Rockin’ Steady

I gave up on the Isiah Thomas era midway through the fourth quarter against Golden State. From my seat in the 400s, I had a moment of clarity that enabled me to see through the dense fog of Anucha and Stephs On A Plane to the true fatal aspect of the Knicks season. It nagged at me even through the Denver win and it was this: No one has taught this team to play any defense, at all.

It’s an acute enough problem to outshine the fact that Isiah lost the team after his failure to suspend Marbury for going AWOL despite the apparently unanimous desires of the rest of the team. Even mutiny can be overcome, can even spur a team to greater heights purely out of spite. But after getting the team to care about winning last year, his next charge for this season was clear: Get someone other than Renaldo Balkman to play defense. It is here that he has failed most profoundly.

Marbury’s perimeter defense is the stuff of tollbooth clerks. David Lee’s strengths and weaknesses become more clear with each game, and defense is among the latter. (Rare is the player who can rebound like crazy but not guard a lick. David is that player…). Curry’s defensive effort has improved drastically this year, but his knowledge of how to do it has evolved in like fashion. Zach Randolph’s much trumpeted liabilities in this respect has proven real. And so on.

For this reason alone, Isiah needs to leave. And for this reason alone, I continue to wish the Knicks hadn’t hired Lenny Wilkins instead of Mike Fratello when the opportunity was there years ago.

As for Marbury: I’m done with him, too. It’s not a matter of his ability. And I continue to think that he’s been underrated and unfairly maligned for happening to precede Jason Kidd and Steve Nash on his two previous teams. But it’s become clear that no one on his team likes him or much wants to play with him. Bill Simmons’ interview with Gus Johnson–who defends Marbury, but sees many reasons not to–was revelatory in this respect. From a personality standpoint, Marbury’s redeeming factor is that he came from nothing in order to get where he is. Unfortunately, as Simmons pointed out, that’s not enough to make it enjoyable to play with you. It makes you admirable, perhaps even a role model, but not a leader. And as Isiah has pointed out, the Knicks desperately need a leader.

I don’t see how we trade him. If we can get away with buying him out, we do it. We draft a point guard next year and start over.

I really didn’t think I’d be writing a white flag post this early. I may be done with this for a while.