Rockin’ Steady

The chorus will come: This is a good thing. Stephon Marbury was crazy. Stephon Marbury couldn’t function without the lion’s share of the shots. Every team Marbury leaves gets better afterwards. Who needs him?

Make no mistake, though. Very little about this is good.

Marbury had been, for the most part, a reasonably functional part of the offense. If he had exhibited a problem this season, it was his perimeter defense careless passing at untimely junctures at games. But no one can say that he had starved the (prolific, to this point) Randolph-Curry tandem of shots, and Jamal Crawford had gotten his share of looks and then some. His 2007-08 flaws were not the stuff championships were made of, but they do not fit into the usual Marbury misfit mythology that generally circulates. So, there: You can now ignore 75% of tomorrow’s New York Daily News and New York Post coverage of the Marbury mess. You’re welcome.

Mardy Collins exists chiefly as an idea at this point. Nate Robinson is not a point guard in any readily cognizable sense. Jamal Crawford’s major problems so far have all involved his handle and his dishing. Seeing as this team was built to make the playoffs now, shouldn’t somebody proven run the point? Marbury may need to sit when he’s having a bad night, and perhaps even on offense-defense substitutions late in games, but let’s not pretend he isn’t, by a good margin, the best floor leader available.

The good thing here: At least Isiah is keeping people accountable. It’s clear that no one on the team has carte blanche if Starbury doesn’t, and Thomas noted today that he’d taken Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford to task as well. (Which is interesting, since, save for some obvious gaffes and Curry’s performance against the two Florida teams, I thought both had played well. Unlike, say, Q. Richardson). This represents a necessary evolutionary development in the team’s culture.

But let’s not kid ourselves about the who’s missing. If this isn’t solved soon, it’s a huge, huge hole.

In other news: RIP, Zach Randolph’s grandma. Although, if it had to happen, now’s a good time. Just grieve privately.