Steinmetz blog: Another unpredictable New Yorker for Ws to..

Another unpredictable New Yorker for Warriors to ponder _ this one
Marbury
POSTED July 17, 1:10 PM

Listen up: No Marbury
Ron Artest isn't the only volatile player out there on the Warriors'
radar. There could be another available live one, too _ and he's a
point guard, on top of it _ looking for a place to call home.

But as I type the name "Stephon Marbury" with the fingers on my right
hand, I'm holding my nose with the fingers on my left. Once upon a
time, Marbury was a talented and intriguing player, one of the more
explosive perimeter players in the NBA.

But now, at 31 years old, he's not going to be able to help any team.
It certainly doesn't appear as if he'll be helping the New York
Knicks, who signed point guards Chris Duhon and Anthony Roberson (yes,
the former Warrior) already this offseason.

There's talk of Knicks team president Donnie Walsh releasing Marbury,
meaning that Warriors management has thrown him into the considered
mix of Carlos Arroyo, Kyle Lowry, Jannero Pargo, Delonte West, etc.

By far, Marbury is the most talented of that bunch, but he's also the
most useless. He might be a two-time NBA All-Star but he's never
helped a team be successful. It's hard to believe he's been in the
league 12 years and has all of 18 playoff games to show for it.

His teams' records in those playoff games is a dismal 5-13, and his
individual numbers are even worse. In the postseason, Marbury is a 36-
percent shooter from the field, 27-percent shooter from 3-point range
and has an assist-to-turnover ratio worse than 2-to-1.

And that's when Marbury was in his prime, not coming off an ankle
injury that ended his 2007-08 season. Assuming Marbury is either
bought out or released, he's going to, essentially, be on a one-year
deal.

It's tough to envision a scarier scenario for the Warriors than
Marbury coming in a contract year, trying to salvage his career and
get one more payday. In essence, Marbury is a bigger gamble than
Artest, a fellow New Yorker, because you know what kind of crazy
you're getting with Artest.

With Marbury, who knows?

Ordinarily, Warriors would never even consider Marbury but there are
some legitimate truisms:

=> The Warriors need a point guard.

=> Marbury is such a pariah that he will cost virtually nothing and you
won't have to give up anything to get him.

=> Warriors president of basketball ops Chris Mullin knows first-hand
it's possible to turn your career around.

I'm not wild about the notion of Monta Ellis playing 32 minutes a
night at point guard for the Warriors, but I'm far less enthusiastic
about Marbury doing it at all.

Allen wrote:

>
> But as I type the name "Stephon Marbury" with the fingers on my right
> hand, I'm holding my nose with the fingers on my left. Once upon a
> time, Marbury was a talented and intriguing player, one of the more
> explosive perimeter players in the NBA.


What a nightmare...

Somewhere in a previous thread, I saw Marbury mentioned as something
like "Baron Davis, very, very light".

Marbury brings nearly all of Baron's negatives (and amplified), and few
of Baron's positives.

This is a guy who's in it for himself, and does almost nothing to make
the team around him any better.

I really wish this guy was a couple of years older so that his talent
had declined enough that he wouldn't be a temptation to try to acquire.

Even though he's a "veteran point guard", he doesn't do anything useful
for us. If we have $4MM left in the salary cap, I'd rather have that
money unused than waste it on Marbury.

Smith