Is Marbury the Problem?

[notakiddfan1]

Now listen, I'm not about to bash Marbury for what he's done during this series. He's been a player for us who has had the "never quit" attitude that everybody else on this team says they have, but hasn't necessarily decided to exhibit. However, it seems to me that Marbury might want to win so badly that he's not letting anybody else help him.

His assists are down from his 8.2 per during the season to 6, but that doesn't really tell the story either way. It's not that he's being selfish, he's still passing the ball and at times doing it very well. He's set guys like Scott Williams and Amare Stoudemire up for many layups in the last 3 games, and we need that indeed. But it's the guys like Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson, and Penny Hardaway who have been shooting horribly this series, and it's for a reason. Stephon Marbury has been dominating the ball so much. He's been dribbling around for 10, 15 seconds at times looking to make his move somehow. Even though he still usually ends up making some type of play in the end, it takes all the other guys out of any kind of rhythm. I mean, I could sit here and bash Shawn Marion till the cows come in for not being the all-star he's supposed to be when the going gets tough, but I would also have to admit in the same sentence that while I was waiting for Shawn to errupt early in the first quarter, he didn't get the ball once. And then when he did get the ball, it seemed like he either had to shoot it because the shot clock was running down, or because if he didn't he wouldn't get the ball back later. In those circumstances, it would make sense that he woudl press a little bit looking for his shot.

JJ, Penny, and Marion are jump-shooters. Marion has the athleticism to be one of the best slashers in the league, but he simply isn't. Whatever, we have to use what we have. I know it's a lot to put on Stephon's shoulders, but he has to get those guys open jumpshots early in the shot clock, so if the defense does close out, our perimeter players can swing the ball a few times as San Antonio rotates without worrying about not getting the ball back. I don't want to criticize the guy, but that's what we need from him. Not only that, but his ability to dish the ball outside and in as he drives as well as shoot the little floater makes him that much more dangerous. He can't win the series by himself, and even though it's hard to trust 1-11 from Joe Johnson or 3-10 from Penny Hardaway, it's his only choice.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Couple of points:

1.) Your team has to make buckets for you to get an assist.

2.) Shawn got the ball early in the game, and he lost the dribble as soon as he tried to make a move.

3.) Penny and JJ are 4th options, therefor they should not get the ball nearly as often, or with tons of time.

4.) Steph is our first option on offense, he will get the ball more often then anyone else.

5.) Bowen has effectively shut down Shawn for most of these series. Shawn gets the ball about 15-18 ft out, tries to get closer, can't, then he forces a leaning shot that doesnt fall.

6.) 6 assists puts you in 13th place in the regular season, not that bad.

7.) The last game he did dominate the ball for about 10 seconds on a bunch of plays. However, he is the only player to show up last night. Amare did good too I guess. He single handily made a run in the 4th quarter. No one else would take it inside, so who can fault Marbury for doing what every fan knew had to be done? We needed to attack, and no one else would do it.

8.) A jumpshooter does not need 24 seconds to get a shot off. In fact, they should be able to get a shot off quickly. The fact that they are jumpshooters means that they need the ball to be away from them until they get open. I am sure if steph dribbled down the floor, and Penny was wide open 15 feet out, he would pass it. When marbury attacks and dribbles out, picks and confusion free up other players so they can get an open look.

9.) Stephon is this team. Kobe and Shaq are the Lakers. TMAC is the Magic. These players are supposed to have the ball. They make things happen. They are the main reason their teams are competitve. We would be down 0-3, mostly blowout losses if it werent for Stephon.

I could make this list go on forever, but I will stop now.

 

[elindholm]

10.) The only offensive plan the Suns have is for Marbury to improvise and create something. The Spurs are doing a good job of taking him out of his game, so it's taking him longer and longer to set anything up. I'm sure he'd be more than happy to run the offense a different way if the coaching staff could offer any ideas.

 

[sly fly]

It all goes back to the Suns playing the type of ball as they were at the end of the season.

Accountability.

