then I'm an MVP candidate."
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What he fails to realize is that Nash makes his teamates better, he does not.
Typical Marbury "me against the world" comment there

 

[Shapecity]

I give credit to Marbury for shouldering the blame. It shows maturity and more importantly accountability. Statements like that will help him become the leader of the club and will bring the team closer together. He's finally getting <u>IT</u>.

 

[ChicagoSportsFan]

Mr. Marbury is one of my favorite players in the league. Hes right there with ivo with tuffness. But its funny how the majority of his career hes been blamed for the teams problems. I think that Marburys problem is that hes just not a point guard. Put that man at the shooting guard and let him have his way. but marbury likes the thought of being a point guard.

the knicks will be okay if they can get a decent pg in the draft or trade.Or maybe if penny is okay let him run the point. put sweetny on trimspa. and bring crawford off the bench. crawford is not a starter! also have kurt coming off the bench hes not a starter either. NY needs a center. Who am I fooling ny needs alot BUt u cant blame marbury, dude plays his heart out. put some tuff guys around steph and the knicks are back!
man if only he couldve bowed down to KG and stayed with the wolves. The sky was the limit, those guys were made to play together.

 

[Mr. J]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting spawn:</div><div class="quote_post">What he fails to realize is that Nash makes his teamates better, he does not.
Typical Marbury "me against the world" comment there

</div>
I don't see any Nash referenses here. He never brought up Nash, that was just the NY media adding the reference. Unlike Nash, Marbury is a much better scorer and the closest he's come to averaging 15 points, was when he averaged 15.8 a game as a 19 year old rookie. He's just stating a simple fact that no matter what numbers you put up, you will always be judged on how many wins your team has. A good example: the all-star game. There were a few players that didn't put up stats as good as Marbury, however, they got the nod due to their teams success. Marbury said that same statement in the begining of the season before Nash was considered the best PG in the NBA at the time. No, it's not "me against the world" here. I think it's just you against Marbury comments up there.

 

[Mr. J]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting michiganave17:</div><div class="quote_post">Mr. Marbury is one of my favorite players in the league. Hes right there with ivo with tuffness. But its funny how the majority of his career hes been blamed for the teams problems. I think that Marburys problem is that hes just not a point guard. Put that man at the shooting guard and let him have his way. but marbury likes the thought of being a point guard.</div>
I too beleive he is more efficent as a shooting guard as well. He is just such a great scorer that it's hard for him to be more of a distributor. Marbury (as you can see above), likes the thought of winning.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">the knicks will be okay if they can get a decent pg in the draft or trade.Or maybe if penny is okay let him run the point. put sweetny on trimspa. and bring crawford off the bench. crawford is not a starter! also have kurt coming off the bench hes not a starter either. NY needs a center. Who am I fooling ny needs alot BUt u cant blame marbury, dude plays his heart out. put some tuff guys around steph and the knicks are back!
man if only he couldve bowed down to KG and stayed with the wolves. The sky was the limit, those guys were made to play together.</div>
No, why draft a PG when we need that the least? So if the Knicks had a distributor, would they be in playoff contention right now? A majority of PG?s in the NBA have a ?shoot first? or scoring mentality and they seem to do well. I would rather put Crawford at the 1, and let Marbury do all the scoring on the wing. That?s worked well before.

Sweetney is fine the way he is, he uses his body to an advantage an that?s how he scores. Seeing how you are a Bulls fan, you?re most likely familiar with Elton Brand. He was just like Sweetney (more athletic) the way they thrived off of their body types. I guess you think Allen Iverson should gain 20 pounds of muscle seeing as he is so small and vulnerable when he penetrates.

So if New York needs a center, why would we put our best center now on the bench? Kurt Thomas keeps shot blockers out of the paint with his midrange jumper leaving the paint open for Marbury to do what he does best.

Dude plays his heart out? Well that is true?sometimes. While I like Marbury and use some of his moves on the court, he doesn?t always do that. His defense is horrible and the Knicks defensive woes are what caused many of our losses. If Marbury really wanted to win, he would do everything in his power to win which includes playing the lockdown defense he is capable of, and making clutch freethrows and not always shying away from taking the last shot. The Knicks have a lot of talent by saying no ?tough? guys around him, it sounds as if he?s playing for the Bobcats (Okafor injured). He has more than enough people to do some damage with.

I?ll tell you a good reason why the Knicks lost many games which has already been said many times?Allan Houston?s injury. Houston is the Knicks clutchest shooter and with many of their lost games going down to the wire, Houston could have changed that.

 

[ChicagoSportsFan]

mrj18
"Sweetney is fine the way he is, he uses his body to an advantage an that?s how he scores. Seeing how you are a Bulls fan, you?re most likely familiar with Elton Brand. He was just like Sweetney (more athletic) the way they thrived off of their body types. I guess you think Allen Iverson should gain 20 pounds of muscle seeing as he is so small and vulnerable when he penetrates."

that point i disagree with, sweetney is not built like Elton and doesnt put up elton #'s.
sweetney has more of a tracktor traylor type build. Elton is muscular and cut and sweeyney has a big gutt. If sweetney got rid of that gut hed be as agile as Brand.And i think more productive.

 

[Mr. J]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting michiganave17:</div><div class="quote_post">that point i disagree with, sweetney is not built like Elton and doesnt put up elton #'s.
sweetney has more of a tracktor traylor type build. Elton is muscular and cut and sweeyney has a big gutt. If sweetney got rid of that gut hed be as agile as Brand.And i think more productive.</div>
The reason why he doesn't put up Elton Brand-like numbers is because of his position. The Knicks have 4 deserving PF's now. Maurice Taylor, Malik Rose, Jerome Williams. You can throw Kurt Thomas up there if you want too. He also gets a little less than 20 minutes a game and is putting up very solid stats at 8/5. When he's given about 30 minutes, he's put up 15/8+ numbers. Sweetney's lost a lot of weight since last year. Right now, Brand is more muscluar than Sweetney, but when they were both rookies, they had the same body. Exactly how much weight would you want Sweetney to lose?

 

[Tribute to H2O]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting michiganave17:</div><div class="quote_post">
that point i disagree with, sweetney is not built like Elton and doesnt put up elton #'s.
sweetney has more of a tracktor traylor type build. Elton is muscular and cut and sweeyney has a big gutt. If sweetney got rid of that gut hed be as agile as Brand.And i think more productive.</div>

This is Sweetney's first year playing a significant role. I dont think it's quite fair to compare his numbers to Brand's numbers. Sweetney is pretty quick and agile when he needs to be actually(he's usually strong enough to just overpower them). Besides their different kinds of players. Sweetney uses his size and Brand relies more on his athleticism. What would really help his production is if we get another big body to play alongside him. Sweetney unlike Brand is defended by the other team's center. If Sweetney is allowed to match up against other powerforwards he'll be almost impossible to stop.