The great mystery with Marbury is that very stat! He averages 8 assists for his career but yet every squad he has QB'd becomes a very stagnant offense. While Marbury does manage to get assist numbers he doesn't seem to lift his team or create and maintain a fluidity that other elite pg's seem to do (like Kidd, Nash). It is a mystery because he is very talented but after watching Marbury since his college years it has become very clear that he is a 1 dimensional player and that does not make for a very useful pg! Yes, he has taken a backseat to Crawford in the scoring part, but look at his game now! Kidd or Nash could go a whole game with out scoring a point but add so much value in with their court vision and passing skills while Marbury just stops scoring but doesn't do anything else to add value. Yes, he will toss the ball to Crawford and get the assist, but does he move the game along and dictate the pace? From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In basketball, an assist is attributed to a player who passes the ball to a teammate in a way that leads to a score by field goal, meaning that he or she was "assisting" in the basket. This person is known as the "assistor." According to the Official 2004 NCAA Basketball Statistics Rules, an assist has to be "a major part of the play," which either finds the player already with a "positional advantage," or helps him or her get one. There is thus some judgment involved in deciding whether a passer should be credited with an assist. An assist can be scored for the passer even if the player who receives the pass makes a basket after dribbling the ball. However, the original definition of an assist did not include such situations,[1] so the comparison of assist statistics across eras is a complex matter. Only the pass directly before the score may be counted as an assist, so no more than one assist can be recorded per field goal (unlike other sports, such as ice hockey.) A pass that leads to a shooting foul and scoring by free throws does not count as an assist. A player can get him or herself into position to receive an assist in a variety of ways. The main way is to come off a screen, which, if executed properly, will leave the player open for a pass, and in a position to easily score. Other times the defense will double team an offensive player, leaving someone else open. (It is the passer, not the player receiving the pass, who "receives" the credit for making an assist.) Averaging a large number of assists doesn't always mean that the player is good at passing. If a player was to handle the ball most of the time, he/she would eventually pass it. If his teammate scores, then he/she gets an assist. I included this to prove a point that just because a player gets an assist on a play doesn't mean that the "assitor" did the work to create the basket. Kidd and Nash by virtue of their abilities can create a scenario that makes it easier for the scorer to make the basket while Marbury, mostly just passes the ball to an a teammate that scores. Not all assists are the same! Yes numbers are numbers and Marbury does tote them but I and most people who are familiar with Marbury, feel his numbers are empty! His track record has proven that. For his entire career he has not been on a wining team. He has been surrounded by plenty of talent but has done nothing with it!
Damn you dropped mad knowledge, let me at least breathe homie...I knew I had to come prepared to debate against you.
Marbury's first real season with the Nets, they averaged 98 ppg(especially at that time defense was played more frequent), thats not bad at all considering the only real scoring threats Nets had were Marbury and Keith Van Horn.
Going into 2000, things kinda blew up when Nets management(kinda like the Knicks) didn't build around Marbury properly, players couldn't stay healthy and they began to stink.
Marbury's first season in Phoneix(01-02 season), they ranked 17th in the NBA in PPG...thats pretty "average" to me, more than stagnant.
Then in 02-03, Phoneix was improved to 13th in the NBA in PPG led by Marbury.
In 03'-04, Phoneix improved to 94 ppg with Marbury, almost top 10 in the NBA
When Marbury was traded to the Knicks...we looked awesome, we finally had a player maker and a creator who can penetrate.
Marbury did run the offense and the team averaged 97 ppg in 04-05 I believe...thats not bad right?
The point is, Marbury is very capable of running a good offense. Not a Steve Nash offense, but a good one.
Nets offense look like shit, , should Kidd get the blame or should Nets management get the blame for not giving him the right pieces and the right coach?
Marbury doesn't have the coach or the players to be effective.
The reason why our offense is so stagnant is because of Eddy Curry takes a lot of time to get in position and is a predictable player like how Eli is a predictable QB and always get picked. This leads to alot of turnovers, more possessions for the other team. Chicago was a terrible team when they ran their offense through Eddy Curry, they were so bad, they were like FUCK IT...lets just be a jump shooting team, we'll at least WIN games...fuck a post game.
Still, 8 assist a game is extremely impressive. Marbury averaged 9 assist when he first came here. I don't see how you can say he has no "vision", atleast agree he has an adequate amount of vision, but I'll agree with you that he doesn't have Kidd or Nash vision.