- Best way for Marion to get out of his funk is to take it to the basket and get to the line.

- Yes, Marbury has to make up his mind earlier. Don't let the defense get set.

- Quit letting SA dictate the flow. Take it at them. Create your own opportunities. Who cares if Duncan gets 46? If you want the hard double-team, do it in the 4th. Keep them off-balanced.

- PHX just needs to go out and have fun. JJ and Marion would benefit the most from this, and these are the two players we need big contributions from.

- I'm predicting a BIG PHX win tomorrow.

 

[notakiddfan1]

This is from today's azcentral article:
________________________________

"It seems like their strategy is to take the ball out of Steph's hands or make him do a lot more in the half court with their traps," Hardaway said. "Steph is so good about going around his man, he's holding onto it and driving around him.

"That means out of our pick-and-roll plays, there are going to be less shots. We have to move the ball. We need Steph and Shawn to score, but we have to make their defense work."

Marbury agreed that movement is a necessity.

"I think you'll see a different Stephon Marbury and a different Suns team," he said.
_____________________________

Well, I guess that pretty much sums up everything I said in my post. It seems like Stephon Marbury agrees with me too, about him not moving the ball around enough.

The thing that you guys forget is, no matter how big a part of our offense Steph is, he can't win it by himself. And as the old saying goes, help me help you. If Marbury gets some other guys going and will just swing the ball sometimes when he gets it, it will open things up tremendously for him. I remember one play last night. I think four guys were on the perimeter, like Casey Jacobsen, JJ, Penny, and Marion in the corner (it was our bigger lineup for the night ) Casey swung it to JJ, and I was thinking, one more! to get it to Penny cause i figured it'd be an open jumper. But then when JJ swung it to Penny, Penny immediately swung it in the corner to Marion, and he buried his set 3 point shot from the corner, and it was a pretty open one too. Marbury wasn't in at this time, so the ball was moving a little more freely, and it resulted in a 3.

I don't have any problem with Marbury creating, in fact it's obviously one of the most important, necessary parts of our offense. However, the ball moves faster than the defense, and if you swing the ball and get good defense, maybe there will be times when Steph gets the ball back, and he won't be trapped up top, and then when he wiggles by them, he won't go to the lane where Tim Duncan and David Robinson are there with their arms flailing.

 

[NoelPHX]

I think the key to tonights (game 4) win was when Marbs got injured. The team was forced to play team ball and couldn't rely on Marbs. Now I am not saying marbs is at fault but when they knew that he couldn't carry them they all showed up.

Noelphx

 

[JCSunsfan]

There might be some truth in that thread title. Marbury's game is his offense, so I wouldn't want to take that away from him. He just seems to be taking a little too much on his own shoulders--especially early in games.

He might do better to concentrate on getting his teammates involved early in games--especially Marion and JJ. Once Stephon starts to turn it on, others seem to stand around, or play 1 on 1 ball themselves.

There is always that point in the game when Stephon is just going to have to take over. He might do better to save it for the 4th quarter.

Another thought would simply be to have Penny man the point more often.

Just a thought.

 

[3rdside]

There might be some truth in that thread title. Marbury's game is his offense, so I wouldn't want to take that away from him. He just seems to be taking a little too much on his own shoulders--especially early in games.

I agree - he obviously feels like he's got a lot to prove on a personal level but he has perhaps tried a bit too hard the first couple of games. At least tonight he was forced to do things differently which should put him in good shape for the rest of the series. He's a smart kid, no doubt he'll work it out.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Originally posted by ...tTs*...
I agree - he obviously feels like he's got a lot to prove on a personal level but he has perhaps tried a bit too hard the first couple of games. At least tonight he was forced to do things differently which should put him in good shape for the rest of the series. He's a smart kid, no doubt he'll work it out.

We did see how the team performed at the end when he had to stop shooting because of his arm...Joe, Penny, Voskhul, Marion all got into the action and brought us back.

I think we don't win the series without him, but he could do more to let the others get involved.

Mike