What's with all the hate on Stephon Marbury?

[dirtyeggs]

Agreed Marbury is no longer Starbury but it seems to me that he has been a good teammate so far.  The second unit scoring comes primarily from House and Marbury has done a good job penetrating (he can't really finish anymore) and finding House.  He will have to try to finish now and then to keep himself a threat but putting Eddie at the point means he loses those opportunities.

Marbury has also made a commitment to the Team D.  He isn't as quick as he once was but the effort is there.

TA needs some run as well but Marbury has been fine (as long as he doesn't have to ever see Will Bynum again)

[Brickowski]

Marbury is far from being an acceptable backup pg.  His defensive lapses last night cost them 2-3 baskets.  Doc was wise to bench him for the second half.  He stinks.

Once again I appear to be watching games in an alternate universe. 

[cordobes]

Marbury is far from being an acceptable backup pg.  His defensive lapses last night cost them 2-3 baskets.  Doc was wise to bench him for the second half.  He stinks.

Once again I appear to be watching games in an alternate universe. 

I bet it's the same one where the Rockets should trade Battier for Tinsley and Moore is a good shot-blocker, an All-Star compared to Chris Andersen who barely can dunk.

Marbury is a decent backup pg; just not the difference maker the usual kool-aid drinkers were expecting.

[shiggins]

TA came in for game 1 and in 8 minutes he did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! He didn't play good defense, he missed the only shot he took which was a bad one, he didn't create anything. He is not the answer. Face it. TA can only be a decent contributor if he is starting. 80% of the time when he comes off the bench he is so concerned about scoring that he throws the team game out the window. He can't play within the flow of the offense and make the team better. Marbury on the other hand has been playing almost TOO unselfishly out there. He is only concerned about passing the ball to the open guy, he is playing hard nosed defense and giving great energy and effort. He also gives the team the ability to stretch the defense with the ability to hit the outside shot. He isn't hitting them at the clip we would like however it is getting better.

TA may arguably need to get some run at the 2, however if he can't control himself on the offensive end it takes away from his ability to help us on the defensive side.

Marbury is giving us exactly what we need right now and that is a PG who is playing within himself and thinking about defense and team movement. If his shot continues to improve he will be even better.

what are you talking about?  tony might be the reason the celts even went to overtime in game 1...Ray was getting absolutely abused by ben gordon.  Tony comes in for a few defensive trips...voila!  Ben Gordon got denied the ball and didnt score any more points.  The Tony and Marbury hate on the board is absurd...

I mean people asking for house/tony/pruitt combo?  Didnt you guys realize this was the exact rotation we had at the beginning of the year that worked out atrociously?  Gabe will be out of the league pretty soon, whereas eddie is pretty obviously a brutal pg in the sense of being a pg.  he gets the ball stolen from him all the time, doesnt set up plays, and is a bad passer.

its not a secret eddie has been playing much better with Marbury.  its directly attributed to the fact that eddie doesnt have the ball in his hands.  theres no way around that.

[Brickowski]

Marbury is far from being an acceptable backup pg.  His defensive lapses last night cost them 2-3 baskets.  Doc was wise to bench him for the second half.  He stinks.

Once again I appear to be watching games in an alternate universe. 

I bet it's the same one where the Rockets should trade Battier for Tinsley and Moore is a good shot-blocker, an All-Star compared to Chris Andersen who barely can dunk.

Marbury is a decent backup pg; just not the difference maker the usual kool-aid drinkers were expecting.

I expected the worst.  And that's what I got. Pruitt is a better defender and is less turnover prone than Marbury, who basically generates empty trips on offense and easy baskets for the other team on defense.

[HYPE.]

Apparently, Marbury's getting his minutes extended EVEN MORE after Rondo's injury. He worked on his jumpshot right after yesterday's game. Good on him. Hopefully his jumpshot is nearly perfect and ready for Thursday's game.

WALTHAM - While the news of Leon Powe’s season-ending ACL tear will dominate discussion today, a look for something more positive found Stephon Marbury shooting for better than a half hour after most of his teammates left the court.

Marbury worked up a furious sweat and hit more than 100 3-pointers (OK, not in a row) before finally calling it quits. At times during the workout, he had to pause to catch his breath and was bent over with hands on his knees.

It was very similar to the workout that Rajon Rondo has been doing after many practices the second half of the year.

“When we don’t play, and then we don’t practice the next day, you’ve got to do something,” he said. “So I do all basketball stuff instead of running on the tread mill.”

Marbury has played just 10 minutes in each of the first two playoff games, scoring just two points on 1-of-6 shooting, but there is a feeling that trend could soon change in a big way.

Rivers said after Game 1 that he needs to play Marbury more and said today that Marbury has been the team’s best defender on Ben Gordon in the series.

Add in Rajon Rondo’s right ankle sprain and there could be a lot more Marbury on the horizon.

Either way, he is doing his best to stay ready.

“I’ve never been in this position before,” he said of seeing limited minutes. “It’s tough, but at the same time, it’s the situation and I’m happy to be able to have a situation from the situation that I came from.

“It’s difficult, but at the same time you get an opportunity.”

When Marbury spent a lot of time out of the lineup in New York he was in exile, so this is, indeed, a new perspective.

“I mean, you take it in stride as far as when you get in the game, but at the same time you are watching the game to see what the other guys aren’t doing, and when you are in there you try to correct those mistakes,” he said. “Then when they watch you, they see ‘OK, he’s getting up on him and forcing him to go left.’

“That’s what I’ve got to do (with Gordon). I’ve got to get up on him.”

For all the negative that we heard about Marbury - and there was a lot to hear for anyone willing to listen - he has been nothing like as described during his two months in Boston.

He has been complimentary of teammates, polite to the media, and seems to have maintained a great enthusiasm about being in Boston even though his play has probably not been as strong as he’d hoped.

Score one for the merits of fresh starts.

SOURCE

[PosImpos]

See, that sort of thing is why I like Marbury.  I just hope it translates into game-time results.

[Rocco Graziosa]

 I've come to this conclusion about Marbury. He doesn't understand how to play basketball at a fundamental level. Its like he never received the proper tutelage from 4th to 8th grade. He's terrible at spacing on a basketball court on both sides of the ball, especially defense. He doesn't set screens right. He doesn't slip screens on defense properly. He doesnt' rotate back in transition defense when a wing penetrates. He's figured out how to find Eddie House on offense, but thats about it. He never pushes when he should, and when he probes never in synch with the offense. Its painful to watch in the amped up setting of the playoffs when every possestion is under a microscope.

Whats also clear, is he's playing with the best possible intentions. He desperately WANTS to succeed, he just has no idea how to do it. And now he's being gameplanned by daring him to shoot.......he's cooked because now Eddie House can't succeed because his man never has to help. At this point they probably should be playing Tony Allen in whatever minutes Rondo can't play, but if they must play him just tell him to forget about everything and just push the ball up the court and attack the rim. I don't know what they should tell him to do on defense.

Its an amazing testament to his incredible athleticism, that he was able to THRIVE in the NBA for all these years without mastering those simple skills. But as you see with Moore, if you can't perform rudimentary defensive skills and spacing on a team as focused as the C's, your useless.